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Home , Enugu, Enugu State, Gusau, Ogui

Informal Land Delivery Processes in ,

Summary of Findings and Policy Implications

Cosmas Uche Ikejiofor with input from K.C.Nwogu and C.O.Nwanunobi

International Development Department School of Public Policy The University of Birmingham England

Informal Land Delivery Processes in African Cities in Informal Land Delivery Processes Federal Ministry Ministry of Works and Housing

Nigeria Policy Brief - 1 Contents

Preface 1 Introduction 4 - Summary of policy implications Background 6 - Land in the pre-colonial and colonial eras – tenure and administration - Post–independence changes in tenure, land policy and legislation - The changing role of Enugu in the national space economy Making land available for urban use 10 - Suppliers, channels and alternative tenures - The case study residential settlements Can disadvantaged groups gain access to land in Enugu? 17 - Access to land by the poor - Women’s access to land Regulation 20 - Regulating land transactions: the strengths and weaknesses of informal institutions and formal rules - Customary institutions - Market institutions - State institutions - Land disputes and their resolution Policy implications 25 - Forms of tenure - Processes of subdivision and tenure registration - Provision of infrastructure and services - Direct roles of public sector organisations in land supply and development Conclusion 32 Appendix 33 Footnotes 35 Publications 37

International Development Department School of Public Policy, J G Smith Building, The University of Birmingham,, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK

Website: www.idd.bham.ac.uk Preface Informal land delivery processes in African cities

Why research informal land delivery able to get access to land to manage the construction processes? of their own houses for little or no payment, through ‘squatting’ or similar arrangements. Following The colonial powers in Africa introduced urban land research in the 1960s and 1970s, there was a feeling administration systems that were modelled on the that the processes of ‘squatting’ and the allocation systems of their home countries. The extent to which of customary land by legitimate rights holders were indigenous tenure systems were understood, fairly well understood. Upgrading projects of the recognised and incorporated varied from colony to 1970s were designed and implemented on this basis. colony, but it was generally believed that only a formal system based on a European model could Most countries have now reversed some of the most provide a framework for urban development and extreme versions of state intervention, but other protect the rights of urban property owners (who at components remain despite serious implementation that time were expatriates). These land failures. There is considerable doubt about whether administration systems, which were inherited at recent attempts to improve land management will independence, are governed by formal rules set out be any more successful than previous approaches. in legislation and administrative procedures. In part, pessimism about the prospects for efficient However, the legislative provisions and the and equitable urban land management arises from administrative systems that were established to the continued lack of resources and capacity in implement them proved quite unable to cope with government, but it also stems from doubts about the rapid urban growth that occurred after the appropriateness of the principles and concepts independence. on which recent urban land policies have been based. The state-led approaches to development favoured Much research on land and property in African in the 1960s and 1970s were associated with large- towns and cities assumes that the state has both the scale public intervention in urban land delivery duty and the capacity to take on a major systems. However, the cost of implementation and interventionist role in land management. It compliance has been too high for low-income concentrates on documenting and explaining the countries, cities and inhabitants. At their extreme, failures (and more rarely successes) of state land and property markets were perceived as interventions. Despite their significant role in ineffective or exploitative. These views were providing land for urban development, there has translated into attempts to de-marketise land by been relatively little recent in-depth research on nationalisation and/or government control over land processes of informal land delivery or the institutions market transactions. Whether or not the concepts (rules and norms of behaviour) that enable them to on which such land policies were based were sound, operate and that govern the relationships between limited capacity at national and municipal levels the actors involved. To improve policy and practice, ensured their failure. Administered land supply has a better understanding is needed of how formal and very rarely met demand and attempts to regulate informal systems operate, interact and are evolving. and register all transactions in land and property have been universally unsuccessful. As a result, most land Aims of the research for urban development has been supplied through The aim of the project was to improve understanding alternative channels. of informal land delivery processes in six African In the early years of rapid rural-urban migration cities and their relationships with formal land many households, including poor households, were administrative systems. It analysed the

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characteristics of informal land markets and delivery The comparative research project systems Coordinated by Carole Rakodi of the University of „ to increase understanding of the institutions that Birmingham and Clement Leduka of the National underpin and regulate transactions and disputes University of Lesotho, studies were undertaken in in land six medium-sized cities in Anglophone Africa, in all „ to assess the strengths and weaknesses of of which informal land delivery systems are alternative land delivery mechanisms, especially important, but which also typify different colonial with respect to the extent to which they enable and post-colonial policies, legal frameworks, the poor and other vulnerable groups (especially governance arrangements and experiences. The women) to access land with secure tenure, and cities and the local researchers were: „ to identify and explore implications for policy.

Eldoret, Kenya Rose Musyoka, Department of Physical Planning, Government of Kenya Enugu, Nigeria Cosmas Uche Ikejiofor, Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, Gusau, Zamfara State, Nigeria Gaborone, Botswana Faustin Kalabamu, Department of Architecture and Planning, and Siamsang Morolong, Department of Law, University of Botswana Kampala, Uganda Emmanuel Nkurunziza, Department of Surveying, Makerere University Lusaka, Zamba Leonard Chileshe Mulenga, Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Zambia Maseru, Lesotho Clement Leduka, Department of Geography, National University of Lesotho

The aims of the project and the methodological The research was funded by the UK Department approach were jointly developed by the researchers. for International Development. DFID supports Findings and policy issues were discussed at policies, programmes and projects to promote workshops in each of the cities, to obtain feedback international development. It provided funds for this from relevant stakeholders and make a contribution study as part of that objective but the views and to current debates about land policy and opinions expressed are those of the authors alone. administration in each of the countries studied. The research teams generally identified some of the policy implications of their findings rather than making detailed recommendations, because the researchers all believe that policy formulation and legislative change should be negotiated processes involving all the stakeholders in land management.

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The project in Enugu discussions) are warmly acknowledged. E. Abonyi, W. Okonkwo, I. Obi and A. Chukwu carried out Nigeria was included in the study as an example of many of the interviews. Finally, immense thanks to a west African country, in particular one in which our numerous respondents and the participants in the British colonial administration had adopted a the policy workshop held at the Zodiac Hotel in system of indirect rule. Although it had attempted Enugu on 6th February, 2004. far-reaching land reforms in the late 1970s, these have only been partially implemented and formal Following the workshop, a full report of the study requirements related to tenure and development was published: Ikejiofor, C.U. with input from K.C. permission are widely evaded. Customary tenure Nwogu and C.O. Nwanunobi (2004) Informal continues to have an important role, although the Land Delivery Processes and Access to Land for characteristics of traditional authority structures and the Poor in Enugu, Nigeria, Birmingham: University customary tenure systems differ between the north of Birmingham, School of Public Policy, Informal and south of the country, and conflicts between Land Delivery Processes in African Cities Working formal and customary tenure systems continue. Paper 2 (ISBN No. 0 7044 2243 3, see also Currently, the 1978 Land Use Decree and urban www.idd.bham.ac.uk/research/ development policies are under review. Enugu was researchprojs.htm selected for study as a typical older and faster growing urban centre in the south of the country. For further information contact Dr C. U. Ikejiofor, Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, P.M.B. The research was carried out by Dr Cosmas U. 1005, Gusau, Zamfara State, Nigeria, Tel. 234 (0) Ikejiofor, with inputs from Mr. K.C. Nwogu of the 63 204983, E-mail [email protected] Faculty of Law, University, and Dr C.O. Nwanunobi, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, , . The contributions of F. Aguboshim (data analysis), O. Ubani (pilot surveys), B.C. Ugwuanyi (coordination of the household questionnaire survey) and P-J. Ezeh (organisation of the focus group

3 Introduction

There has been little in-depth research on informal Enugu itself is then outlined. The main findings of urban land delivery processes in Nigerian cities this research, describing the channels of land delivery despite the inefficiency of formal systems and and assessing the characteristics of those who are mounting evidence of the importance of secure able to gain access to land through them, are access to land and housing to the livelihood strategies presented on pages 10-19. In the fourth section, of poor urban households. The aim of this research, the strengths and weaknesses of the institutions and therefore, was to improve understanding of informal rules that regulate land transactions and provide urban land delivery processes and whether they mechanisms to resolve disputes are reviewed. Finally, provide access to land for the poor in Enugu, some policy implications are identified and Nigeria. Specifically, the objectives of the research summarised in the box opposite. Details of the were methodological approach and data collection employed in the study are presented in the appendix. a) to analyse the magnitude and characteristics of informal land markets and delivery systems; b) to enhance understanding of the nature and dynamics of the institutions1 that underpin and regulate urban land markets, especially those operating in informal land delivery systems; c) to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the alternative land delivery mechanisms, especially with respect to the extent to which they enable the poor and other vulnerable groups, especially women, to access land with secure tenure; and d) to identify and explore the implications for policy, with respect to provision of secure and affordable tenure, accommodating population growth, securing appropriate land use patterns and instituting suitable governance arrangements.

The study focused on contemporary land delivery processes in Enugu through an in-depth study of three case study settlements. However, these have been influenced by the wider context in which they have evolved, including changing land tenure systems, governance and administration arrangements, the legislative framework and the economic history of the urban centre itself. In the next section, this background is presented. First relevant aspects of land tenure and administration in the colonial era are described, followed by a review , Nike of post-independence changes in tenure, policy and law relating to land. The historical development of 4 E n Enugu g u

Policy implications Forms of tenure

„ The forms of tenure available to land holders should provide clear and certain rights of ownership and reliable procedures for transfers „ Land buyers should adapt their investment in property and expectations of returns on their capital to the length of leases sellers are prepared to offer „ Measures are needed to ensure that relatively poor urban households can obtain access to land, through arrangements such as shared ownership „ Public-private joint ventures should be encouraged as a way of reconciling customary tenure systems with the needs of contemporary urban development „ An improved land inventory or registration system is vital to provide a record of ownership of property and rights in land Processes of subdivision and tenure registration

„ The attempts of informal land subdividers, developers and community leaders to foster orderly layouts, register land transfers, develop guarantees of tenure security and service land should be encouraged „ Initiatives by local communities to plan and subdivide land should be supported by, for example, disseminating principles of good layout design and adopting flexible planning standards „ The registration of land acquired from customary or other private sources should be facilitated „ Initiatives by indigenous landowning communities to keep registers of alienated land should be encouraged and strengthened Provision of infrastructure and services

„ The proceeds of property tax and development levy should be used to fund infrastructure installation and maintenance (mainly roads and drainage) and to provide environmental health services (especially sanitation and solid waste collection), and transparency and accountability in their use improved Direct public sector roles in land supply

