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State Land Allocation and Class Formation in Nigeria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Extract

The distribution of land-use rights both defines and shapes African political economy. Control over land can be utilised in various ways to accumulate capital for either autonomous or comprador investments in the domestic economy. The acquisition of official titles to land concomitantly affords the holder opportunities to exploit those who do not possess this valuable resource. For these reasons, command over land offers the state a powerful means of regulating access to the dominant class. This study focuses on the ways in which allocations of statutory certificates of occupancy have affected the on-going process of class formation in two northern States of Nigeria: Kano and Bauchi. We are particularly interested in identifying, through information collected from a sample of application files, those elements of the population who were admitted and denied access to the dominant class through the land-allocation process during the late military-rule period, 1976–9.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

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References

page 461 note 1 Cooper, Frederick, ‘Africa and the World Economy’, in African Studies Review (Los Angeles), XXIV, 2/3, 1981, pp. 18 and 20–1;Google Scholar and Biersteker, Thomas J., ‘Indigenization and the Nigerian Bourgeoisie: dependent development in an African context’, in Lubeck, Paul (ed.), The African Bourgeoisie (Princeton, forthcoming).Google Scholar

page 461 note 2 See Evers, Hans-Dieter, ‘Urban Expansion and Landownership in Underdeveloped Societies’, in Walton, John and Masotti, Louis H. (eds.), The City in Comparative Perspective (New York, 1976), pp. 70–1.Google Scholar

page 461 note 3 See Cooper, loc. cit. pp. 18–19; and Sklar, Richard L., ‘The Nature of Class Domination in Africa’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), XVII, 4, 12 1979, pp. 533–47.Google Scholar

page 461 note 4 See Frishman, Alan I., ‘The Spatial Growth and Residential Location Pattern of Kano, Nigeria’, Ph.D. dissertation, Northwestern University, Evanston, 1977, p. 391;Google ScholarGoonesekere, R. K. W., ‘Land Tenure Law and Land Use Decree’, Institute of Administration, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, 1980, pp. 33 and 36;Google Scholar and Hamma, Sule, ‘Government Policy and Development Opportunities in Metropolitan Kano’, M.P.A. thesis, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, 1975, p. 59.Google Scholar

page 462 note 1 Anise, Ladun, ‘Desubsidization: an alternative approach to governmental cost containment and income redistribution policy in Nigeria’, in African Studies Review, XXIII, 3, 1980, p. 31;Google Scholar and Salau, Ademola T., ‘Nigeria's Housing Policies and Programs: a preliminary assessment’, in Planning and Administration (The Hague), VII, 1, 1980, pp. 52–3.Google Scholar

page 462 note 2 Frishman, op. cit. pp. 333–5; also Kaduna State Government, White Paper on the Report of the Land Investigation Commission, Vol. 1, General Findings and Recommendations (Kaduna, 1981), p. 43.Google ScholarPubMed

page 462 note 3 Goonesekere, loc. cit. pp. 17–18, 26, 33, and 42; also 'Segun Famoriyo, ‘Institutional Perspectives for Food Production Policies in Nigeria in the 1980's’, 12th Annual Conference of the Nutrition Society of Nigeria, Benin City, 1979, p. 10.

page 462 note 4 Hamma, op. cit. p. 77.

page 462 note 5 Frishman, op. cit. p. 306; and Frishman, Alan I., ‘The Rise of Squatting in Kano, Nigeria’, in Obudho, R. A. (ed.), The Squatter Settlement in Africa: towards a planning strategy (New York, forthcoming).Google Scholar

page 463 note 1 Collins, Paul, ‘Public Policy and the Development of Indigenous Capitalism: the Nigerian experience’, in Journal of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics (Leicester), 07 1977, p. 141;Google ScholarOkpala, Ifebueme, ‘The Land Use Decree of 1978: if the past should be prologuehellip!’, in Journal of Administration Overseas (London), XVIII, 1, 1979, pp. 1620; and Kaduna State Government, op. cit. pp. 40–3.Google Scholar

page 463 note 2 The research reported here was assisted by grants awarded by the Joint Committee on African Studies of the Social Science Research Council and the American Council of Learned Societies, and the University of Montana Research Grant and Fellowship Program.

page 463 note 3 The author acknowledges with gratitude the assistance rendered by the staff of these Ministries, as well as the field contributions made by research assistants.

