Informal Land DeliveryProcesses in Enugu, Nigeria

Summary of Findings andPolicy Implications

Cosmas Uche Ikejioforwith input from K.C.Nwogu and C.O.Nwanunobi

International Development DepartmentSchool of Public PolicyThe University of BirminghamEngland

Federal Ministry Ministry of Works and HousingGusauZamfara StateNigeria

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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

Contents

International Development DepartmentSchool of Public Policy, J G Smith Building,

The University of Birmingham,, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK

Website: www.idd.bham.ac.uk

PrefaceWhy research informal land deliveryprocesses?

The colonial powers in Africa introduced urban landadministration systems that were modelled on thesystems of their home countries. The extent to whichindigenous tenure systems were understood,recognised and incorporated varied from colony tocolony, but it was generally believed that only aformal system based on a European model couldprovide a framework for urban development andprotect the rights of urban property owners (who atthat time were expatriates). These landadministration systems, which were inherited atindependence, are governed by formal rules set outin legislation and administrative procedures.However, the legislative provisions and theadministrative systems that were established toimplement them proved quite unable to cope withthe rapid urban growth that occurred afterindependence.

The state-led approaches to development favouredin the 1960s and 1970s were associated with large-scale public intervention in urban land deliverysystems. However, the cost of implementation andcompliance has been too high for low-incomecountries, cities and inhabitants. At their extreme,land and property markets were perceived asineffective or exploitative. These views weretranslated into attempts to de-marketise land bynationalisation and/or government control over landmarket transactions. Whether or not the conceptson which such land policies were based were sound,limited capacity at national and municipal levelsensured their failure. Administered land supply hasvery rarely met demand and attempts to regulateand register all transactions in land and property havebeen universally unsuccessful. As a result, most landfor urban development has been supplied throughalternative channels.

In the early years of rapid rural-urban migrationmany households, including poor households, were

able to get access to land to manage the constructionof their own houses for little or no payment, through‘squatting’ or similar arrangements. Followingresearch in the 1960s and 1970s, there was a feelingthat the processes of ‘squatting’ and the allocationof customary land by legitimate rights holders werefairly well understood. Upgrading projects of the1970s were designed and implemented on this basis.

Most countries have now reversed some of the mostextreme versions of state intervention, but othercomponents remain despite serious implementationfailures. There is considerable doubt about whetherrecent attempts to improve land management willbe any more successful than previous approaches.In part, pessimism about the prospects for efficientand equitable urban land management arises fromthe continued lack of resources and capacity ingovernment, but it also stems from doubts aboutthe appropriateness of the principles and conceptson which recent urban land policies have been based.

Much research on land and property in Africantowns and cities assumes that the state has both theduty and the capacity to take on a majorinterventionist role in land management. Itconcentrates on documenting and explaining thefailures (and more rarely successes) of stateinterventions. Despite their significant role inproviding land for urban development, there hasbeen relatively little recent in-depth research onprocesses of informal land delivery or the institutions(rules and norms of behaviour) that enable them tooperate and that govern the relationships betweenthe actors involved. To improve policy and practice,a better understanding is needed of how formal andinformal systems operate, interact and are evolving.

Aims of the research

The aim of the project was to improve understandingof informal land delivery processes in six Africancities and their relationships with formal landadministrative systems. It analysed the

Informal land delivery processes in African cities

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characteristics of informal land markets and deliverysystems

to increase understanding of the institutions thatunderpin and regulate transactions and disputesin landto assess the strengths and weaknesses ofalternative land delivery mechanisms, especiallywith respect to the extent to which they enablethe poor and other vulnerable groups (especiallywomen) to access land with secure tenure, andto identify and explore implications for policy.

The comparative research project

Coordinated by Carole Rakodi of the University ofBirmingham and Clement Leduka of the NationalUniversity of Lesotho, studies were undertaken insix medium-sized cities in Anglophone Africa, in allof which informal land delivery systems areimportant, but which also typify different colonialand post-colonial policies, legal frameworks,governance arrangements and experiences. Thecities and the local researchers were:

The aims of the project and the methodologicalapproach were jointly developed by the researchers.Findings and policy issues were discussed atworkshops in each of the cities, to obtain feedbackfrom relevant stakeholders and make a contributionto current debates about land policy andadministration in each of the countries studied. Theresearch teams generally identified some of the policyimplications of their findings rather than makingdetailed recommendations, because the researchersall believe that policy formulation and legislativechange should be negotiated processes involving allthe stakeholders in land management.