„ Government should assume a greater role in making suitably located land available for urban development by strategic investments in trunk infrastructure, so that local subdivision and development can be carried out by private sector actors „ The 1978 master plan provides a framework for future urban development, but should be reviewed and modified where necessary to reflect new realities „ The regulatory framework for local development should permit the initial installation of basic infrastructure and encourage its gradual upgrading „ To improve access to land by relatively poor non-indigenous urban households, the government should provide a significant volume of suitably located low-cost serviced land for sale to individuals or small-scale developers

5 Background

Land in the pre-colonial and in much of coastal , gave rise to the British policy of ‘indirect rule’ articulated in the principle of colonial eras – tenure and the ‘dual mandate’: to develop the agricultural administration resources of Nigeria through the agency of its inhabitants. Traditionally, Nigeria did not have a uniform system of land tenure. The heterogeneity of its population Thus much of West Africa, including Nigeria, was was reflected in the many forms of land administration spared the massive alienation of land that the British that existed. The local political structure determined embarked upon elsewhere in Africa. Instead, land to a large extent the ways of obtaining and holding policies were designed to reflect local realities, and land. In the northern parts of the country an Emirate to take into account the constraints imposed by system operated, with a hierarchical power structure. inadequate staff and funds, as well as the size and In these areas, all land rights resided in the highest diversity of the country4. A cardinal principle of authority who (or whose representative) could give indirect rule was minimal interference with traditional out parcels following some cultural rules. In most institutions. Thus, the colonialists did not embark on parts of southern Nigeria, however, the tenure system any major transformation related to land. In southern adopted a general form, the dominant characteristic Nigeria, the system of communal ownership of land of which is that land belongs to the group or was allowed to continue because it enabled the community (tribe, village, clan, kindred, lineage, colonial administration to increase the power of local family) and not the individual. The head of the group (paramount) chiefs through whom they could rule or community held the land in trust and administered indirectly5. it on behalf of its ancestors, its currently living members, and its members yet to be born2. In the Post–independence changes in few urban centres that existed prior to colonialism, the customary system provided tenure, land policy and legislation National independence in 1960 did not bring about „ access to urban land for group members of widely varying economic status any fundamental changes in urban policy and planning. At independence, Nigeria inherited a dual „ a means of administering the allocation and occupation of land, and system of land supply in which European notions of tenure, systems of land administration, and policies „ a deterrent to the entry of land into the open market3. that embodied colonial aims and social relations coexisted uneasily with indigenous tenure and land The impact of colonialism on settlement patterns and administration that reflected the social and political processes of urban development varied with the relations of tribal society. Both systems had been identity and purposes of the colonizing power and dynamic. For instance, the structure of tribal society the nature of the political economy on which external had changed under colonialism, with effects on both rule was imposed. Unlike the situation in many of administrative systems and approaches to urban the British colonial territories elsewhere in Africa, land. In particular, family interests in land had already the British did not wish to stay for long in Nigeria. become more dominant. In much of southern Nigeria The colonialists learned early that the indigenous today, not only are group claims to land being peoples could produce the raw materials needed supplanted by family rights, but within families, an by the Empire at a cheaper cost than could individualisation of rights is occurring. Long term foreigners. This, together with strong existing states vesting of land in families has both reduced the 6 E n Enugu g u control of chiefs and given rise to a tenure form that, The changing role of Enugu in the according to Mabogunje, is more accurately described as ‘customary freehold’ than use rights national space economy or usufruct6. Enugu, which literally means hilltop, derives its name Land transfers have normally occurred through from its position among the Udi hills at an altitude of allocation by the head of a land-owning family or about 223 metres above mean sea level. It is an community. The transfer may be in the form of a important administrative, industrial and commercial sale, lease, gift (to a friend or benefactor of a family centre in the eastern part of southern Nigeria. It has or community) or pledge (in return for some kind of served, at various times, as the headquarters of the assistance to the family/community). However, sale Central, and later, Southern Provinces (1929) and of land has recently become the major method of Eastern Provinces (1939), and capital of the Eastern land transfer, especially in urban areas. When an Region (1951), the (1967), individual thus acquires land, he or she has a sort of (1976) and (1991). It ‘allodial’ title equivalent to the English freehold, should also be mentioned that in 1967, a series of implying ownership in perpetuity7. political crises led to the secession of the Eastern Region from the rest of Nigeria and declaration of As countries became independent and rural-urban the independent state of , with Enugu as its migration resulted in rapid urban growth, the capital. Civil war broke out and lasted for nearly anomalies in the indigenous land tenure system three years, at the end of which Biafran resistance became more apparent. Urban land reforms in was crushed and Nigeria remained one. Enugu has Nigeria have been aimed primarily at addressing the therefore been a major administrative centre since dysfunctional aspects of the customary land tenure colonial times. The area administered from the city system. Some of the laws that have been enacted has, however, continued to suffer territorial loss over for this purpose include the Requisition and other the years as a result of the creation of nine states out Powers Decree of 1967; the State Lands of the former Eastern Region (Figure 1). (Compensation) Decree of 1968; the Public Lands (Miscellaneous Provisions) Decree of 1976; and the Figure 1: The location of Enugu in Nigeria Land Use Decree of 1978, which is the land legislation operating in Nigeria at present. The 1978 Land Use Decree was by far the most significant and far-reaching attempt to provide for secure title and socialising the holding and use of land in Nigeria. The objectives of the decree and the level of success it has achieved are well documented. The first step taken by the decree was the conversion of old forms of estate into rights of occupancy. Where a right of occupancy exists, a certificate of occupancy is to be issued by the appropriate authority: the State Governor where the land is urban and the local government chairman where it is rural8.

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The origin of Enugu dates back to the discovery of developed very fast. The importance of coal in the a rich seam of coal in the area in 1909 by a geological growth and development of Enugu earned for it the exploration team led by a British mining engineer, appellation ‘coal city’, which it has retained despite Mr Kitson. According to Njoku, the colonial the diminished importance of coal in its economy. government persuaded the people of Ngwo and The discovery of coal at Enugu in 1909 and a deep- Ogui (the owners of the land where coal had been sea harbour at in 1912 heightened discovered) to freely and voluntarily cede ten square the desirability of constructing an eastern railway to miles of their land to enable the administration to facilitate transport of coal to the port for export to establish a colliery and a railway station9. Isichei Britain. Construction work commenced on the reports, however, that the colonial administration Enugu-Port Harcourt railway in 1914. However, it paid compensation of 200 pounds sterling for this was not until 1916 that the first coal was transported acquisition10. In 1914, another British mining by rail to Port Harcourt. In 1923, the railway Engineer arrived in Enugu with a group of labourers authorities began to build permanent quarters for from led by one Mr. Alfred Inoma, after their workers in Enugu at China Town. High calibre whom the first miners’ settlement, Ugwu Alfred, was manpower was attracted to the town, as it became named. In 1915, the first coal mine was opened at the operational headquarters of the Railway the Udi Siding. In that year, the district prison, Corporation in Eastern Nigeria. The importance of formerly at Udi, was moved to Enugu and the the railway in the growth of Enugu transcends its prisoners were set to work in the mine. Bereft of role as a means of transporting coal to the sea. It mechanical devices, in its early days the industry brought about unprecedented growth in many relied mostly on manual labour. Most of the workers directions. Growing employment opportunities in were recruited from the towns, villages and hamlets the town attracted waves of migrants as job seekers surrounding Enugu. Indeed, the muscles of the native and service providers. people provided the power as well as the paid labour for the establishment and consolidation of colonial Although the colliery and railways provided infrastructure and industries11. residential quarters, these could only accommodate a small proportion of their employees. This, together In 1917, the second coal mine, Iva mine, was with the need to house increasing numbers of other opened. In that year too, Enugu attained second- migrants, added to the demand for housing land in class township status under Lord Lugard’s Township and around Enugu and the development of the earliest Ordinance, with the name Enugu Ngwo. In 1928, residential settlements. The railways also stimulated Ngwo was dropped from the name to distinguish the development of other transport tributaries and the township from Ngwo village. As the coal mine feeder roads needed to bring passengers and wares attracted more workers, a second settlement for to the railway station in Enugu. Thus Enugu was indigenous workers was established on the southern linked by road to all the major population centres in side of Ogbete stream. This formed the nucleus of Eastern Nigeria. This enhanced its role as the present day Coal Camp, otherwise known as economic, social and political headquarters of the Ogbete (Figure 2). Each of the events associated region. with the development of the mines added to the growth of Enugu. For instance, the population of miners grew rapidly and attracted other categories of migrants, such as service providers, to the city. Thus the commercial and administrative sectors

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The national population census for 1991 (which Igbo. As in much of urban Nigeria, the city’s culture unfortunately is the most recent) showed that Enugu is essentially hybrid in nature – a mixture of had a total population of 465,000 (234,000 men indigenous and Western colonial socio-cultural and 231,000 women) in 28 residential settlements. practices. This conforms with what Okin describes It had grown two and a half fold between 1963 and as urbanised Africans’ middle-of-the-road attitude 1986 and at about 6 percent per annum between in their search for a satisfactory new African 1986 and 1991 (see below). The population is environment – one that relates to the historical concentrated in areas near the city centre and development of the past and, at the same time, points densities decrease towards the suburbs. In terms of to a new, modern future12. ethnic composition, the population is overwhelmingly

Figure 2: A sketch map of Enugu, 1968

Enugu’s population 1926 - 3,200 1931 - 13,600 1953 - 62,800 1963 - 138,500 1986 - 342,800 1991 - 465,000

Sources: Department of Urban and Regional Planning (1987) 1986 Housing Stock Survey, Enugu: University of Nigeria Enugu Campus; National Population Commission (1992) 1991 National Population Census, : NPC

