LAND ACQUISITION PROCESSES AND COMPENSATION LAWS OF NIGERIA AND INDIA: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Abstract

The right to property is perhaps the primogenital real right of mankind. It pre-dates the models
of fundamental human rights. It has been recognized as an automatic or natural right and
derivative of nature. However, the contemporary polemics on property are certainly as old as
humanity itself. Consequently, in the revolutionary era, the right to property was reckoned as a
fundamental human right thus, embedded in the foremost international laws and Charters
including but not limited to the United Nations Convention on Human Rights (UNCHR), 1945.
It is against the backdrop of the sustenance of the right of man with respect to the right and
processes of acquiring and owning land leading to the right to receive compensation in the event
of compulsory and/or public acquisition that this article sought to contribute to existing literature
by evaluating the efficacy, sustainability and effects of the existing legal regime in Nigeria and
India on the subject matter. By adopting the doctrinal research approaches, the author examined
and compared the various ways land can be acquired and compulsorily taken for public good
within the Nigerian and Indian jurisdictions. The article reveals, amongst others, that India and
Nigeria have similar modes of acquisition of property but that the compensation laws are very
different in that the Indian LARR Act, 2013 has wide ranging provisions which address the issues
of resettlement, damages and rehabilitation of land owners whose lands are taken by the
government through compulsory acquisition which are not provided in the Land Use Act of
Nigeria. It recommended that, the Land Use Act should be repealed and a new Act should be
enacted following public consultations and, Nigeria should borrow a leaf from the Indian
template for efficiency.