…Asks them to emulate Otti on cost-effective resource utilisation
Legal practitioner and author of several law-related books, Dr Ajuzie Osondu, has made a strong appeal to governors of the Southeast to unite for once in the interest of the southeast. He said that they should put aside their different political party affiliations and energetically work together to tackle insecurity in the geopolitical zone.
Osondu urged them to learn the wisdom in the quote attributed to former United States President Lyndon B. Johnson who said, “It’s better to have everyone inside and pissing out than to have one person outside and pissing in.”
Given that an Igbo proverb holds that when men pee together into one can, the urine foams very well, Osondu tasked the governors to wake up from security slumber.
As Igbo properties in Lagos increasingly face demolition, Osondu urged the governors to implement policies and execute necessary infrastructural projects that would encourage more indigenes of the region to build in the Southeast.
For some time, Igbo in Lagos have been facing demolition of their properties. The reason often cited is non-compliance with due process. What exactly is the due process referred to by the government?
I do not want to believe that any government in Nigeria, whether federal or state, which was sworn in on the basis of doing justice to all manner of persons, would deliberately target the properties of a particular ethnic group in Nigeria or elsewhere for demolition. It would be rather unfortunate if any government whether Lagos State or any other state in Nigeria, deliberately embarks on such a mission. I appeal to any such government to desist from such acts as it violates the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended). Section 43 of the Constitution provides that “Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, every citizen of Nigeria shall have the right to acquire and own immovable property anywhere in Nigeria.”
Having said that and to directly answer your question relating to due process in acquisition of land in Lagos State or elsewhere, the watch-word is expressed in the Latin maxim, caveat emptor, meaning ‘let the buyer beware.’ The due process begins by engaging the services of professionals such as a lawyer and a registered land surveyor. The lawyer will verify the title documents of the vendor of the land intended to be bought by the prospective buyer, to ensure that he has valid title which can be passed to a prospective purchaser. This is in view of yet another Latin maxim, Nemo dat quod non habet, which means that no one can give what he or she does not have. This is because if the vendor does not have a good title, then he or she cannot pass any valid title to the purchaser. The land surveyor is to take physical coordinates of the land and chart same to determine whether the land is under acquisition of any form. Based on the advice of these two experts, the buyer can proceed or refrain from buying the property depending on whether their advice is positive or negative. Unfortunately, many people buy land without consulting these experts and would rather patronize road-side agents and rely on their advice to do so.
Generally, why is it always difficult to secure certificate of occupancy?
The delay in obtaining certificate of occupancy is often associated with various factors such as bureaucratic bottlenecks on the part of officials of the Land Registry, inability of the applicant to produce the necessary documents and pay the prescribed fees on time, and technical hitches such as malfunction of or need to upgrade electronic devices used in processing land documents. This is especially so in Lagos State where the process of land documentation at the Lands Registry has been automated. I also need to quickly point out that in Lagos State it is not only Certificate of Occupancy that is issued by the government. There is also the Deemed Grant Governor’s Consent which is an equivalent to Certificate of Occupancy. Deemed Grant Consent can be obtained when a purchaser, whether directly from the land-owning family or from someone who derived title from such family, signs a Deemed Grant Deed of Assignment directly with the family concerned, obtains the family receipt of the family and surveys the land in his or her own name. These three documents can be used to approach the governor for grant of Deemed Grant Governor’s Consent upon payment of the prescribed fees and other supporting documents.
Foreigners who set up businesses relatively find it easier to secure approvals for the structures they build but it is not so easy for Nigerians. What could possibly account for that?
My response to this is that foreigners cannot come to Nigeria to do business involving building establishments in Nigeria without the backing of influential Nigerians behind them. If one investigates the ownership of such establishments, you will see that influential Nigerians are key investors and stakeholders of such establishments. Most of the time, such Nigerians disguise and front the names of other persons as local partners whereas the real persons concerned hide their identities. So, it is such influential partners or stakeholders that facilitate the approvals using their connections in government. Another reason could be that the Nigerian government encourages such foreign investors to establish their businesses in Nigeria as a way of boosting the country’s economy. Hence, such approvals are not unduly delayed – in keeping with the Ease of Doing Business policy of the Federal Government. Foreign investors usually employ the services of the right professionals to facilitate obtaining the approvals required to venture into business in a foreign country.
By the provisions of the law, who is qualified to handle the process for registration of properties? Can an individual do it for himself?
As I hinted earlier, the appropriate persons to handle perfection of title to land are legal practitioners because they are experts in land documentation and know the appropriate documents to submit to the government. They also make out time to monitor the progress of the registration process. Moreover, they know the right officials to meet and interact with as well as the appropriate questions to ask at various stages of the process. Individuals also have a right to process registration of their title to land BUT more often than not, they end up abandoning the effort as a result of various obstacles they face in the process. I know a landlord who pursued the obtaining of Certificate of Occupancy for his property for 10 years but could not obtain it until he died due to various lapses on his part; yet he was unwilling to hand over to a lawyer to assist him. Till date, the title to the property still remains unregistered and all the money he paid and efforts were wasted. So my advice is that legal practitioners should be consulted in such matters.