9 Enugu Making land available for urban use

Suppliers, channels and alternative „ acquires land from customary and private sources tenures for public use „ supplies land to private individuals and groups The major changes that have occurred in land from its pool delivery processes and institutions in Nigeria can be „ establishes rules regarding land use planning for identified as those occasioned by urbanisation, urban residential and economic development amplified by the advent and passing of colonialism. „ provides infrastructure and services to land, and The emergence of urban economic activities has „ enforces development control laws. encouraged migration, during which people leave their ancestral homes (in which they are landowners) The first and more important of the two main sources for urban centres in search of a better life. It was of private land identified above (in terms of the urbanisation and the evolution of a market economy number of plots supplied) are the indigenous that first gave rise to commodification of land and landowning communities and families, acting through individualisation of titles. The advent of colonialism, their representatives. The other source of private while introducing public ownership into the existing land in Enugu is the subdividers, who are mostly pattern of land ownership, also encouraged non-indigenous. This group acquires land from urbanisation. Attempts by post-independence customary sources, subdivides the land and governments to retain all land in the public domain sometimes develops some plots, while holding others also brought about significant changes, if not to land for re-sale. delivery processes themselves, then to the laws Some vendors of land in our study make outright meant to regulate such processes. sales. This confers the right of freehold, in which In Enugu, three categories of suppliers of land for case the buyer retains his or her right over the land conversion from rural to urban use can be identified. for an indeterminate period. The price is paid once These are the customary authority figures (chiefs, and for all. However freehold transactions were clan heads, lineage heads, family heads, or their more common in the past. Also, freehold was only representatives), land subdividers (speculators) and a recognised form of tenure under state law prior to the government and its agencies. Customary the enactment of the Land Use Decree in 1978. authority figures and land subdividers are private Interviews with estate agents (both formal and actors, while the government and its agencies are informal) revealed that at least 90 percent of all public actors. In the cities of developing countries, private land transfers in Enugu are at present in the the informal and unplanned conversion of land is form of leaseholds. It was also revealed that the generally initiated by private actors (sometimes with duration of the leasehold is getting shorter. While government actors as accomplices), while certain the duration provided for in the Land Use Decree is government bodies represent the formal side of land 99 years for state land, Nike people (who own up supply and spatial planning. to 90 percent of all land in Enugu) now restrict many of the leases to just 45 years. In Nigeria, the government and its agencies have continued to play a significant role in both the supply The leasehold tenure arrangement was the biggest and demand sides of the land market since colonial source of complaint by participants in a group times. All three tiers of government (Federal, state discussion organised for land purchasers in Emene. and local) are involved. In Enugu, the government According to these people, the cloud cast by the terminable duration of rights over leased land is a cause of anxiety and uncertainty. On the other hand, 10 E n Enugu g u

the customary land rights owners (who are eagerly The characteristics of the three settlements, including waiting to repossess their land on the expiry of processes and patterns of subdivision and the level existing leases) welcome the leasehold arrangement. of infrastructure provision, are described in the This is because it makes it easier to reach consensus boxes below. within indigenous communities on the alienation of communal land, since leased out land is only alienated for a period and not for all time. It appears that Ogui Nike purchasers do not consciously link their investment in leased land to the period of the lease and fear that Ogui Nike is in the local they will lose out when the land reverts to its owner. government area. It is what may be regarded Because leasehold tenure has come to stay (having as the traditional inner core of Enugu been institutionalised by the Land Use Decree), land metropolis. Land in Ogui Nike falls into two buyers need to adapt their behaviour, particularly categories. The first is Ani uno, which means with respect to the level of investment they make the area for the homesteads where people live. and the returns they anticipate in relation to the lease According to the Enugu Masterplan (1978), period. this settlement covered an area of approximately 25 hectares, with a population The case study residential in 1978 of 24,000 and a density of 1,075 persons per hectare. The high density, lack settlements of organised road network, substandard The study focussed on three case study settlements, housing (mostly in areas occupied by the all in the old Nkanu, which includes Nike and indigenous people), run down infrastructure Awkunanaw, both of which are parts of western and general lack of planning in this Nkanu cultural expression. While Achara is part of neighbourhood have earned for it the Awkunanaw, ethnographically, Nike is made up of appellation “urban jungle” – a derogatory tag 24 villages, among which are Ogui and Emene13. used by its residents as well as residents of Many of the areas occupied by these groups have other neighbourhoods in Enugu. It is this part since become parts of Enugu metropolis while others of Ogui Nike that was selected as a case are increasingly being incorporated as future study. residential and industrial areas. The name Nike is The second category of land in Ogui Nike is used to denote an extensive group of contiguous Ani agu. As in other parts of , this is communities in the three local government areas that “the outer land where people farm but do not make up Enugu metropolis. The people dominate have permanent residence”14. As Enugu and are indigenous to these parts of the state. expanded, the Ani uno part of Ogui Nike was Depending on their location vis-à-vis the capital city recognised as the home of the indigenous of Enugu, which constitutes the major growth centre people, while Ani agu was used for several in the area, there are minor variations regarding land extensive layouts surrounding the township of delivery processes among the Nike. In the main, Enugu, many of which have since been however, these widespread groups share a common incorporated within the urban boundary. Ogui tradition with respect to land acquisition and Nike is made up of four communities: disposal. Amawusa, Amaigbo, Onu Asata and Umunevo. Traditionally, land in the area was

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owned communally by the various kindreds There is electricity in most parts of the (lineages or groups of extended families) of neighbourhood, provided by the National the aboriginal Nike people who make up these Electric Power Authority (NEPA). Plot communities. owners are responsible for extending electricity to their plots from the national grid Our sample survey of owners in the Ani uno line provided by NEPA. Pipe-borne water, part of Ogui Nike showed that 57 percent provided by the State Water Corporation, is had acquired land and buildings through also available in some areas (mostly on plots inheritance from their late parents or spouses. owned by non-indigenes but also to public This is understandable, since this part of Enugu standpipes). The Asata River, which forms the has been fully built up for decades and what southern boundary of Ogui Nike, provides a happens there now is mostly redevelopment source of water for most villagers for both of plots rather than fresh development. The drinking and domestic activities. However only recreational area in this settlement is the pit latrine sanitation is inadequate at such high village square, which is used by the villagers densities and there is no solid waste collection. for cultural activities. This square also The Enugu North Local Government is provides an abode for the Ezebinagu (the thinking seriously about addressing the indigenous community’s deity) in the form of dilapidated state of infrastructure and lack of a shrine. This area has retained its unplanned planning in Ogui Nike. Already, an urban character. Access ways in most parts of the renewal scheme has been proposed for the settlement are poorly defined footpaths, some neighbourhood. However, lack of funds has barely two feet wide. Problems of access and infrastructure have been aggravated by intense delayed its implementation. densification. Because many of the landowners now live elsewhere or are, according to their tenants, mainly interested in the rents they collect, residents have formed a number of associations to deal with day- to-day problems, including security and service delivery. However, interviews with two members of Residents’ Associations revealed that the associations are often unable to resolve cases concerning encroachments on access ways or conflicts over dumping of solid waste, and instead have to refer them to government agencies. This finding suggests that the institutions that regulate the use of land come under pressure during the process of urban development and cannot resolve conflicts and cope with service delivery issues in highly consolidated and densely settled areas. A public standpipe in Ogui, Nike

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Achara standard high density plots (60 feet x 100 feet or 20m x 30m). When land was purchased Achara is in local government from any of the landowning families, the area. It is a medium density neighbourhood purchaser was made to conform to the covering an area of about 95.5 hectares, with approved planning scheme when developing a population of 31, 000 and a density of 325 the plot. The effect of this is that much of persons per hectare according to the 1991 Achara is formally laid out (hence the tag census. Originally, the traditional ruler of ‘layout’) even though plots were (and still are) Awkunanaw was the custodian of the land in obtained from customary sources. The Achara, which was part of his community. The southernmost periphery of Achara (where this original owners were Awkunanaw farmers. study focused) was not part of the original The land belonged to about fifteen layout but has since also been surveyed and Awkunanaw aboriginal families who were subdivided by the indigenous owners. In this freeholders of the property. It was these area 93 percent of current owners had bought families that asked the then Enugu Town their plots and the developments are mostly Planning Authority to prepare a planning middle-income two and three storey blocks scheme for Achara to allow for orderly of flats. development. The area was subsequently surveyed and a planning scheme prepared. Documentation for a land transfer comes in This scheme was approved in 1963. The the form of a receipt for payment issued by approved planning scheme included a detailed the land seller to the buyer. Most buyers also subdivision plan, with most plots the size of invite a lawyer to draw up an agreement for the two parties to sign, with witnesses. The

Typical building development in Achara

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receipt for payment and the agreement are admissible as evidence in a law court should a dispute arise. As in Emene, in Achara, the letter of agreement is the most common type of ownership document (59 percent of owners), although unlike the other study settlements, 40 percent of owners have converted their original agreements into registered titles. Roads in most parts of the settlement are well laid out, mostly constructed by government, although there is evidence of disrepair in some areas. The width of the roads ranges from 4m to 6m, with some having concrete drains on both sides. Planning and building requirements are enforced by the Local Government. Thus building setbacks are respected in most parts of the formally laid out areas and encroachment on road access Achara is hardly an issue. With very little funding for infrastructure development in the settlement by government in recent times, the practice is that a prospective developer has the Emene responsibility for extending road access to his Emene is in the local government or her plot before seeking permission to build. area. This medium to high-density residential/ This is the situation in the more recent industrial neighbourhood was originally on the developments on the southernmost periphery northeastern fringe of Enugu but is now of Achara where this study focussed. Piped regarded as part of Enugu metropolis. It water and electricity are supplied and various covers an area of 234 acres (95 ha). Recent tiers of government, NGOs and corporate population estimates (based on projections bodies provide other social services, such as from the 1991 census) show that Emene might schools, markets, churches. have reached a population of about 105,000 persons by 2001. The area has fairly level topography, as it falls beyond the area of broken relief that typifies much of Enugu. This level setting has favoured the choice of this neighbourhood as a location for industry. The settlement is well linked by road and rail to other parts of Enugu and the city’s airport is also located there (Figure 3).

