Inquiry into the Stamina of Nigeria’s Land Administration System towards Sustainable Delivery of Urban Lands

Abstract

It must be recognised that productive use of resources as cherished as land cannot be seen to be optimal, until it is keyed into sustainability indicators for proper calibration and assessment. The ease with which land as a resource, especially within the urban milieu, is delivered by various land agencies, in addition to its accessibility to several categories of potential users for varying developmental purposes, are arguably the most paramount of such indicators. Land delivery and accessibility issues predicate on several factors, chief of which is the techno-operational sophistication of the land administration system in the country under focus, especially those found within the stratification of underdeveloped and developing belts of the world. It is against this background that this study was conducted, so as to measure the stamina and level of sophistication of the arsenal of Nigeria’s land administration system. This is to ensure prompt and efficient delivery and accessibility of urban lands through formal land market mechanism, by different categories of developers, by benchmarking the assessment of the LAS stamina via the following score-cards, namely: promptness, capacity, reliability, foresight, quality, coverage, discretion, penetration, capability, drive, judgment, flexibility, output, precision and responsibility. Out of the total 189 individuals considered as the sampling frame for the study, 115 individuals qualified for inclusion in the sample that was subjected to a structured questionnaire survey involving career land officers, tenured land advisers, practising land consultants and land developers in the six states of south-western Nigeria. This was done so as to ensure a spread in the results that have greater breadth and are unbiased on the issues involved in this study. 101 questionnaires were retrieved, out of which 92 questionnaires were valid following data screening, and were used as basis upon which analyses were done. Emphasis was placed on the use of a 5-point Likert scale measurement, combined with both inferential and descriptive statistical tools for further explanations of the results. Findings indicate that the much desired level of sophistication in LAS for proper assessment of both past and present practices and to discern emerging challenges and frontally tackling them is inexplicably low.

Hence, the study concludes that this not-so-impressive trend has rendered Nigeria’s land administration system (LAS) ineffective, inefficient and less globally competitive. Among the policy implications is that there is a strong need for a virile mechanism through which public systems, including the land administration systems (LASs), will be frequently monitored for continual updating and overhauling of their platforms for buoyed stamina and improved performance.