CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Land Reform generally involves the changing of laws, regulations or customs regarding land ownership. It may consist of government initiated or government backed approach to property redistribution of land as in the case of Nigeria, an outright transfer of ownership of land from the citizens to the state. The common characteristic of land reforms is usually the modification or the replacement of existing institutional arrangements governing possession, use and title. Thus, while land reform may be radical in nature such as large scale confiscation and transfers of land from one group to another or from one group to the state, it can also be less drastic and conciliatory in nature such as less painful transfers of land to the state and regulatory reforms aimed at improving land administration (Dale, 2007).
Land is perhaps the single most important natural resource in the sense that it affects every aspect of a people’s live; their food, clothing, and shelter. It is the base for producing raw material for the manufacturing industry. It is an important resource. No nation-city or rural area can survive as an entity without it. Thus, every person in a nation – the banker, the industrialist, the labourer, the educator, the student, the planner, the farmer- has a vital stake in the country’s land problems and its proper utilization (Acquaye, 1976).
The Land Reform committee in Nigeria is aimed towards enabling the states to be effective managers of land. It is aimed to provide a systematic cadastral survey of land in the entire federation (a political entity called Nigeria). The Term of Reference makes it an essential body to assist both states and local government to carry out the cadastre survey and codify the possessory rights of vast majority of the people access to land and landowners. The Term of Reference necessitate the body to collaborate and provide technical assistance to state and local government in undertaking cadastral survey and to ensure the demarcation of land boundaries and title holdings are demarcated in such a way that communities, hamlets, villages, towns etc are recognized. It was also saddled with the responsibility of encouraging and assisting states and local government to establish adjudication mechanism for land ownership conflict resolution and to make recommendation for mechanism for valuation in both rural and urban areas.