The research was funded by the UK Departmentfor International Development. DFID supportspolicies, programmes and projects to promoteinternational development. It provided funds for thisstudy as part of that objective but the views andopinions expressed are those of the authors alone.

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 SiamsangMorolong, 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

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The project in Enugu

Nigeria was included in the study as an example ofa west African country, in particular one in whichthe British colonial administration had adopted asystem of indirect rule. Although it had attemptedfar-reaching land reforms in the late 1970s, thesehave only been partially implemented and formalrequirements related to tenure and developmentpermission are widely evaded. Customary tenurecontinues to have an important role, although thecharacteristics of traditional authority structures andcustomary tenure systems differ between the northand south of the country, and conflicts betweenformal and customary tenure systems continue.Currently, the 1978 Land Use Decree and urbandevelopment policies are under review. Enugu wasselected for study as a typical older and fastergrowing urban centre in the south of the country.

The research was carried out by Dr Cosmas U.Ikejiofor, with inputs from Mr. K.C. Nwogu of theFaculty of Law, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awkaand Dr C.O. Nwanunobi, Department of Sociologyand Anthropology, University of Nigeria, Nsukka.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

discussions) are warmly acknowledged. E. Abonyi,W. Okonkwo, I. Obi and A. Chukwu carried outmany of the interviews. Finally, immense thanks toour numerous respondents and the participants inthe policy workshop held at the Zodiac Hotel inEnugu on 6th February, 2004.

Following the workshop, a full report of the studywas published: Ikejiofor, C.U. with input from K.C.Nwogu and C.O. Nwanunobi (2004) InformalLand Delivery Processes and Access to Land forthe Poor in Enugu, Nigeria, Birmingham: Universityof Birmingham, School of Public Policy, InformalLand Delivery Processes in African Cities WorkingPaper 2 (ISBN No. 0 7044 2243 3, see alsow w w . i d d . b h a m . a c . u k / r e s e a r c h /researchprojs.htm

For further information contact Dr C. U. Ikejiofor,Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, P.M.B.1005, Gusau, Zamfara State, Nigeria, Tel. 234 (0)63 204983, E-mail ikejioforcu@yahoo.com

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There has been little in-depth research on informalurban land delivery processes in Nigerian citiesdespite the inefficiency of formal systems andmounting evidence of the importance of secureaccess to land and housing to the livelihood strategiesof poor urban households. The aim of this research,therefore, was to improve understanding of informalurban land delivery processes and whether theyprovide access to land for the poor in Enugu,Nigeria. Specifically, the objectives of the researchwere

a) to analyse the magnitude and characteristics ofinformal land markets and delivery systems;

b) to enhance understanding of the nature anddynamics of the institutions1 that underpin andregulate urban land markets, especially thoseoperating in informal land delivery systems;

c) to assess the strengths and weaknesses of thealternative land delivery mechanisms, especiallywith respect to the extent to which they enablethe poor and other vulnerable groups, especiallywomen, to access land with secure tenure; and

d) to identify and explore the implications for policy,with respect to provision of secure and affordabletenure, accommodating population growth,securing appropriate land use patterns andinstituting suitable governance arrangements.

The study focused on contemporary land deliveryprocesses in Enugu through an in-depth study ofthree case study settlements. However, these havebeen influenced by the wider context in which theyhave evolved, including changing land tenuresystems, governance and administrationarrangements, the legislative framework and theeconomic history of the urban centre itself. In thenext section, this background is presented. Firstrelevant aspects of land tenure and administration inthe colonial era are described, followed by a reviewof post-independence changes in tenure, policy andlaw relating to land. The historical development of

Enugu itself is then outlined. The main findings ofthis research, describing the channels of land deliveryand assessing the characteristics of those who areable to gain access to land through them, arepresented on pages 10-19. In the fourth section,the strengths and weaknesses of the institutions andrules that regulate land transactions and providemechanisms to resolve disputes are reviewed. Finally,some policy implications are identified andsummarised in the box opposite. Details of themethodological approach and data collectionemployed in the study are presented in the appendix.