Now that the Lagos State Government is seemingly using official policy to force relocation of Igbo, has the time not come for South East governors to declare ‘amnesty’ or bonanza on C of O to encourage Igbo people to repatriate their businesses and build at home, as Dim Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu advised long before he died?
I think that the question of Igbo business people relocating their businesses back home and to develop their own part of this country goes far beyond Certificate of Occupancy and building approvals. Our Igbo business people have not realized the importance and practical effect of the saying that ‘charity begins at home’. That is the message that late Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu was trying to pass to our business people, which they did not really key into. That is the message which I expect advocates of self-determination in the South East to be championing by telling our people to take their investments back home. Aku ruo ulo – let their wealth, scattered all over the country and abroad, reach home. South East governors could assist Igbo business people to take their investments home by providing the appropriate infrastructural facilities such as roads, improved electricity generation and supply, and networking to improve the security situation in the South East geopolitical zone. Abia State Governor Alex Otti has shown example that providing these facilities is possible within the limited resources of Southeastern states, especially if they network together in collaboration with our South Eastern business people within and outside Nigeria. I think other Southeastern governors should emulate Governor Otti’s good example.
On the alleged hostile attitude of Lagos State Government towards Igbo business people as attested to by the manner of demolition of their legitimate investments in state, my take is that they ought to be able to distinguish between when someone is merely looking at them and when someone is taking a contemptible or scornful look at them. Such distinction will result in them having a rethink about their relationship with such a person.
Would you say that Southeast governors are really serious about tackling the menace of insecurity by indigenous and Sahelian terrorists, especially what is being witnessed in Kwara and Kogi states?
Although the Constitution does not expressly designate state governors as such, governors whether that of South East or those of other geopolitical zones are in practice the chief security officers of their respective states. That is what it ought to be. However, Nigeria’s security architecture does not support the governors in carrying out this responsibility. A combined reading of Sections 214 and 215 (4) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) shows that state governors lack operational control over the Commissioner of Police of their respective states because Commissioners of Police do not take orders directly from the state governors but from the Inspector General of Police. This state of affairs brought about bureaucratic delays in response to crisis situations, whereby although by virtue of Section 215 (4) of the Constitution, state governors could give Commissioners of Police within their states such lawful directives with respect to maintenance and securing of public safety and public order within their respective states, there is a proviso that before carrying out such directives the Commissioners may request that the matter be first referred to the Presidency or a federal minister authorized in that behalf. State governors are thus given the responsibility of being chief security officers of their states without a corresponding authority to independently carry out the responsibility. So, the problem is not peculiar to Southeastern states. The sustained call for State Police is a possible solution in this respect. However, I think another possible solution lies in Southeastern states networking together to form a security outfit like Amotekun in the South West and follow the same pattern of providing regional security in the South East. If it can be legitimately done in the South West, it can also be legitimately done in the South East. But the problem in the South East is the lack of consensus amongst the governors of the geo-political zone. I want to call on Southeast governors to bury their ego and political differences for the sake of Southeast security. They should learn from their counterparts in the Southwest when Amotekun was formed by APC and PDP governors. There is need to hold a South Eastern Security Summit to address the question of insecurity in the South East and the menace of terrorists whether Fulani herdsmen, bandits or by whatever name called. Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo of Anambra State has taken some initiative in this direction in establishing a security outfit for the state. There is need for networking amongst Southeastern states on security, power generation and road infrastructure in the geopolitical zone.
Ojukwu rallied Igbo for self-defence in 1966. Why are we not seeing the same effort in the face of attacks by non-Nigerian terrorists?
I would adopt a philosophical approach in responding to this question. There is an Igbo adage which says that the world is like a market place whereby everyone goes back home after selling and buying activities. Ojukwu has been to the market place; he has bought and sold what he needed to buy and sell and has gone back home. I think efforts are being made in the Southeast but like I said, the efforts are not being properly coordinated and there has not been a consensus on this issue. This informs the existence of various outfits like Ebube Agu, Eastern Security Network, IPOB, Biafra Security Network, Udo Gachi and pockets of other security organizations whose activities are radically opposed to one another. Compare this to Amotekun in the South West which is well coordinated and is really rendering very useful security services in securing Southwestern states. I am calling on Ndigbo to unite and I think the rallying point for this unity is simply having the Southeastern governors working together to promote unity and cooperation in the geopolitical zone. The present situation which is akin to ‘your tents oh Ndigbo’ and each one on his own would not move Ndigbo forward, one inch.
Credit: The Sun