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Figure 3: A sketch map of Emene and its surrounding area letter of agreement (possessed by 79 percent of all owners in the sample survey and locally termed a lease certificate) must carry the signature of the lessee and ten members of the land selling community to make it valid. The signature of the traditional ruler is the confirmatory seal to a valid purchase and acts as a check on multiple sales of the same plot. Conflicts over land sales are, therefore, rare in Emene. Most buyers thereafter invite surveyors to survey the plots they have purchased and to install beacons. All the owners included in the household sample survey affirmed that their plot boundaries had been well defined at the time of acquisition, as did the vast majority of owners in the other two settlements (89 percent in Achara and 88 percent in Ogui Nike). The State Water Corporation provides piped water to the area but, because the supply is Originally, Emene belonged to Nike very unreliable (and also because some areas aborigines who used it for agricultural are not yet connected to the water mains), activities. The traditional ruler of Nike was most plot owners also dig wells in their plots the custodian of land in Emene. Three to tap ground water. The Old Road communities of Nike aborigines make up (which is about 12m wide and which was Emene, each with a community head. These constructed by the government) forms the communities are Amechi, Oguru and Otuku. main transportation artery in the residential Long before the founding of Enugu, the part of this settlement, with service roads to traditional ruler of Nike allocated land to these individual plots branching off from the main communities on a freehold tenure basis. road. These service roads (often between 3m However during the colonial era the and 5m wide) are defined by the land selling communities commissioned overall boundary communities. However, there is evidence that survey plans of their portions of the land from plot owners in the newly developing residential licensed surveyors. It is from these holdings areas of Emene are responsible for extending that the communities sell land to non-indigenes, service roads to their plots. This can be mostly as leaseholds. Thus in 2002 two thirds deduced from the fact that such service roads of owners had bought their plots and a third always terminate at the last building on a had inherited them. The subdivision process particular street (Figure 3). Electricity is is quite systematic. From long practice, these provided by NEPA but most residents rely communities have acquired experience in on pit latrine sanitation and there is no solid measuring out plots in standard sizes. Every waste collection.

15 E n Enugu g u

There is no doubt that the dominant suppliers of land that land from the public sector is the cheapest in Enugu are the customary land rights owners. Both (because it is often partly serviced) but the most public and private developers have to acquire land difficult to access (because of the volume of demand from this source, as there is no stock of undeveloped compared to supply), while land from private publicly or privately (individually) owned land for subdividers is the easiest to access but the most either public sector land purposes or invasion/ expensive. squatting. Although precise figures are not available, The principal partner of an estate agency firm in it is reasonable to assume that 80 percent of land in Enugu gave a rough estimate of the cost of a standard Enugu is held by customary land rights owners, 10 plot (20 x 30 sq m) from private suppliers in some percent by the public sector and 10 percent by residential neighbourhoods as at December 2002 private individuals. It is difficult to compare prices as follows: GRA (Government Reservation Area) of land supplied through the different channels and Independence layout (low density areas) N5-6 because of the plethora of influences on price, which million (note, however, that plot sizes in low-density include whether or not a middleman is involved, the neighbourhoods are sometimes two to four times security of the rights being transferred (which is the size of a standard plot), Emene N500,000- related to the risk of them being challenged), length 700,000, Achara N1-1.4 million and Ogui Nike, of lease, and the level of services provided. up to N1million15. However, the general feeling among respondents was

16 Enugu Can disadvantaged groups gain access to land in Enugu?

Access to land by the poor sector firms was also quite important for household heads in wage employment in the centrally located Investment in a house is central to the livelihood area of Ogui Nike. Today, despite the informalisation strategies of many urban households – secure tenure of the Nigerian economy, the figures are not on a plot of land followed by incremental investment dissimilar. Most of the remaining household heads in house construction provides a household with a had been self employed at the time of plot acquisition, place to live even during periods of misfortune, a mostly with micro or small businesses (about 80 means of earning an income as a base for business percent in Ogui Nike and Achara and nearly 60 or by the construction of rooms for rent, an percent in Emene), but a significant minority were inheritance to bequeath to one’s children and an asset large scale or formal private entrepreneurs (15 that can, as a last resort, be sold in a time of crisis. percent in Ogui Nike, 23 percent in Emene and 12 An important question for the research was, percent in Achara). Respondents with relatively high therefore, whether poor households have in the past educational levels, regular wage employment or their been able to access urban land, whether they can own businesses, even in the informal sector, are likely still do so today and, if so, through which channels to have relatively high incomes. With the exception of land delivery. of members of indigenous landowning groups, those who own land in Enugu are, and always have been, Detailed household income and expenditure surveys those wealthy enough to purchase it. were beyond the resources of the study, therefore two alternative approaches were taken to this Even amongst indigenous landowning groups, once analysis. First, information on the socio-economic the owner of urban land, a family or individual cannot characteristics most closely associated with wealth be considered poor. The asset can be used to status was collected through the sample surveys of construct rooms for rent or it can be sold. Thus owner households. Second, using local interviews with two heads of Emene families who categorisations of household well-being, participants had sold some of their land found that their primary in focus group discussions considered whether poor motivation had been to invest in further wealth people could acquire land in Enugu. creation, by releasing funds for investment in their children’s education or business activities. The socio-economic characteristics most closely associated with wealth status are the educational The proportion of urban people who are poor in level of the household head and his or her work Nigeria is estimated to have increased from 18 status. Over a third of current owners in both Emene percent in 1980 to 55 percent in 1996, and to have and Achara had university level education and over been 58 percent in the urban areas of Enugu State 16 a fifth in Ogui Nike. Only a fifth in Achara had a in 1998 . Poverty analyses distinguish between the low level of education (no or primary schooling), very poor, the poor and the non-poor. On the basis compared to a third in Emene and nearly 40 percent of economic status, food consumption and in Ogui Nike, where a larger proportion of current household assets, a recent participatory assessment owners were members of the indigenous landowning in Enugu State by the Institute for Development groups. A significant proportion of all owners had Studies at the University of Nigeria Enugu Campus been in full-time wage work at the time they acquired characterised the poorest of the poor (ogbenye their plots (55 percent in Ogui Nike, 35 percent in mgbegele) as those who cannot feed themselves Achara and 61 percent in Emene), predominantly and their families, the kinless poor (ogbenye in the public sector. Wage work in large private mmadu) or the ill-fated poor (ogbenye chi ojoo).

17 E n Enugu g u

These groups deserve sympathy. The poor include Thus it is evident that none of the landowners in our the hopeful or struggling poor who deserve samples are poor, either because of the current value encouragement and support17. Respondents in the of property assets acquired in the past or because World Bank sponsored ‘Voices of the Poor’ study only high income people can afford to purchase land specifically identified lack of security, not owning a in contemporary informal settlements in Enugu. home and unhygienic and inadequate living conditions, in addition to lack of food and money, Women’s access to land as characteristics of poverty. After food, the aspects of well-being identified as most critical vary between Women are not entitled to land in their own right groups, but typically include being able to pay rent, under the customary law which operates in the being in full-time work, having children to support indigenous areas. This is because the Nike people one in old age, being able to meet community have a patrilineal descent and patrilocal residential obligations (such as levies to pay for security) and system. Descent is traced from fathers to sons and having ‘connections’18. Participants in focus group women move to live in their husband’s community. discussions in Emene were reluctant to categorise As the most important asset, land is bequeathed to any member of the indigenous landowning groups male heirs. Participants in a focus group discussion as poor, since all men are entitled to a place in the of customary land rights owners emphasised that at homestead to lay their heads and even if their own no time had their communities given a portion of families have no land available to allocate them, they land to a woman in her own right, however wise, can be allocated land elsewhere in the city or, at learned, strong or useful the woman might have been least, can buy it at a more reasonable price than a to her family or community. Simply put, a woman non-indigene. However, they also bluntly asserted cannot own land in the customary context. She is that “it is clear that a poor person cannot get regarded as ‘belonging’ to a different community, land unless the poor person is from Emene”. as she is expected to be married to a husband in a different place someday. A woman may acquire a There have been sporadic efforts by the government piece of land in her marital home. This, however, is to provide so-called ‘low-cost’ housing and even in the name of her husband or male child. Such a serviced plots, but no serious attention has ever been portion of land is known as okaabi and is allotted paid to meeting the land and housing needs of the to her for farming. She farms the land because she urban poor and such social policies as exist have has a male child among her husband’s people. never really addressed problems of urban poverty. Women respondents from indigenous communities Enormous confidence has been placed on the real in Enugu accept these arrangements, although many or imagined ability of extended family networks to are critical of the tendency of their male kinsfolk to cater for kinsmen everywhere and to provide for dispose of community land to non-indigenes in an their welfare at all times. According to this thinking, uncoordinated manner, at the cost of future the poor or destitute should go back to their home generations’ access to land. areas or be catered for by their people wherever they are. Those who remain in the towns are ignored, A representative of the Enugu chapter of the especially as they have resisted sporadic efforts to International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) shove them into camps for the destitute. – a women’s rights advocacy group – was interviewed to seek the organisation’s view on why there seems to have been little challenge or change to the position of women in the traditional law system

18 E n Enugu g u

with respect to land. In summary, the respondent inheritance from their late spouses (two thirds in attributed the situation to the age-old and strongly Achara and Emene and 83 percent in the older- entrenched male dominance of virtually all institutions established area of Ogui Nike). The type of marriage and every segment of both traditional and modern contract governs women’s inheritance rights. There society, thereby giving women no platform to are basically two types of marriage: customary effectively canvass for change. marriage and statutory (civil) marriage (or marriage under the Act). Customary marriage is marriage The traditional setting has remained resilient, but contracted under native law and custom. There are novel and exogenous forces mark the wider context as many customary laws as there are communities. that envelops it. Land remains exclusively in the male In this type of marriage, the properties of the domain in the rural areas. However, at the same deceased are distributed among his dependants in time commercialisation of land in urban areas serves accordance with the customary law applicable to as a liberating factor for women. Women and men him before he died, that is, generally to his male can now “buy” land outside their traditional children and, if he does not have a son, to his brother. homesteads. The Land Use Decree of 1978 gives These customs, in most parts of Igboland including legal backing to women’s rights to participate in land Enugu, are unfavourable to women and affect their transactions. Under the decree, women (irrespective interests adversely. On the other hand, in marriages of their marital status) may get land in their own right validly contracted under the Marriage Act, the law provided they meet the criteria, which are invariably is not as unfavourable to women as the customs. economic. While this new trend is removing gender- The Administration and Succession (Estate of based barriers to acquiring land, it is erecting Deceased Persons) Law Cap 4, Revised Laws of economic ones. Anambra State Vol.1 (1990) makes it illegal to deny Nevertheless, only 11 percent of landowners in our the wife or daughters of a deceased person what combined sample were women and by far the most they are entitled to merely because they are women. common channel through which these women Women’s growing preference for civil marriage is household heads had acquired property was through understandable in these circumstances.