Introduction

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Ogui, Nike

Policy implications

Forms of tenure

The forms of tenure available to land holders should provide clear and certain rights of ownershipand reliable procedures for transfersLand buyers should adapt their investment in property and expectations of returns on their capital tothe length of leases sellers are prepared to offerMeasures are needed to ensure that relatively poor urban households can obtain access to land,through arrangements such as shared ownershipPublic-private joint ventures should be encouraged as a way of reconciling customary tenure systemswith the needs of contemporary urban developmentAn improved land inventory or registration system is vital to provide a record of ownership ofproperty and rights in land

Processes of subdivision and tenure registration

The attempts of informal land subdividers, developers and community leaders to foster orderlylayouts, register land transfers, develop guarantees of tenure security and service land should beencouragedInitiatives by local communities to plan and subdivide land should be supported by, for example,disseminating principles of good layout design and adopting flexible planning standardsThe registration of land acquired from customary or other private sources should be facilitatedInitiatives by indigenous landowning communities to keep registers of alienated land should beencouraged and strengthened

Provision of infrastructure and services

The proceeds of property tax and development levy should be used to fund infrastructure installationand maintenance (mainly roads and drainage) and to provide environmental health services (especiallysanitation 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 urbandevelopment by strategic investments in trunk infrastructure, so that local subdivision and developmentcan be carried out by private sector actorsThe 1978 master plan provides a framework for future urban development, but should be reviewedand modified where necessary to reflect new realitiesThe regulatory framework for local development should permit the initial installation of basicinfrastructure and encourage its gradual upgradingTo improve access to land by relatively poor non-indigenous urban households, the governmentshould provide a significant volume of suitably located low-cost serviced land for sale to individualsor small-scale developers

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Land in the pre-colonial andcolonial eras – tenure andadministration

Traditionally, Nigeria did not have a uniform systemof land tenure. The heterogeneity of its populationwas reflected in the many forms of land administrationthat existed. The local political structure determinedto a large extent the ways of obtaining and holdingland. In the northern parts of the country an Emiratesystem operated, with a hierarchical power structure.In these areas, all land rights resided in the highestauthority who (or whose representative) could giveout parcels following some cultural rules. In mostparts of southern Nigeria, however, the tenure systemadopted a general form, the dominant characteristicof which is that land belongs to the group orcommunity (tribe, village, clan, kindred, lineage,family) and not the individual. The head of the groupor community held the land in trust and administeredit on behalf of its ancestors, its currently livingmembers, and its members yet to be born2. In thefew urban centres that existed prior to colonialism,the customary system provided

access to urban land for group members of widelyvarying economic statusa means of administering the allocation andoccupation of land, anda deterrent to the entry of land into the openmarket3.

The impact of colonialism on settlement patterns andprocesses of urban development varied with theidentity and purposes of the colonizing power andthe nature of the political economy on which externalrule was imposed. Unlike the situation in many ofthe British colonial territories elsewhere in Africa,the British did not wish to stay for long in Nigeria.The colonialists learned early that the indigenouspeoples could produce the raw materials neededby the Empire at a cheaper cost than couldforeigners. This, together with strong existing states

in much of coastal West Africa, gave rise to the Britishpolicy of ‘indirect rule’ articulated in the principle ofthe ‘dual mandate’: to develop the agriculturalresources of Nigeria through the agency of itsinhabitants.

Thus much of West Africa, including Nigeria, wasspared the massive alienation of land that the Britishembarked upon elsewhere in Africa. Instead, landpolicies were designed to reflect local realities, andto take into account the constraints imposed byinadequate staff and funds, as well as the size anddiversity of the country4. A cardinal principle ofindirect rule was minimal interference with traditionalinstitutions. Thus, the colonialists did not embark onany major transformation related to land. In southernNigeria, the system of communal ownership of landwas allowed to continue because it enabled thecolonial administration to increase the power of local(paramount) chiefs through whom they could ruleindirectly5.

Post–independence changes intenure, land policy and legislation

National independence in 1960 did not bring aboutany fundamental changes in urban policy andplanning. At independence, Nigeria inherited a dualsystem of land supply in which European notions oftenure, systems of land administration, and policiesthat embodied colonial aims and social relationscoexisted uneasily with indigenous tenure and landadministration that reflected the social and politicalrelations of tribal society. Both systems had beendynamic. For instance, the structure of tribal societyhad changed under colonialism, with effects on bothadministrative systems and approaches to urbanland. In particular, family interests in land had alreadybecome more dominant. In much of southern Nigeriatoday, not only are group claims to land beingsupplanted by family rights, but within families, anindividualisation of rights is occurring. Long termvesting of land in families has both reduced the

Background

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control of chiefs and given rise to a tenure form that,according to Mabogunje, is more accuratelydescribed as ‘customary freehold’ than use rightsor usufruct6.

