The Ogun State branch of the Nigeria Institute of Surveyors has urged the state government to review the Land Use Act Policy to create a conducive atmosphere forfor Small and Medium Scale entrepreneurs to operate.
The NIS said that the state government was ignorant of the concept of land policy, lamenting that the prime land that should have been acquired by entrepreneurs in the state for the purpose of business had been taken over by the government.
Speaking at the swearing -in of the new executives of NIS/APPSN, the outgoing Chairman of the institute, Surv. Biliaminu Adegunle, said that the state government should have a rethink on its land policy.
Adegunle said that the high cost of land allocation was posing serious threat to business activities in the state.
According to the NIS outgoing chairman, the state government would not achieve a clear economic diversification unless the business operators and farmers, who constituted a very important sector, had access to land acquisition for their business.
He said, “We wish to call the attention of the Ogun State Government to the lack of clear land policy in the state. Most of the prime land in the state is under acquisition.
“The cost of land allocation in the state is not favourable to small and medium scale entrepreneurs. Most farmers cannot afford the cost of state land. If we really want the citizens of the state to diversify into Agriculture and other industries , we need to review the cost of land.”
Adegunle also admonished the state government to take a cue from the Federal Government’s Public Private Partnership scheme, which provides land free and allow private users to build on it in order to enhance mass housing development in the state.
But the new president of the body , Surv. Nureni Ashaye, stated that there was nothing wrong with the Land Use Policy Act, saying that the state government only lacked proper mplementation of the policy.
Ashaye, who accused the state government of indiscriminate acquisition of land, maintained that government should have a clear purpose for acquiring land in the state.
According to him, the state government should, “not just be acquiring hecters of land without actually telling the public what you (government) want to use them for. It should not just be for overriding public interest .You have to be specific; fine we have alot of programmes on land, in some other states the way they implement it is quiet different from what we are seeing here.
“There are some area that are committed these areas are committed for social purpose , this area are revocable, already people are already on that land , only to know on the Newspaper pages that they have been acquired.”
He said that the institute had already taken steps about the Land Use Act Policy by dragging the state government to court over the matter in the past.
Ashaye, therefore, advised the state government to endeavour to return any acquired land to its rightful owners after after using them for a particular period of time .
“Fine government can acquire land, but let them know that they are acquiring this for a particular purpose; after acquiring the land for a particular purpose, after the expiration of that period, that land goes back to the rightful owners , not that is a continuous thing,” he said.
On his part a past president, Nigeria Institute of Town Planners, Mr. Waheed Kadiri , stressed the need for the review of government land policy in the state.