19 Regulation Land transactions in new and consolidated areas

Regulating land transactions: the Why have traditional authorities and administrative structures retained their strength, legitimacy and strengths and weaknesses of administrative capacity in the context of Enugu? To informal institutions and formal some extent this resulted from the economic policies rules and strategies adopted by the colonial administration. The promotion of crop production for export and In contemporary Enugu, three distinct institutions the adoption of governance through ‘indirect rule’ regulate transactions in land. These are the customary meant that many of the ‘traditional’ structures in institutions, institutions associated with the Nigeria survived the colonial era. Another development of a market in land, and the Land Use contributory factor may be the fact that formal Decree of 1978. This is generally in agreement with government at all levels has performed woefully. The Iliffe’s characterisation of the forces at work in failure of government to positively affect the people, African land markets. According to Iliffe, these are particularly since independence, has made them cling the resistance of pre-capitalist elements (traditional more to the traditional systems with which they are culture), the constraints of the world economy familiar. According to the authors of the Voices of (scarcity), and the actions of the state19. These the Poor study, after such a long period of military forces have often led to the emergence of three rule, there is a whole generation of Nigerians who parallel land markets and systems of prices: formal, do not trust the state – either its statements or its informal and government regulated. actions in contributing to the well-being of the individual20. This presents problems in public policy terms: government as manager is rated negatively Customary institutions across all areas – as service provider, regulator and The customary institutions are conditioned by protector. This perception of the state seems to have practices that still govern land delivery in prescribed reinforced people’s belief in the efficacy of traditional contexts. These are the institutions at play in the institutions, thereby strengthening them. allocation of land in family circles. What apply here are uncodified and informal sets of rules, the social Market institutions legitimacy of which is undergirded by long usage and the threat or actual application of traditional The institutions of the market operate outside the sanctions. Money does not play a role in these types customary context and are mediated through the use of institutions. Steeped in the customs and traditions of money. Within this context, land is seen as an of Nike, discussants in the group discussion with economic commodity. Two types of market customary land rights owners in Emene spoke well transactions can be identified: initial transactions in of the traditional institutions that regulate land delivery which customary rights are sold and immediately or processes in their indigenous society. These later converted into statutory leaseholds, and institutions are said to cause few problems in the subsequent transactions between leaseholders. The processes of acquisition and devolution of rights in associated institutions and procedures here are much land. When problems arise, channels exist through more recent than the customary ones and they which disputes are subjected to the touchstone of provide the channels through which most “strangers” customary law and practice (see below). (non-indigenes) get access to land in Enugu. These institutions and procedures accommodate the increasing role of land agents who step into land deals by intervening between vendors and vendees

20 E n Enugu g u

Figure 4: Sources of information on plot availability compared

Friend/ Neighbour/ relat ive 90 Newspaper 80 Broker/ Estat e agent Local govt funct ionary (unoff icial) 70 Community/ Part y leader

60

50 % 40

30

20

10

0 Achara Emene Ogui Nike Settlement

(Figure 4). One of the requirements for markets to that are, at best, only partially understood by work efficiently is freely available information. In members of the indigenous communities. These practice, however, there are various constraints on include receipts, lawyers, assignments, deeds, and this and so to work properly, special arrangements sometimes litigation. Wading through all these can may be needed to overcome imperfect information: be difficult and frustrating. agents emerge to perform such a function. On the question of trust in market transactions in There is ample evidence from the present study that land, customary land rights owners sounded the institutions of the market are fraught with fatalistic, expressing the need for anyone involved problems. In the first place, they permit transactions in such transactions to trust in God and hope that no between non-intimates. However, boundary problem arises. In spite of papers and covenants, disagreements frequently arise, especially in the akpu obi (hot heads) in the landowning undeveloped sites, and multiple sales of plots do communities, who oppose the alienation of occur. Despite the transfer of money, paperwork customary land, have sometimes destroyed beacons, and witnesses, land transactions under market damaged uncompleted buildings and generally made conditions cause more problems than those carried it impossible for a man or woman who has paid the out under the other types of institutions in Enugu. fees and fulfilled the specified conditions to occupy The perception of the indigenous land rights owners and develop the land acquired. The effectiveness of concerning land transactions based on cash is that this set of institutions is thus dicey, yet most of the they are inevitable given the changing times, but that residential plots owned by strangers are obtained they are fraught with problems. This group therefore through the commercial land market. It is this perceives commercial transactions in land as having situation that explains the overwhelming desire of doubtful legitimacy. This is mainly because such purchasers of such land for formal titles, which they transactions are attended by a range of processes hope will afford them the protection of the courts.

21 E n Enugu g u

The quest for formal titles over land acquired from to the vast areas of land appropriated by government customary sources has created an important through the Decree for phases 1 to 5 of the Emene interface between informal and formal land Industrial Layout, as well as other areas. What seems administration systems not just in Enugu but also in to gall them most is that land acquired under the other Nigerian cities. provisions of the Decree for one purpose is often not put to that use but is parcelled out to individual State institutions users (who are usually ‘big men’) for private rather Under the Land Use Decree the owner of a plot than public use. Also, following its application on purchased from an indigenous landowning the basis of overwhelming public interest, the Decree community can apply for registration of his or her sometimes moves blindly, knocking down even tenure. If the plot is in an approved layout, people’s ancestral homes, as the proposed railroad application is made to the Ministry of Lands, Survey extension is likely to do in parts of Enugu. These and Town Planning21. Following the necessary issues cause bitterness among customary land rights verification and survey process, a leasehold title is owners. Hardly does a discussion or interview end registered. If the plot is not in an approved layout, without the request that government should abrogate application is made to the State Land Use and the Decree, since it has not worked in the interest of Allocation Committee (constituted by the Governor) the common man. and, following a similar process of verification and Regulation of land use, subdivision and building is a survey, a certificate of occupancy is issued. Rather local government responsibility. Applications for than being proof of title, this certificate recognises building permission can reportedly be processed in the rights that have been transferred. two weeks if an owner has good contacts and is The Land Use Decree is also an instrument prepared to invest time in chasing the process and empowering government to effect compulsory money in fees and ‘tips’. It is also possible for the acquisition of land. The application of the decree process to take six months or more. Although for this purpose is rare compared to its use for the development permission should comply with the 22 types of institution already discussed. Nevertheless, 1978 Master Plan , in practice non-compliant uses have obtained approval, for example on public land its import can be telling. One application of the intended for other purposes, generally through decree can deprive landowners of more land than political interference in the planning process. they have sold for years. Customary land rights owners view this use of the decree with trepidation and resentment, particularly as the payment of Land disputes and their resolution “prompt and adequate compensation” promised by One important function of the institutions regulating the decree is tardy, if it arrives at all. Of the three transactions in land is the provision of mechanisms types of institutions that regulate land delivery in for the satisfactory resolution of disputes. It has Enugu, the one most vilified by customary land rights been suggested that, as urban settlements become owners is the Land Use Decree. In the words of consolidated, customary mechanisms for resolving one focus group participant “the Land Use Act disputes break down. Therefore as part of the brought more problems than previously research the nature and frequency of disputes (existed)”. They perceive the Decree as high experienced by owners, the resolution methods handed, unjust and uncaring, representing a system employed, the types of evidence admitted and the that could ultimately render the landowning status given to informal land transactions and rules communities landless. The land rights owners point were assessed. 22 E n Enugu g u

In practice, disputes over transactions in land, members of the land selling community safeguard ownership, boundaries or inheritance were rare. against multiple sales of a plot, the lease certificate Only 11 percent of owners in Ogui Nike, 7 percent is considered valid proof of ownership and the in Achara and none in Emene reported that they had practice of commissioning a survey and installing had disputes relating to their plots. In Achara the beacons prevents boundary disputes. If a buyer infrequent occurrence of disputes was attributed to subsequently wants to resell, consent must be the rituals (Nri Ani) that accompany land transfer. obtained from the community that originally sold the A goat, other food and drinks are shared by the land. Among the few cases identified in the formal parties involved and a fowl sacrificed and its blood courts in Enugu, disputes over ownership of land buried on the plot. These rituals are believed to (encompassing trespass and inheritance) were the bind the former owner and the buyer to the terms of most prevalent. A few cases of boundary disputes their agreement, or to face the wrath of the gods. In were also noted, but these are usually dealt with at Emene, the signature of the traditional ruler and ten the Customary Court level (Figure 5).

Figure 5: The hierarchy of courts in Nigeria

Supreme Court

Court of Appeal

Sharia Court of Appeal High Court

Upper Sharia Court Magistrate’s Court Customary Court of Appeal

Sharia Court Customary (Native) Court

(Moslem Northern Nigeria) (Southern Nigeria)

23 E n Enugu g u

Thus there are two methods of resolving land a) who originally founded (owned) the land, disputes in Enugu: customary arbitration and b) how he founded the land, adjudication in the courts of law. Customary c) the particulars of the intervening owners through arbitration relies on informal institutions, particularly whom the plaintiff claims the land, and the family, elders and traditional rulers, i.e. people d) the history of how the land tenure practices have who are versed in the customs and traditions evolved from the time of the ancestors. regulating land tenure practices in a community. The greatest strength of traditional institutions lies in the In a landmark judgement, the Supreme Court of fact that, because of the high cost of litigation, Nigeria highlighted important issues of law ignorance of state law and procedures, and illiteracy, concerning the position of traditional history, they are handy for a vast majority of Nigerians. The decisions of the Native Courts and reliance on source of legitimacy of these institutions lies in the traditional customs and other such informal fact that the processes that they prescribe and institutions in settling land disputes. This was in the regulate are socially acceptable to all the actors. A case of Achiakpa vs Nduka (2001) 14 NWLR, Pt major weakness of traditional institutions in resolving 734, 623 – Supreme Court of Nigeria. Among the land disputes is, however, that influential members issues highlighted was that a party relying on acts of of society can bend them and gain undue advantage. possession and ownership as proof of title to land Also, they do not offer objective standards or must show that such acts not only extend over a procedures for trial and are not based on strict legal sufficient length of time, but also that they are principles, unlike the formal courts. numerous and positive, in order to warrant the The formal courts, in contrast, are guided by legal inference of exclusive ownership of such land. Also, principles, such as those enunciated in the constitution where title to, or interest in, family or communal land of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Land Use is in dispute, oral history of the family or communal Decree and the Evidence Act Cap 112 Laws of the tradition concerning such title or interest is relevant Federation of Nigeria 1990. The disadvantages of and thus admissible in evidence, an exception to this the formal courts, however, are the high cost of being hearsay evidence. It was further upheld that litigation (which low income earners often cannot trials and decisions of Native (Customary) Courts afford) and the fact that a court case can drag on on matters which are peculiarly within their for a long time. knowledge, arrived at after a fair hearing based on relevant evidence, should not be disturbed without What type of evidence do the courts admit in the very clear proof that they are wrong. adjudication of land disputes? From a plethora of decided cases, one finds that it is only credible Informal transactions in land are recognised by the evidence guided by legal principles and which is courts as long as such transactions are consistent relevant to the issues in contention that is admitted with existing state laws and are also not opposed to by the courts. A plaintiff whose claim for declaration public policy. of title to land is founded on traditional history must plead and establish such facts as:

24 Policy Policy implications

The overall objective of any urban land policy should as a group and members (usually male) had only be to ensure that land markets are efficient, equitable usufructuary rights over land. Payne has highlighted and environmentally sound and sustainable23. The some efficiency losses in such customary patterns key to formulating effective policies is to first of landholding and tribal/collective tenure practices. understand the existing realities and processes on These include the reduced incentive for land the ground and then to determine ways and means development and constraints on those desiring social of reducing the negative impacts of these processes mobility. Payne noted, however, that as long as land and maximising their positive impacts. The preceding is abundant, these losses (which are compensated sections of this report have attempted to explain the by the high level of personal security) are small24. existing realities and processes on the ground with It has been mentioned that in Nigeria, with the regard to informal land delivery in Enugu. We shall passage of time, communal land began to be attempt, in the sections below, to draw out the allocated to its constituent families, usually on a implications for policy of the main findings of the freehold tenure basis. It was noted that, with research (see also the summary on page 5) and to population increases, the continuing allocation of make recommendations, starting with the communal land to families has resulted in a situation implications for conceptions of tenure. in which communal land reserves are being depleted while family ownership is gaining ascendancy as the Forms of tenure dominant mode of customary landholding. In It has been shown that Enugu is surrounded by land Mabogunje’s view, the long-term vesting of land in held under customary tenure by indigenous families has both reduced the control of community landowning groups. Hence, the bulk of land for chiefs over land and given rise to a tenure form that conversion from rural to urban use is in the hands of is more accurately described as ‘customary freehold’ 25 the indigenous landowning communities/families. In than usufruct . Although much of the land in the case much earlier times land belonged to the community study settlements is still held by indigenous Figure 6: Nature of ownership documents compared

100

90 Letter of Agreement Legal memo of Agreement 80 Lease 70 Registered title 60 Unregistered title

% 50

40

30

20

10

0 Achara Emene Ogui Nike Settlem ent

25 E n Enugu g u

communities as ‘customary freehold’, leases on more to alienate its members’ interest in the land for one or less all the plots in Achara have been sold to non- or two generations, not the whole community’s indigenes who have constructed blocks of interest for all time. apartments on them. Many have now registered their It is important to note that the complexity reported title (Figure 6). In Emene, leases on about two-thirds by some analysts to dominate urban land tenure of the plots have been sold, with most purchasers issues in the urban areas of most developing countries receiving Letters of Agreements, while about a third is largely absent in Enugu. This is because land continue to be occupied by members of the invasion/squatting as a source of land supply for low- indigenous community. Finally, in the oldest income groups hardly occurred in the past and settlement, Ogui Nike, at least 40 percent of the certainly does not occur at present. None of the plots have been sold (mainly leasehold). respondents in the household sample survey had The advent of urbanisation and colonialism heralded acquired land through illegal occupation. The absence the commercialisation of rights to land and of squatting means that the usually complex varieties individualisation of titles. Once individuals or of non-formal tenure systems associated with it are corporate entities acquire either land or land-use largely absent in Enugu, whether on communal or rights, they acquire tenure. It was shown in the government-owned land. Also, renting of plots or preceding sections that freehold and leasehold tenure subdivision of plots after purchase for resale is rare. arrangements dominated free-market land Only one percent of all respondents in the household transactions in our case study settlements, with sample survey rented their plots and fewer than ten leasehold being more prevalent in recent times. percent had subdivided their plots since acquisition. Freehold has very few restrictions on it and is considered by economists to be more secure. It was The tenure systems that are to be found in Enugu noted, however, that the 1978 Land Use Decree are, therefore, customary (tribal/collective) and introduced public ownership of land and effectively formal (leasehold or freehold). Durand-Lasserve extinguished all private freehold titles, converting argues that, contrary to a still widely held idea, the them to leaseholds, usually of 99-year duration. privatisation or nationalisation of all land is Leasehold is considered more equitable as it reserves unnecessary, since a diversity of sub-markets does the ownership of land to society as a whole rather not constitute an obstacle to the smooth operation than to an individual. As noted above, the current of the land market as a whole26. Despite its vaunted policy of government as expressed in the Land Use ‘efficiency’, he maintains that a unified market is Decree is in favour of leasehold tenure and, while dangerous because it leads to social exclusion, land purchasers would prefer freehold tenure in segregation and instability. Diverse markets respond, private land transactions, the provisions of the on the contrary, to diverse demand and the different Decree are in accord with the preference of solvency levels of the urban population. The main traditional land rights owners. One reason for the issue with respect to tenure, as previously noted, is preference of customary land rights owners for the need for clarity and certainty in ownership and leasehold tenure on alienated communal land can transfers on the part of owners and buyers. be traced back to the concept that customary land is held in trust for future generations. So, while the present generation of a community may agree to The forms of tenure available to land holders forego their rights in return for benefits such as cash, should provide clear and certain rights of they reject the notion of future generations being ownership and reliable procedures for deprived. Leasehold tenure enables a community transfers

26 E n Enugu g u

It is also suggested that, since leases are the only Joint ventures between the public and private sector form of landholding now recognised by law, land are increasingly seen as a way forward in integrating buyers need to adapt their behaviour with respect customary tenure systems with others for urban land to the level of investment and their expectations of a management. These include lease-lease back and likely return on that investment in relation to the lease guided land development options. In addition, period. NGOs may be encouraged to act as developers, intermediaries or representatives of customary owners in negotiating development options with Land buyers should adapt their investment in government agencies28. Although more institutional property and expectations of returns on their analysis is needed, such an approach may be useful capital to the length of leases sellers are in the Enugu context where, as revealed by the prepared to offer research, customary land rights owners view the Land Use Decree with bitterness and trepidation. It may provide a means of addressing the unpopularity Poor migrants are completely priced out of the city’s of compulsory acquisition by increasing the level of land markets. Government’s responsibility for trust between customary land rights owners and increasing the opportunities for low-income government agencies. According to Payne, the households to access land should, therefore, be advantage of these approaches is that customary acknowledged, even if earlier efforts were not groups would retain some or all of their primary successful. In an earlier paper, the author suggested rights. It would also help to reduce excessive that government should permit condominium expectations by bringing home to them the types of ownership of land in its land delivery programmes27. development and therefore the profit levels that are In such an arrangement, a person or persons may likely to receive official sanction. have absolute title to only part of a property, thus making it possible for a group of individuals to jointly obtain land and then build a multi-occupancy dwelling Public-private joint ventures should be (such as a compound or rooming house) which is encouraged as a way of reconciling customary shared among them. It should also be possible for a tenure systems with the needs of plot of land to be subdivided into smaller ones once contemporary urban development individuals have built on it. The advantages of such an approach would include not just the lowering of land costs for individual households, but also more The lack of detailed and up-to-date land registers optimal use of scarce urban land to accommodate or inventories is a major impediment to any as many housing units as possible. assessment of existing tenure systems and their performance in meeting either productivity or equity requirements. Clearly, the establishment of such Measures are needed to ensure that relatively registers or inventories to record details of poor urban households can obtain access to ownership and rights to land and property is a land, through arrangements such as shared precondition for both improved understanding of ownership urban land tenure systems and the formulation of appropriate policies concerning them.

27 E n Enugu g u

The situation in Enugu is, to some degree, similar to An improved land inventory or registration what Kombe and Kreibich found in their work in system is vital to provide a record of ownership Tanzania29. They pointed to growing evidence of property and rights in land suggesting that, even though informal housing land subdivisions, transactions and development take place outside the formal or statutory urban land Processes of subdivision and management process, there are initiatives to adapt some of the formal principles for the spatial tenure registration organization and development of land. These can It was noted earlier that landowning aboriginal be seen in the attempts of informal land subdividers, communities in Enugu have for decades been developers and community leaders to foster an submitting their lands for planning and formal orderly spatial structure, demarcate plot boundaries, subdivision in line with the Nigerian Town and register land transfers, develop mechanisms for Country Planning Ordinance No.4 of 1946 enacted guaranteeing security of tenure and service land. by the colonial administration. These communities Kombe and Kreibich suggest that these integrative engage in the development of planning schemes in strategies and instruments applied at the grassroots which large tracts of communal land are surveyed level can constitute a framework for regulating and subdivided. The planning authorities have informal land markets and settlement growth. In the recognised this process as legitimate for many years Enugu context, government should encourage local (even when official national policy preferred the state communities’ practice of embarking on formal to take the main responsibility for subdividing land planning/subdivision of communal tracts of land. for transfer to individuals) and have been prepared However, excessive formalisation of the process to approve the schemes. Indigenous landowning should be avoided. The emphasis should be on families mostly sell land in such approved layouts to encouraging such communities to imbibe the non-indigenes (migrants). This practice has resulted principles of good layout design. Standards should in many formally laid out settlements in Enugu, even be flexible, especially with regard to plot sizes. when land was supplied from customary sources. Hence, many of the processes of land subdivision in Enugu (including those on customary land) are, in Initiatives by local communities to plan and most cases, both formal and legal. subdivide land should be supported by, for example, disseminating principles of good layout design and adopting flexible planning The attempts of informal land subdividers, standards developers and community leaders to foster orderly layouts, register land transfers, develop guarantees of tenure security and On the issue of tenure registration, the procedures service land should be encouraged through which individuals who acquire unregistered land from customary or other private sources in Enugu officially register their plots have been described. It was observed that the quest for formal titles over land acquired from traditional sources has created an important interface between informal and formal land administration systems in Nigerian cities 28 E n Enugu g u