Land transfers have normally occurred throughallocation by the head of a land-owning family orcommunity. The transfer may be in the form of asale, lease, gift (to a friend or benefactor of a familyor community) or pledge (in return for some kind ofassistance to the family/community). However, saleof land has recently become the major method ofland transfer, especially in urban areas. When anindividual thus acquires land, he or she has a sort of‘allodial’ title equivalent to the English freehold,implying ownership in perpetuity7.

As countries became independent and rural-urbanmigration resulted in rapid urban growth, theanomalies in the indigenous land tenure systembecame more apparent. Urban land reforms inNigeria have been aimed primarily at addressing thedysfunctional aspects of the customary land tenuresystem. Some of the laws that have been enactedfor this purpose include the Requisition and otherPowers Decree of 1967; the State Lands(Compensation) Decree of 1968; the Public Lands(Miscellaneous Provisions) Decree of 1976; and theLand Use Decree of 1978, which is the landlegislation operating in Nigeria at present.

The 1978 Land Use Decree was by far the mostsignificant and far-reaching attempt to provide forsecure title and socialising the holding and use ofland in Nigeria. The objectives of the decree andthe level of success it has achieved are welldocumented. The first step taken by the decree wasthe conversion of old forms of estate into rights ofoccupancy. Where a right of occupancy exists, acertificate of occupancy is to be issued by theappropriate authority: the State Governor where theland is urban and the local government chairmanwhere it is rural8.

The changing role of Enugu in thenational space economy

Enugu, which literally means hilltop, derives its namefrom its position among the Udi hills at an altitude ofabout 223 metres above mean sea level. It is animportant administrative, industrial and commercialcentre in the eastern part of southern Nigeria. It hasserved, at various times, as the headquarters of theCentral, and later, Southern Provinces (1929) andEastern Provinces (1939), and capital of the EasternRegion (1951), the East Central State (1967),Anambra State (1976) and Enugu State (1991). Itshould also be mentioned that in 1967, a series ofpolitical crises led to the secession of the EasternRegion from the rest of Nigeria and declaration ofthe independent state of Biafra, with Enugu as itscapital. Civil war broke out and lasted for nearlythree years, at the end of which Biafran resistancewas crushed and Nigeria remained one. Enugu hastherefore been a major administrative centre sincecolonial times. The area administered from the cityhas, however, continued to suffer territorial loss overthe years as a result of the creation of nine states outof the former Eastern Region (Figure 1).

Figure 1: The location of Enugu in Nigeria

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The origin of Enugu dates back to the discovery ofa rich seam of coal in the area in 1909 by a geologicalexploration team led by a British mining engineer,Mr Kitson. According to Njoku, the colonialgovernment persuaded the people of Ngwo andOgui (the owners of the land where coal had beendiscovered) to freely and voluntarily cede ten squaremiles of their land to enable the administration toestablish a colliery and a railway station9. Isicheireports, however, that the colonial administrationpaid compensation of 200 pounds sterling for thisacquisition10. In 1914, another British miningEngineer arrived in Enugu with a group of labourersfrom Onitsha led by one Mr. Alfred Inoma, afterwhom the first miners’ settlement, Ugwu Alfred, wasnamed. In 1915, the first coal mine was opened atthe Udi Siding. In that year, the district prison,formerly at Udi, was moved to Enugu and theprisoners were set to work in the mine. Bereft ofmechanical devices, in its early days the industryrelied mostly on manual labour. Most of the workerswere recruited from the towns, villages and hamletssurrounding Enugu. Indeed, the muscles of the nativepeople provided the power as well as the paid labourfor the establishment and consolidation of colonialinfrastructure and industries11.

In 1917, the second coal mine, Iva mine, wasopened. In that year too, Enugu attained second-class township status under Lord Lugard’s TownshipOrdinance, with the name Enugu Ngwo. In 1928,Ngwo was dropped from the name to distinguishthe township from Ngwo village. As the coal mineattracted more workers, a second settlement forindigenous workers was established on the southernside of Ogbete stream. This formed the nucleus ofpresent day Coal Camp, otherwise known asOgbete (Figure 2). Each of the events associatedwith the development of the mines added to thegrowth of Enugu. For instance, the population ofminers grew rapidly and attracted other categoriesof migrants, such as service providers, to the city.Thus the commercial and administrative sectors

developed very fast. The importance of coal in thegrowth and development of Enugu earned for it theappellation ‘coal city’, which it has retained despitethe diminished importance of coal in its economy.