page 463 note 4 I could not obtain permission to consult a third important source of data, namely: submitted applications that had not been acted upon by the Ministries. On the basis of the information found on these forms it would have been possible to draw a more comprehensive comparision between successful and unsuccessful applicants for statutory rights of occupancy. The absence of such data presented a more serious problem in Kano, where no action had been taken on an estimated 10,000 applications by 1980, than in Bauchi, where only 150 requests had not received attention as of 30 June 1980, Interviews with the Commissioner, Kano State Ministry of Land and Survey, 11 June 1980, and the Cheif Estate Officer, Bauchi State Ministry of Lands, Housing, and Environment, 30 June 1980. In any event, the main objectives of this study were to ascertain and analyse the charateristics of those who had been (1) successful in gaining access to the state-allocation process, and (2)granted statutory rights over the land, both in relation to one another and to the general population. For these purposes, it was only necessary to examine the applications acted upon by each Ministry.

page 464 note 1 As many as 103 files could not be located in the archives. In Bauchi, the Ministry staff explained that some action was currently being taken on 45 files, and that this fact alone explained why they were ‘missing’. In Kano, the additional reason was given that some files had been requisitioned by the Land Investigation Commission established by the newly elected Governor. The members appeared to be particularly interested in documents that (1) indicated the award of rights of occupancy over multiple plots of land in the State, and (2) revealed patterns of favouritism in awarding certificates of occupancy. There is no reason to believe that the absence of files due to ‘actions currently taken’ biased the sample in a particular direction, but the removal of those ‘under investigation’ in Kano may have affected the sample because, according to the press releases of the Commission, supported by registry analysis, most contained applications that had been granted to exceptionally wealthy and influential individuals. The likely under-representation of this group in the Kano sample should be kept in mind when interpreting the findings reported in this study. Furthermore, certain categories of information were missing for a large number of the cases reviewed, generally because of the lack of standardisation in the forms utilised by the Ministries. Thus, some applications in Kano were required to list their income and age, while others were not. In Bauchi, only a few reported their age, income, and proposed source of funding for improvements, because the principal type of application form used in that State did not require this to be given. Finally, time constraints precluded the coding of information contained in most applications for statutory rights in Bauchi State outside of the Bauchi local government.

page 464 note 2 In Kano, the non-missing sample amounted to 8.5 percent of all applications in 1976, 7.4 per cent in 1979, and 7.8 per cent for the two years under study. The comparable figures for Bauchi were 7.6 per cent for 1976, 8.2 per cent for 1979, and 7.9 per cent for the two years. Overall, 8.1 per cent of the applications filed in 1976 for both States were sampled, 7.7 per cent for 1979, and 7.8 per cent for the two years combined.

page 465 note 1 In April 1978, the Military Administrator designated the following as members of the Bauchi Land Use and Allocation Committee: the Commissioner for Works and Survey (Chairman), the Attorney-General, the Cheif Estate Officer, the Surveyor-General, the Cheif Commercial Officer of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Co-operatives, the Principal Town Planning Officer of the State Development Board, the Local Government Councillors in charge of land matters in the four designated urban areas, the Secretareis of the four Emirate Councils concerned, and the Senior Town Planning Officer in the Ministry of Works and Survey (Secretary). The Military Administrator simultaneously designated ‘the areas in and around the four larger towns in the state, i.e. Bauchi, Gombe, Azare [Katagum LG], and Misau’ as urban areas for the purposes of the Land Use Decree, just as they had been before the 1978 measure ‘for the purpose of the State Development Board’, Permanent Secretary, Bauchi State Ministry of Works and Survey, 1979:1; Minutes of the Land Use Advisory Committee, 26 May 1978, pp. 1–2; and interview with the Senior Surveyor, Bauchi State Ministry of Works and Survey, 12 July 1978.

page 466 note 1 Local governments may grant customary rights of occupancy over land falling within that old city and over rural land found within their boundaries. However, the Ministry of Works and Survey has ruled that only statutory titles may be granted over land fallind outside the old city but within the urban planning zone of the four local governments concerned – even though customary holdings do exist in these areas. Interview with the Senior Surveyor, 12 July 1979.

page 466 note 2 Ibid. Also the Chief Town Planning Officer, State Development Board, 13 July 1979.

page 466 note 3 Hamma, op. cit. p. 71.

page 466 note 4 Frishman, forthcoming.

page 467 note 1 Interview with the Commissioner, Kano State Ministry of Lands and Survey, 11 June 1980.

page 467 note 2 See Koehn, Peter, ‘Government Land Allocation in Kano and Bauchi States of Nigeria: an analysis of process and beneficiaries in pre-and post-Land Use Decree periods’, 25th Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association, Washington, D.C., 1982, pp. 9–10.Google Scholar

page 467 note 3 On the colonial origins and intentions of this condition, see Goonesekere, loc. cit. pp. 12–15, and Frishman, forthcoming.