and that a lot of activities are occurring at this claimed that they pay such taxes to the local interface. Government should facilitate this process governments. Yet infrastructure, especially roads, is by ensuring that unnecessary bureaucratic demands in a dilapidated state and the services for which local on the part of the agencies involved are eliminated. government is responsible, such as solid waste collection, are not provided. Officials of the Ministry The practice whereby landowning communities in of Lands, Survey and Town Planning stated in an Enugu keep a register of alienated communal land interview that the development premium which should also be encouraged and strengthened. It allottees of plots in government land delivery would be possible to combine information from programmes have to pay is for provision of planning schemes prepared by indigenous infrastructure and services in the layouts concerned. landowning communities and approved by They admitted, however, that sometimes this fee is government with the community land registers and paid by allottees without any infrastructure being the record of tenure registration by individuals with provided. government agencies to build the detailed and up- to-date land registers or inventories so vital for It is clear that neither the state nor the local effective land management. Since only formal titles governments have taken their responsibility for are accepted as collateral by financial institutions, providing and maintaining infrastructure/services seriously. Although the present study revealed that enhanced tenure registration would increase the value local governments in Enugu do use purchasers’ and of both land and property, allow greater accessibility developers’ desire to build as a way of raising to credit, stimulate economic development and revenue through the development levy and property create dynamic financial and real estate markets. For tax, it was not possible to investigate how systematic example, Kagawa and Turkstra have highlighted the and fair these revenue generation activities are, advantages that the regularisation policy, involving whether they make a positive difference to the 30 land titling and registration, have brought to Peru . financial capacity of the local governments, or how the proceeds are used. In most countries, it is Initiatives by indigenous landowning inevitable that a large proportion of local government communities to keep registers of alienated financing will take the form of fiscal transfers from a land should be encouraged and strengthened higher level of government. Thus the design of the inter-governmental fiscal transfer system is critical. However, it is generally accepted that, to increase autonomy, local accountability and responsible The registration of land acquired from financial management, efforts to increase local customary or other private sources should be revenue generation are also desirable. Since, in facilitated practice, capital gains tax on land is hard to implement, it is better for local governments to focus on the stream of revenues which land can generate on an annual basis to improve services like provision/ Provision of infrastructure and maintenance of roads and drainage. In Nigeria, there services is also a need for improved transparency and accountability in the expenditure of funds, particularly Although it was not possible to obtain figures for at the local government level. It is hoped that the revenue generated from property taxes and proposed local government reforms will address this development levy from any of the local governments problem. in Enugu, respondents in detailed interviews all 29 E n Enugu g u

The study also showed that the utility providers are strangers without adequate attention being given to generally willing to provide connections to those who the needs of the present and future generations of can afford to pay, even if a property does not fully community/family members. It would therefore comply with all the legal and regulatory requirements. appear that suitably located land from customary Coverage, cost in relation to household income and sources will increasingly become more scarce, quality of service were not investigated systematically expensive and difficult to come by in the not too in this study. There is considerable international distant future. What this implies is that government evidence that urban people are usually willing to pay will have to assume a greater role in making suitably for services that are actually provided, provided that located land available for urban development, by access by the poorest is safeguarded. Further strategic investments in trunk infrastructure attention should be paid to the basis and incidence (especially roads) and key social facilities (such as of user charges (e.g. for water and electricity), with schools and markets). This view agrees with the a view to improving the coverage and quality of current thinking of both academic analysts and environmental health services. multilateral agencies. Durand-Lasserve and Clerc recommend an approach to urban planning based on “prevention and follow-up”. According to them, The proceeds of property tax and government’s role should be to provide a framework development levy should be used to fund for local area development. Subdivision and infrastructure installation and maintenance development at the local level can then be carried (mainly roads and drainage) and to provide out by private sector actors within the context of a environmental health services (especially minimum regulatory framework, and followed up, sanitation and solid waste collection), and in concert with public agencies, by gradual transparency and accountability in their use installation of basic infrastructure31. improved

Government should assume a greater role in making suitably located land available for Direct roles for public sector urban development by strategic investments organisations in land supply and in trunk infrastructure, so that local subdivision development and development can be carried out by private sector actors One fact that clearly emerged from both the focus group discussion with customary land rights owners and the in-depth interviews that followed is the increasing reluctance and sometimes inability of The regulatory framework for local landowning communities/families to sell suitably development should permit the initial located land to strangers as such land becomes installation of basic infrastructure and increasingly depleted, due to the need to allocate encourage its gradual upgrading land to a rapidly growing population of family/ community members. In separate discussions, both youths and women living in indigenous landowning communities clearly voiced their objection to the continuing alienation of their communal land to 30 E n Enugu g u

It should be pointed out that the 1978 Enugu master transportation costs or absence of opportunities for plan (which is still officially in use) envisaged a income yielding activities, due to the land’s remote “greater Enugu” which incorporates most of the location. surrounding communities not cut off by physical constraints. Thus, proposals exist in the masterplan for the extension of infrastructure to these peripheral To improve access to land by relatively poor areas. Although there may be need for some non-indigenous urban households, the modifications to reflect new realities, the 1978 master government should provide a significant plan provides a framework for implementing the role volume of suitably located low-cost serviced advocated for government in steering future land for sale to individuals or small-scale development by investing in major infrastructure. The developers demand for land already exists in these surrounding communities (even where infrastructure does not exist as yet) and the indigenous communities are As there is no stock of publicly owned land in Enugu, subdividing and selling communal/family farmland government would have to acquire land for this (although not homestead areas). The extension of purpose from private owners. Mainly local urban infrastructure to these areas would only communities in and around the city, these are likely, enhance the process. as noted above, to be resistant to compulsory acquisition using the powers of the Land Use Decree. Compulsory acquisition should, therefore, The 1978 master plan provides a framework be limited in favour of a negotiated approach. If, for future urban development, but should be however, compulsory acquisition is necessary for reviewed and modified where necessary to the purpose of obtaining appropriately located and reflect new realities affordable land, the procedures adopted must be clear, transparent and fair. The legitimate concerns of owners, based on their previous experience, The research demonstrated that, with the exception should be addressed and the reasons for the of members of indigenous communities that still have unpopularity of such acquisition addressed at the land on the urban periphery, low-income households necessary policy, legislative and practical levels33. are unable to obtain access to land in Enugu because This recommendation is based on the sites-and- they cannot afford to buy it. While, as noted above, services principle. It is recognised, however, that there may be scope for reviewing planning standards for a sites-and-services scheme to succeed, other to enable more affordable subdivision and issues need to be considered. These include construction, there is still a potential role for the determining what levels of subsidy are appropriate government in supplying land for housing. In an to ensure affordability, cost recovery and earlier paper, the author recommended a programme replicability; designing cost recovery strategies; and of rapid land servicing and sale by the public sector addressing political and managerial considerations, either to individual households or to small-scale including the location of decision-making authority developers32. Government should ensure that and ensuring capacity to deliver. locational decisions on land for housing the urban poor are related to the overall pattern of urban development. An offer of land at a low price is of no benefit to the poor if it is offset by increased 31 Conclusion

Much urban land policy has been based on an landowning communities and families through more assumption either that land should be nationalised or less formal processes of subdivision and sale. and plots for urban uses delivered through an Although there are shortcomings in this process, some administrative process or that a market in privately of the indigenous communities have begun to owned land is the way to achieve a match between develop practices that can overcome the problems. supply and demand. The experience of Nigeria and In addition, an intricate set of relationships between many other countries shows that neither succeeds government structures, formal land institutions and in delivering a supply of housing land in appropriate indigenous landowning groups has evolved. Instead locations and at appropriate prices to satisfy the of condemning the main existing processes of land requirements of sustainable urban development and delivery as illegal, deficient and unsuitable for modern the needs of all groups in the urban population. urban development, they should be reviewed, Another common feature of urban land policy has encouraged where possible, and their weaknesses been to condemn informal subdivision and transfer addressed through mutual adaptation on the part of of land as illegal and undesirable. In practice, the the government and private landowners. This public sector has failed to directly supply sufficient research has begun to address the relevant issues land for housing; operate effective tenure registration, by developing a better understanding of the roles development and building regulation systems; or and practices of all the actors and institutions extend infrastructure to many areas of active urban involved. development. The result is that perhaps three- The formulation of appropriate policies at national quarters of the urban population depends on land and state levels, drafting of legislative reform, delivery systems that do not comply in one or more modifications to local practice and development of respects with the tenure registration and regulatory the necessary capacities to implement desirable systems and lives in settlements that are poorly changes must be collaborative processes that build planned and under-provided with infrastructure and on this knowledge. services. Should the solution, however, be universal formalisation of freehold or leasehold title and Finally, policies and practices related to land delivery continued attempts to enforce existing regulatory for urban development should be linked to other requirements over new development? areas of government responsibility, including poverty reduction and gender equality strategies, the This research argues that, in the light of the inherent arrangements for financing local government, and practical limitations on public sector capacity programmes of infrastructure installation and service to do so, a different approach is needed. It has delivery, and housing policy. shown how, in Enugu, most of the land for urban residential development is delivered by indigenous

32 Appendix

Methodological approach and Quantitative (household sample) surveys data collection Part of the research hypothesis, as stated previously, was that the dynamics and effectiveness of the The research instruments employed for data institutions governing transactions in land have collection in this study included secondary (documentary) data search and quantitative and a. changed over time, with changing political and qualitative surveys. These were employed in order economic contexts, governance arrangements to build a complete picture by using information from and legal frameworks, and different sources for the purpose of triangulation. b. vary between residential settlements according The sequence of the instruments was in the order to their stage of development. they are listed above, i.e. the research commenced with a documentary data search, followed by A historical perspective was therefore necessary, in quantitative (household sample) surveys, and then order to capture and fully appreciate the processes qualitative research. This sequence was the most at work. Hence, three settlement types were selected logical, since the documentary search illuminated the for study: consolidated, intermediate and incipient context in which the quantitative and qualitative peripheral settlements. Ogui Nike was selected surveys were carried out, while some of the potential because it represents an old, fully consolidated, fully respondents for the qualitative interviews were built-up settlement in the traditional inner core of identified during the quantitative surveys. Enugu. Emene was chosen because it represents an outlying settlement on the urban periphery where A search for secondary and documentary data was active conversion of agricultural land to urban uses carried out in order to is occurring. Achara represents a consolidating a) understand contextual factors settlement that, in terms of the various processes at b) review previous research on land and informal work, is intermediate between the first two. settlements in the city A common questionnaire was designed for use by c) identify key policy and legal documents, and the six participating teams, in order to facilitate d) assess the availability of data from government comparative analysis. Allowance was made, sources however, for each local team to make a few amendments to reflect their local situation. The final Documentary data came from various sources, version of the questionnaire was then translated into including various ministries and local governments the , the local vernacular. in Enugu and elsewhere; libraries and archives; the customary, magistrate’s and high courts; the Institute At a methodology workshop held in Maseru in July of Development Studies, University of Nigeria Enugu 2002, it was agreed that a uniform sample of 100 Campus; the Federal Office of Statistics (FOS); and respondents per settlement type be adopted by all the National Population and Planning Commissions. the participating teams. Questionnaire administration was concluded in November 2002. The response rate (in terms of the number of questionnaires that were correctly filled out) was as follows: Ogui Nike 92 percent, Achara 89 percent and Emene 89 percent, yielding 270 complete questionnaires. The questionnaires that were left out of the analysis were