The discovery of coal at Enugu in 1909 and a deep-sea harbour at Port Harcourt in 1912 heightenedthe desirability of constructing an eastern railway tofacilitate transport of coal to the port for export toBritain. Construction work commenced on theEnugu-Port Harcourt railway in 1914. However, itwas not until 1916 that the first coal was transportedby rail to Port Harcourt. In 1923, the railwayauthorities began to build permanent quarters fortheir workers in Enugu at China Town. High calibremanpower was attracted to the town, as it becamethe operational headquarters of the RailwayCorporation in Eastern Nigeria. The importance ofthe railway in the growth of Enugu transcends itsrole as a means of transporting coal to the sea. Itbrought about unprecedented growth in manydirections. Growing employment opportunities inthe town attracted waves of migrants as job seekersand service providers.

Although the colliery and railways providedresidential quarters, these could only accommodatea small proportion of their employees. This, togetherwith the need to house increasing numbers of othermigrants, added to the demand for housing land inand around Enugu and the development of the earliestresidential settlements. The railways also stimulatedthe development of other transport tributaries andfeeder roads needed to bring passengers and waresto the railway station in Enugu. Thus Enugu waslinked by road to all the major population centres inEastern Nigeria. This enhanced its role as theeconomic, social and political headquarters of theregion.

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The national population census for 1991 (whichunfortunately is the most recent) showed that Enuguhad a total population of 465,000 (234,000 menand 231,000 women) in 28 residential settlements.It had grown two and a half fold between 1963 and1986 and at about 6 percent per annum between1986 and 1991 (see below). The population isconcentrated in areas near the city centre anddensities decrease towards the suburbs. In terms ofethnic composition, the population is overwhelmingly

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Figure 2: A sketch map of Enugu, 1968

Igbo. As in much of urban Nigeria, the city’s cultureis essentially hybrid in nature – a mixture ofindigenous and Western colonial socio-culturalpractices. This conforms with what Okin describesas urbanised Africans’ middle-of-the-road attitudein their search for a satisfactory new Africanenvironment – one that relates to the historicaldevelopment of the past and, at the same time, pointsto a new, modern future12.

Enugu’s population

1926 - 3,2001931 - 13,6001953 - 62,8001963 - 138,5001986 - 342,8001991 - 465,000

Sources: Department of Urban andRegional Planning (1987) 1986Housing Stock Survey, Enugu:University of Nigeria EnuguCampus; National PopulationCommission (1992) 1991 NationalPopulation Census, Lagos: NPC

Making land available for urban use

Suppliers, channels and alternativetenures

The major changes that have occurred in landdelivery processes and institutions in Nigeria can beidentified as those occasioned by urbanisation,amplified by the advent and passing of colonialism.The emergence of urban economic activities hasencouraged migration, during which people leavetheir ancestral homes (in which they are landowners)for urban centres in search of a better life. It wasurbanisation and the evolution of a market economythat first gave rise to commodification of land andindividualisation of titles. The advent of colonialism,while introducing public ownership into the existingpattern of land ownership, also encouragedurbanisation. Attempts by post-independencegovernments to retain all land in the public domainalso brought about significant changes, if not to landdelivery processes themselves, then to the lawsmeant to regulate such processes.

In Enugu, three categories of suppliers of land forconversion from rural to urban use can be identified.These are the customary authority figures (chiefs,clan heads, lineage heads, family heads, or theirrepresentatives), land subdividers (speculators) andthe government and its agencies. Customaryauthority figures and land subdividers are privateactors, while the government and its agencies arepublic actors. In the cities of developing countries,the informal and unplanned conversion of land isgenerally initiated by private actors (sometimes withgovernment actors as accomplices), while certaingovernment bodies represent the formal side of landsupply and spatial planning.

In Nigeria, the government and its agencies havecontinued to play a significant role in both the supplyand demand sides of the land market since colonialtimes. All three tiers of government (Federal, stateand local) are involved. In Enugu, the government

acquires land from customary and private sourcesfor public usesupplies land to private individuals and groupsfrom its poolestablishes rules regarding land use planning forurban residential and economic developmentprovides infrastructure and services to land, andenforces development control laws.

The first and more important of the two main sourcesof private land identified above (in terms of thenumber of plots supplied) are the indigenouslandowning communities and families, acting throughtheir representatives. The other source of privateland in Enugu is the subdividers, who are mostlynon-indigenous. This group acquires land fromcustomary sources, subdivides the land andsometimes develops some plots, while holding othersfor re-sale.

