Non-Inclusive Regulo-Administrative Ergonomics of Land Management System and Its Impacts on Sustainability of Nigeria’s Land Markets

Abstract

Undebatably, smoothness and mutuality of approach ultimately buoy every system, land management system inclusive. They also help LMS to enduringly deliver and sometimes surpass the statutory mandates, with which it is saddled, as it resultantly soars the delivery and accessibility of urban lands in Nigeria, nay globally. Sadly, complementarity and symbiotism that are hallmarks of a smoothly and mutually operated system are either non-existent or at an appallingly poor state among land management systems in Nigeria with consequences in terms of retardation in the speed and volume of land delivery and accessibility. Hence, assessing the immediate and remote impacts on stakeholders of the parlous state of inclusive regulo-administrative ergonomics of land management system, in terms of supply and demand of land in Nigeria, is the purpose of this paper. Being quantitative research, the plethora of factors that are innate to the issues involved are scripted into 12 impact-measuring constructs: responsiveness+responsibility, bureaucracy, effectiveness+efficiency, people-centredness, elegance, institutionalism, trustworthiness, speed, pedigree-posterity, fairness, citizenship, and multi-dimensionality. These constructs are then used to prepare 69 copies of 5-Likert scaled questionnaire, which were distributed through purposive and simple random sampling techniques among land regulators, land administrators, independent land consultants, NGOs with land mandates, and registered land developers within southwest Nigeria. Out of this number, 56 completed questionnaires were retrieved, translating to a distribution-retrieval rate of 81.16%, while 48 copies were valid and used for data analysis. Percentile, multiple regression, exploratory factor analysis and mean item score were adopted to measure the degree by which inclusiveness of land’s regulo-administrative ergonomics impacts the land management system, and the delivery and accessibility of land in Nigeria. Based on an excellent output of 0.835 for Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin, together with good Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity value at p < 0.05 and 0.863 for average Cronbach alpha values for the totality of the 24 description measurement factor statements, the results show that the non-people centredness of government’s land MDAs, is the worst hit aspect of land management system, closely followed by bureaucratisation aspects occasioned by the non-inclusiveness question surrounding regulo-administrative ergonomics, which by extension has great adversity on the dynamics of land delivery and accessibility in Nigeria. Consequently, the land management system and the supply and demand aspects of land spectrum in Nigeria continually experience the ugliness that is heralded by the regulo-administrative ergonomics inclusiveness issues. The paper recommends, among other things, that drastic, decisive, and concerted measures  allowing for increased mutuality among all hierarchical units and divisions of land management system be adopted to promote sustainability of land markets in Nigeria.