33 E n Enugu g u

mostly cases of non-contacts. A relatively large Qualitative surveys number of the plots initially selected in the three case The qualitative components of the research adopted study settlements had absentee owners: 24 in Ogui three different perspectives: sociological/ Nike (2 of whom could not be contacted after anthropological, legal and physical planning several attempts), 42 in Achara (9 of whom could perspectives. A wide range of semi-structured not be contacted) and 27 in Emene (5 of whom interviews were conducted with professionals, could not be contacted). In addition, there were a government officials, formal and informal land agents/ few refusals (6 in Ogui Nike, 2 in Achara and 4 in brokers, the traditional ruler of Ogui Nike, a Emene) and two cases in Emene where the Customary Court President and two representatives respondents refused to supply basic household data, of residents’ associations in Ogui Nike. In addition, citing cultural inhibitions on listing of one’s household in-depth follow-up interviews with a number of members (particularly children). respondents identified during questionnaire The lack of up-to-date maps of the settlements administration were used to develop a better necessitated pragmatic approaches to sampling. In understanding of their experiences, motivation, Ogui Nike, 50 metre square grids were decision-making and views on land development superimposed on a map of the settlement, from processes. They included two women landowners, which twenty were randomly selected. As far as two members of landowning families who had sold possible, all the plots/buildings in each square (an land in the past and two members of households average of five) were included. In Emene, a random who had inherited property acquired in the past. sample was selected from a rough census of all the Finally, focus group discussions were held with four buildings/plots in the residential part of the area. In groups: customary land rights owners, land the southernmost part of Achara, where new informal purchasers in Emene, women living in indigenous subdivision and development is occurring, owners communities in Emene and young male members of of all the completed and occupied buildings were a landowning community in Emene. Analysis of included and owners of uncompleted buildings and qualitative survey data was done progressively, as vacant plots traced to make up the sample size what was learnt from one group influenced the desired. The data was analysed using SPSS (version questions put to subsequent groups. 10).

34 Footnotes

1 For the purpose of this study, ‘institutions’ are C. (1988), “Urban land concentration”, in defined as “rules, enforcement characteristics of Downs, R. E. and S. P. Reyna (eds) Land and rules and norms of behaviour that structure Society in Contemporary Africa, Hanover, NH: repeated human interaction”, North, D.C. (1989) University of New England Press, pp.76-90; “Institutions and economic growth: an historical Olaore, O. G. (1988), “Land development introduction”, World Development, 17(9), practices in Nigeria, 1830-1980: a study of pp.1319-1332. ”, Urban Law and Policy, 9(3), 2 Rayner, C. J. (1898) Report on Land Tenure in pp.201-217; Udo, R.K. (1990) Land Use Policy West Africa, London: Colonial Office; Elias, T.O. and Land Ownership in Nigeria, Lagos: (1956) The Nature of African Customary Law, Ebieakwu Ventures; Okolocha, C. F. (1993) “The Manchester: Manchester University Press; Kio, evolution of a land policy”, in Taylor, R.W. (ed) Urban Development in Nigeria, Aldershot: P.R.O. (1971)”Shifting cultivation and multiple use Avebury, pp.189-195. of forest land”, Nigerian Opinion, 7, pp.9-12; 9 Njoku, O. N. (2001) Economic History of Hopkins, A.G. (1973) An Economic in the 19th and 20th centuries, Enugu: West Africa, London: Longmans; Magnet Business Enterprises, p. 171. Onwuamaegbu, O. (1975) “Nigerian indigenous 10 Isichei, E. (1976) A History of the , land law”, in Elias, T. O. et al (eds) African London: Longmans, p.203. Indigenous Laws, Lagos: Government Printers, 11 Nnamani, C. (2002) “By the hills and valleys of pp.340-362. Udi and Nsukka: the people, their heritage, their 3 Rakodi, C. (1997) “Residential property markets future”, Tell Newsmagazine, No.50, December in African cities”, in Rakodi, C. (ed) The Urban 16, pp.64-69. Challenge in Africa: Growth and 12 Okin, T. A. (1968) The Urbanised Nigerian, Management of its Large Cities, Tokyo: United New York: Kaufmann. Nations University Press, pp.371-410. 13 Enechukwu, A. (1993) History of Nkanu, Enugu: 4 Nwaka, G. I. (1979) “The Nigerian Land Use Kaufhof Publishers, p.10; Nnamani, 2002, op cit, Decree: antecedents and prospects”, Third World p. 66. Planning Review, 1(2), pp.193-204. 14 Dike, A. A. ( 1983) “Land tenure system in 5 Mabogunje, A. L. (1992) Perspectives on Igboland”, Anthropos, 78, pp.853-871. Urban Land and Urban Land Management 15 US$1 = Naira 130 in December, 2002. Policies in Sub-Saharan Africa, Washington 16 Federal Office of Statistics (FOS) (1999) DC: World Bank, World Bank Technical Paper Poverty Profile for Nigeria, 1980-1996, Lagos: No. 196. FOS, p. 26; Institute for Development Studies 6 Mabogunje,1992, ibid. (IDS)(1998) Enugu State Poverty Report, 7 Onibokun, A. G. et al (1995) “Urban land 1998, Enugu: University of Nigeria Enugu management, regularization policies and local Campus, IDS, p. 5-2. development in Nigeria”, Abidjan: Paper 17 IDS, 1998, ibid. presented at Seminar on Urban Land 18 Ayoola, G.B. et al (2000) Nigeria: Voices of the Management, Regularization Policies and Local Poor – Country Synthesis Report, Washington Development in Africa and the Arab States, DC: World Bank, Report prepared for the World March. Development Report 2000/1. 19 8 See, for example, Okpala, D.C.I. (1982) “The Illiffe, J. (1983) The Emergence of African Nigerian Land Use Decree re-visited”, Habitat Capitalism, Minneapolis: University of International, 6(5/6), pp.573-584; Dickerman, Minneapolis Press, p.35. 35 E n Enugu g u

20 Ayoola et al (2000) op.cit, p. 2. 30 Kagawa, A. and J. Turkstra (2002) “The process 21 Layouts are prepared and approved by the of urban land tenure formalisation in Peru”, in Ministry’s Town Planning Division for publicly Payne, G. (ed) Land, Rights and Innovation: owned land and by the relevant Local Improving Tenure Security for the Urban Poor, Government authority for other land. London: ITDG Publishing, pp. 57-75. 22 Government of Anambra State of Nigeria (1978) 31 Durand-Lasserve, A. with Clerc, V. (1996) A Comprehensive Physical Development Plan for Regularisation and Integration of Irregular Enugu (or Enugu Master Plan), Enugu: Settlements: Lessons from Experience, Government Press. Nairobi: UNCHS, World Bank and UNDP, 23 United Nations (1997) Urban Land Policies for Urban Management Programme Working Paper the Uninitiated, New York: United Nations, 6. p.53. 32 Ikejiofor, 1996, op.cit., p.185. 24 Payne, G.K. (1997) Urban Land Tenure and 33 Farvacque, C. and P. McAuslan (1992) Property Rights in Developing Countries: A Reforming Urban Land Policies and Review, London: IT Publications, p.39. Institutions in Developing Countries, 25 Mabogunje, 1992, op.cit. Washington, D.C.: World Bank, UNCHS and 26 Durand-Lasserve, A. (1997) “ Regularizing land UNDP Urban Management Programme Policy markets”, Habitat Debate, 3(2), pp.11-12. Paper No. 5; Rakodi, C. (2002) “Interactions 27 Ikejiofor, U. (1996) “Land for housing and between formal and informal urban land development control issues in , Nigeria,” management: theoretical issues and practical Ekistics, 376/377/378, pp. 143-151. options”, in Kreibich, V. and W.H.A. Olima (eds) 28 Payne, 1997, op.cit., p.43. Urban Land Management in Africa, Dortmund: 29 Kombe, W.J. and V. Kreibich (2002) “Informal University of Dortmund, Faculty of Spatial land management in Tanzania and misconception Planning, Spring Research Series No. 40, pp. 11- about its illegality”, in Kreibich, V. and W.H.A. 33. Olima (eds) Urban Land Management in Africa, Dortmund: University of Dortmund, Faculty of Spatial Planning, Spring Research Series No. 40, pp.284-298.

36 Publications

Informal Land Delivery Processes in African Cities

Working papers 1. Rakodi, C. and Leduka, C. (2003) Informal Land Delivery Processes and Access to Land for the Poor in Six African Cities: Towards a Conceptual Framework. 2. Ikejiofor, C.U. (2004) Informal Land Delivery Processes and Access to Land for the Poor in Enugu, Nigeria 3. Kalabamu, F.T. and Morolong, S. (2004) Informal Land Delivery Processes and Access to Land for the Poor in Greater Gaborone, Botswana 4. Musyoka, R. (2004) Informal Land Delivery Processes and Access to Land for the Poor in Eldoret, Kenya 5. Leduka, R.C. (2004) Informal Land Delivery Processes and Access to Land for the Poor in Maseru, Lesotho 6. Nkurunziza, E. (2004) Informal Land Delivery Processes and Access to Land for the Poor in Kampala, Uganda 7. Mulenga, L.C. and Rakodi, C. (2004) Informal Land Delivery Processes and Access to Land for the Poor in Lusaka, Zambia

Policy briefs 1. Ikejiofor, C.U. (2004) Informal Land Delivery in Enugu, Nigeria: Summary of Findings and Policy Implications 2. Kalabamu, F.T. (2004) Land Delivery Processes in Greater Gaborone, Botswana: Constraints, Opportunities and Policy Implications 3. Musyoka, R. (2004) Informal Land Delivery in Eldoret, Kenya: Summary of Findings and Policy Implications 4. Leduka, R.C. (2004) Informal Land Delivery Processes and Access to Land for the Poor in Maseru, Lesotho 5. Nkurunziza, E. (2004) Informal Land Delivery Processes in Kampala, Uganda: Summary of Findings and Policy Implications 6. Rakodi, C. and Leduka, R.C. (2004) Informal Land Delivery Processes and Access to Land for the Poor: A Comparative Study of Six African Cities

Publications can be obtained by either telephoning Carol Fowler on 44 (0) 121 414 4986 or Email: [email protected] and also downloaded as a PDF file from http:// www.idd.bham.ac.uk/research/researchprojs.htm

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