Some vendors of land in our study make outrightsales. This confers the right of freehold, in whichcase the buyer retains his or her right over the landfor an indeterminate period. The price is paid onceand for all. However freehold transactions weremore common in the past. Also, freehold was onlya recognised form of tenure under state law prior tothe enactment of the Land Use Decree in 1978.Interviews with estate agents (both formal andinformal) revealed that at least 90 percent of allprivate land transfers in Enugu are at present in theform of leaseholds. It was also revealed that theduration of the leasehold is getting shorter. Whilethe duration provided for in the Land Use Decree is99 years for state land, Nike people (who own upto 90 percent of all land in Enugu) now restrict manyof the leases to just 45 years.

The leasehold tenure arrangement was the biggestsource of complaint by participants in a groupdiscussion organised for land purchasers in Emene.According to these people, the cloud cast by theterminable duration of rights over leased land is acause of anxiety and uncertainty. On the other hand,

Enugu

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the customary land rights owners (who are eagerlywaiting to repossess their land on the expiry ofexisting leases) welcome the leasehold arrangement.This is because it makes it easier to reach consensuswithin indigenous communities on the alienation ofcommunal land, since leased out land is only alienatedfor a period and not for all time. It appears thatpurchasers do not consciously link their investmentin leased land to the period of the lease and fear thatthey will lose out when the land reverts to its owner.Because leasehold tenure has come to stay (havingbeen institutionalised by the Land Use Decree), landbuyers need to adapt their behaviour, particularlywith respect to the level of investment they makeand the returns they anticipate in relation to the leaseperiod.

The case study residentialsettlements

The study focussed on three case study settlements,all in the old Nkanu, which includes Nike andAwkunanaw, both of which are parts of westernNkanu cultural expression. While Achara is part ofAwkunanaw, ethnographically, Nike is made up of24 villages, among which are Ogui and Emene13.Many of the areas occupied by these groups havesince become parts of Enugu metropolis while othersare increasingly being incorporated as futureresidential and industrial areas. The name Nike isused to denote an extensive group of contiguouscommunities in the three local government areas thatmake up Enugu metropolis. The people dominateand are indigenous to these parts of the state.Depending on their location vis-à-vis the capital cityof Enugu, which constitutes the major growth centrein the area, there are minor variations regarding landdelivery processes among the Nike. In the main,however, these widespread groups share a commontradition with respect to land acquisition anddisposal.

The characteristics of the three settlements, includingprocesses and patterns of subdivision and the levelof infrastructure provision, are described in theboxes below.

Ogui Nike

Ogui Nike is in the Enugu North localgovernment area. It is what may be regardedas the traditional inner core of Enugumetropolis. Land in Ogui Nike falls into twocategories. The first is Ani uno, which meansthe area for the homesteads where people live.According to the Enugu Masterplan (1978),this settlement covered an area ofapproximately 25 hectares, with a populationin 1978 of 24,000 and a density of 1,075persons per hectare. The high density, lackof organised road network, substandardhousing (mostly in areas occupied by theindigenous people), run down infrastructureand general lack of planning in thisneighbourhood have earned for it theappellation “urban jungle” – a derogatory tagused by its residents as well as residents ofother neighbourhoods in Enugu. It is this partof Ogui Nike that was selected as a casestudy.

The second category of land in Ogui Nike isAni agu. As in other parts of Igboland, this is“the outer land where people farm but do nothave permanent residence”14. As Enuguexpanded, the Ani uno part of Ogui Nike wasrecognised as the home of the indigenouspeople, while Ani agu was used for severalextensive layouts surrounding the township ofEnugu, many of which have since beenincorporated within the urban boundary. OguiNike is made up of four communities:Amawusa, Amaigbo, Onu Asata andUmunevo. Traditionally, land in the area was

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owned communally by the various kindreds(lineages or groups of extended families) ofthe aboriginal Nike people who make up thesecommunities.