page 467 note 4 Hamma, op. cit. p. 52.

page 467 note 5 Interview with the Senior Surveyor, 12 July 1979; see also Frishman, forthcoming. The terms of these loans were quite generous. In Bauchi, indigenes at GL 06 and above, who are employed on pensionable appointment by state government ministries, corporations, and boards, were eligible to receive housing loans upto five times their yearly salary, repayable in 15-years instalments. However, they must first procure a certificate of occupancy and deposit this with the Loan Management Board as security against the repayment of the housing loan. From 1976 to July 1980, the Bauchi State Staff Housing Loan Scheme approved 559 out of 920 applications, and awarded a total of N6,795,000. Communication from the Loan Scheme's Secretary, State Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, Treasury Division, 1 July 1980.

page 468 note 1 See Salau, loc. cit. pp. 52–3; also Kaduna State Government, op. cit. p. 43.

page 468 note 2 Frishman, op. cit. pp. 387 and 394.

page 469 note 1 Non-Governmental Registry of Land Applications (Residential, Commercial, and Industrial), Ministry of Works and Survey, Bauchi State, as of 12 July 1979.

page 469 note 2 Register of Governmental Land Applications, Ministry of Works and Survey, Bauchi State, as of 12 July 1979.

page 469 note 3 Source: Chief Estate Officer, Ministry of Lands, Housing, and Environment, Bauchi State, 30 June 1980.

page 469 note 4 Register of Industrial Plot Applications and Rights of Occupancy Register, Ministry of Lands and Survey, Kano State, as of May 1980. The latter Register mainly recorded the statutory certificates of occupancy that had been awarded by the Ministry; however, some had subsequently been revoked, while others had been rejected or were still awaiting final action. Although, technically speaking, the Register recorded all files that had been acted upon, I shall refer to the results here as if all had been approved, since the actual status of the application could not be ascertained without consulting each file.

page 470 note 1 See the discussion of ‘fronting’ found in Biersteker, loc. cit. pp. 23–5 and 32.

page 471 note 1 Moreover, nearly two out of every three applicants for new residential land in Bauchi requested a Government Reservation Area, while only one-fourth specified G.R.A. plots in Kano.

page 471 note 2 The breakdown of the 196 treated applications for land in the Kano metropolitan planning area was as follows: new residental plot requests (52%), conversions for residential use (28%), farming(9%) and commercial/industrial purposes (5%), new commercial (4%) and industrial (2%) plots.

page 477 note 1 Only 69 per cent of the residential conversion applications acted upon in Bauchi had been approved, versus 79 per cent overall. With respect to the 25 conversion applications for farming purposes in the total sample for which data were available, 71 per cent had been approved or were likely to be awarded.

page 477 note 2 Moreover, 4 of the 10 requests to convert customary rights of occupancy to statutory rights for commercial/industrial use in Kano State were refused. The land-allocation agencies in Bauchi State did not act on any applications of this type in the sample selected for analysis.

page 477 note 3 All types of public and private organisational applicants also fared considerably better in Bauchi (94% overall success rate, N=16) than they did in Kano (57%, N=7).

page 477 note 4 The three applications by students or housewives were also approved, as were 11 of the 12 requests entertained from local government officials. Members of the armed forces and police recorded the same success rate as state ministry petitioners (86%, N = 12), while applicants from the private manufacturing sector attained roughly the same level of success as their counterparts engaged in commercial activities (78%, N = 7). Only two small categories of applicants fell below these levels: those in the private construction (67%, N=3) and agricultural sectors (0%, N = 1).

page 477 note 5 Private (commercial) sector applicants prepared the three rejected requests for certificates of occupancy found in the Bauchi State sample.

page 479 note 1 Moreover, the amount of money which applicants proposed to spend on plot improvements was not consistently associated with higher or lower success rates in securing state approval of requests for certificates of occupancy.

page 480 note 1 The baseline sample consisted of 56 Kano State and 36 Bauchi State applicants granted statutory land-use rights prior to promulgation of the Decree, while there were 107 Kano and 47 Bauchi petitioners awarded certificates of occupancy in the 1978–1980 period.

page 480 note 2 However, the occupational distribution of successful applicants remained virtually unchanged following the Decree.

page 480 note 3 Annual salary/income data were available from the application from for only 26 per cent of the pre-Decree and 46 per cent of the post-Decree recipients of certificates of occupancy in the sample.