Critical Issues in Nigerian Property Law

Description

ABSTRACT

Book Review – Critical Issues in Nigerian Property Law

Tony Odiadi*

Title: Critical Issues in Nigerian Property Law
Dedication: Late Professor Jelili Omotola, SAN (10th Anniversary Remembrance)
Editor: Professor Amos Agbe Utuama, SAN
Publishers: Malthouse Press Limited
Pages: 254
Price: Not Stated

Property law has a noted complexity and diversity as a subject matter. It is the area of law that evolved and seeks, in most jurisdictions, to regulate man’s impulses, from the dawn of civilization, to acquire, retain and manage the control of his possessions in society.₁ Land, and everything upon it, remains the recognised possession on which man’s existence and survival unarguably depends. Whether it is by an individual as in a sovereign owning everything in the realm, or by a feudal class owning same, ownership of land and the idea of property rights, immediately confers and defines what interests exist, which powers can be exercised, the nature of relationship that can be created with others in connection thereto and to what uses these can be subjected or enjoyed by the owner to the exclusion of others.

The book titled ‘Critical Issues in Nigerian Property Law’ is a new addition and a critical contribution to the body of literature on the subject matter in Nigeria and elsewhere in the world where land management and reform still carries some challenges. The book is a compendium of the variegated interrogation of aspects of property law in Nigeria and in this context, real property, relevant to practitioners and scholars in the field of knowledge. The book takes on extant issues on the subject, foregrounded mainly on the Nigerian law, the Land Use Act, a piece of legislation which continues to generate so much scholarly interests. The book covers subjects like the challenge of shelter as a right of citizens, consent to transactions by the governor, compensation for compulsorily acquired land, constitutionality of the Act, Certificate of Occupancy, wealth from land as a tradable resource and climate change and environmental security. All of these are examined as the focus of the subject matter analysis and commentary.

In Nigeria, key laws and legislations governing property law and practice are to be found in the 1999 Constitution – Sections 43- rights to own property; 44(1)- prohibits seizure of property without legal authority and provides for compensation; 44(2)(c)(d)- power of compulsory acquisition does not affect other cadres of legal interest like leases, mortgages, etc; 315(5)(d) recognition of the Land Use Act 1978, the ultimate law relating to land; Customary laws as recognized dealing with property; Received English Laws such as Statute of Frauds 1677- that requires several categories of transactions to be in writing to be valid, to avoid fraud; Wills Act 1837 (reenacted by several states)- right of every adult to dispose of their real or personal property inter vivos, reenacted by several states; Conveyancing Act 1881- regulating the practice of vesting interests in property, etc.

* LLM, BL, MCIArb (UK). Visiting Scholar, Georgetown University Law Center, Washington DC

1. Property as a term has several applications- legal rights, personal rights as against proprietary rights and so the law of property ”is the law of proprietary rights in rem, the law of proprietary rights in personam being distinguished from it as the law of obligations. According to this usage, a freehold or a leasehold in land, or a patent or copyright is property, but a debt or the benefit of a contract is not”. See Salmond, John ‘Jurisprudence 423-424 (Glanville Williams Ed 10th 1947) in Black’s Law Dictionary 9th Ed 2009); See also Johnstone Q, ‘Major Issues in Real Property Law’ (1990) 1 Missouri Law Rev ”Real property rights and duties pertain to land use, development, ownership, and security for credit extension. The law of real property is concerned not only with individual land parcels in isolation but with relationships of parcels to one another, frequently networks of parcels over a wide area. So conceived, the law of real property is crucial to how society allocates and controls much of the physical world around us”