Our sample survey of owners in the Ani unopart of Ogui Nike showed that 57 percenthad acquired land and buildings throughinheritance from their late parents or spouses.This is understandable, since this part of Enuguhas been fully built up for decades and whathappens there now is mostly redevelopmentof plots rather than fresh development. Theonly recreational area in this settlement is thevillage square, which is used by the villagersfor cultural activities. This square alsoprovides an abode for the Ezebinagu (theindigenous community’s deity) in the form ofa shrine. This area has retained its unplannedcharacter. Access ways in most parts of thesettlement are poorly defined footpaths, somebarely two feet wide. Problems of access andinfrastructure have been aggravated by intensedensification. Because many of thelandowners now live elsewhere or are,according to their tenants, mainly interestedin the rents they collect, residents have formeda number of associations to deal with day-to-day problems, including security andservice delivery. However, interviews withtwo members of Residents’ Associationsrevealed that the associations are often unableto resolve cases concerning encroachmentson access ways or conflicts over dumping ofsolid waste, and instead have to refer them togovernment agencies. This finding suggeststhat the institutions that regulate the use of landcome under pressure during the process ofurban development and cannot resolveconflicts and cope with service delivery issuesin highly consolidated and densely settledareas.

There is electricity in most parts of theneighbourhood, provided by the NationalElectric Power Authority (NEPA). Plotowners are responsible for extendingelectricity to their plots from the national gridline provided by NEPA. Pipe-borne water,provided by the State Water Corporation, isalso available in some areas (mostly on plotsowned by non-indigenes but also to publicstandpipes). The Asata River, which forms thesouthern boundary of Ogui Nike, provides asource of water for most villagers for bothdrinking and domestic activities. Howeverpit latrine sanitation is inadequate at such highdensities and there is no solid waste collection.The Enugu North Local Government isthinking seriously about addressing thedilapidated state of infrastructure and lack ofplanning in Ogui Nike. Already, an urbanrenewal scheme has been proposed for theneighbourhood. However, lack of funds hasdelayed its implementation.

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A public standpipe in Ogui, Nike

Achara

Achara is in Enugu South local governmentarea. It is a medium density neighbourhoodcovering an area of about 95.5 hectares, witha population of 31, 000 and a density of 325persons per hectare according to the 1991census. Originally, the traditional ruler ofAwkunanaw was the custodian of the land inAchara, which was part of his community. Theoriginal owners were Awkunanaw farmers.The land belonged to about fifteenAwkunanaw aboriginal families who werefreeholders of the property. It was thesefamilies that asked the then Enugu TownPlanning Authority to prepare a planningscheme for Achara to allow for orderlydevelopment. The area was subsequentlysurveyed and a planning scheme prepared.This scheme was approved in 1963. Theapproved planning scheme included a detailedsubdivision plan, with most plots the size of

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standard high density plots (60 feet x 100 feetor 20m x 30m). When land was purchasedfrom any of the landowning families, thepurchaser was made to conform to theapproved planning scheme when developingthe plot. The effect of this is that much ofAchara is formally laid out (hence the tag‘layout’) even though plots were (and still are)obtained from customary sources. Thesouthernmost periphery of Achara (where thisstudy focused) was not part of the originallayout but has since also been surveyed andsubdivided by the indigenous owners. In thisarea 93 percent of current owners had boughttheir plots and the developments are mostlymiddle-income two and three storey blocksof flats.

Documentation for a land transfer comes inthe form of a receipt for payment issued bythe land seller to the buyer. Most buyers alsoinvite a lawyer to draw up an agreement forthe two parties to sign, with witnesses. The

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Typical building development in Achara

receipt for payment and the agreement areadmissible as evidence in a law court shoulda dispute arise. As in Emene, in Achara, theletter of agreement is the most common typeof ownership document (59 percent ofowners), although unlike the other studysettlements, 40 percent of owners haveconverted their original agreements intoregistered titles.

Roads in most parts of the settlement are welllaid out, mostly constructed by government,although there is evidence of disrepair in someareas. The width of the roads ranges from4m to 6m, with some having concrete drainson both sides. Planning and buildingrequirements are enforced by the Local

Government. Thus building setbacks arerespected in most parts of the formally laidout areas and encroachment on road accessis hardly an issue. With very little funding forinfrastructure development in the settlementby government in recent times, the practice isthat a prospective developer has theresponsibility for extending road access to hisor her plot before seeking permission to build.This is the situation in the more recentdevelopments on the southernmost peripheryof Achara where this study focussed. Pipedwater and electricity are supplied and varioustiers of government, NGOs and corporatebodies provide other social services, such asschools, markets, churches.

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EmeneEmene is in the Enugu East local governmentarea. This medium to high-density residential/industrial neighbourhood was originally on thenortheastern fringe of Enugu but is nowregarded as part of Enugu metropolis. Itcovers an area of 234 acres (95 ha). Recentpopulation estimates (based on projectionsfrom the 1991 census) show that Emene mighthave reached a population of about 105,000persons by 2001. The area has fairly leveltopography, as it falls beyond the area ofbroken relief that typifies much of Enugu. Thislevel setting has favoured the choice of thisneighbourhood as a location for industry. Thesettlement is well linked by road and rail toother parts of Enugu and the city’s airport isalso located there (Figure 3).

Achara

Originally, Emene belonged to Nikeaborigines who used it for agriculturalactivities. The traditional ruler of Nike wasthe custodian of land in Emene. Threecommunities of Nike aborigines make upEmene, each with a community head. Thesecommunities are Amechi, Oguru and Otuku.Long before the founding of Enugu, thetraditional ruler of Nike allocated land to thesecommunities on a freehold tenure basis.However during the colonial era thecommunities commissioned overall boundarysurvey plans of their portions of the land fromlicensed surveyors. It is from these holdingsthat the communities sell land to non-indigenes,mostly as leaseholds. Thus in 2002 two thirdsof owners had bought their plots and a thirdhad inherited them. The subdivision processis quite systematic. From long practice, thesecommunities have acquired experience inmeasuring out plots in standard sizes. Every

letter of agreement (possessed by 79 percentof all owners in the sample survey and locallytermed a lease certificate) must carry thesignature of the lessee and ten members ofthe land selling community to make it valid.The signature of the traditional ruler is theconfirmatory seal to a valid purchase and actsas a check on multiple sales of the same plot.Conflicts over land sales are, therefore, rarein Emene. Most buyers thereafter invitesurveyors to survey the plots they havepurchased and to install beacons. All theowners included in the household samplesurvey affirmed that their plot boundaries hadbeen well defined at the time of acquisition,as did the vast majority of owners in the othertwo settlements (89 percent in Achara and88 percent in Ogui Nike).

The State Water Corporation provides pipedwater to the area but, because the supply isvery unreliable (and also because some areasare not yet connected to the water mains),most plot owners also dig wells in their plotsto tap ground water. The Old Abakaliki Road(which is about 12m wide and which wasconstructed by the government) forms themain transportation artery in the residentialpart of this settlement, with service roads toindividual plots branching off from the mainroad. These service roads (often between 3mand 5m wide) are defined by the land sellingcommunities. However, there is evidence thatplot owners in the newly developing residentialareas of Emene are responsible for extendingservice roads to their plots. This can bededuced from the fact that such service roadsalways terminate at the last building on aparticular street (Figure 3). Electricity isprovided by NEPA but most residents relyon pit latrine sanitation and there is no solidwaste collection.

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Figure 3: A sketch map of Emene and itssurrounding area

There is no doubt that the dominant suppliers of landin Enugu are the customary land rights owners. Bothpublic and private developers have to acquire landfrom this source, as there is no stock of undevelopedpublicly or privately (individually) owned land foreither public sector land purposes or invasion/squatting. Although precise figures are not available,it is reasonable to assume that 80 percent of land inEnugu is held by customary land rights owners, 10percent by the public sector and 10 percent byprivate individuals. It is difficult to compare pricesof land supplied through the different channelsbecause of the plethora of influences on price, whichinclude whether or not a middleman is involved, thesecurity of the rights being transferred (which isrelated to the risk of them being challenged), lengthof lease, and the level of services provided.However, the general feeling among respondents was

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that land from the public sector is the cheapest(because it is often partly serviced) but the mostdifficult to access (because of the volume of demandcompared to supply), while land from privatesubdividers is the easiest to access but the mostexpensive.

The principal partner of an estate agency firm inEnugu gave a rough estimate of the cost of a standardplot (20 x 30 sq m) from private suppliers in someresidential neighbourhoods as at December 2002as follows: GRA (Government Reservation Area)and Independence layout (low density areas) N5-6million (note, however, that plot sizes in low-densityneighbourhoods are sometimes two to four timesthe size of a standard plot), Emene N500,000-700,000, Achara N1-1.4 million and Ogui Nike,up to N1million15.

Can disadvantaged groups gain access to land in Enugu?

Access to land by the poor

Investment in a house is central to the livelihoodstrategies of many urban households – secure tenureon a plot of land followed by incremental investmentin house construction provides a household with aplace to live even during periods of misfortune, ameans of earning an income as a base for businessor by the construction of rooms for rent, aninheritance to bequeath to one’s children and an assetthat can, as a last resort, be sold in a time of crisis.An important question for the research was,therefore, whether poor households have in the pastbeen able to access urban land, whether they canstill do so today and, if so, through which channelsof land delivery.

Detailed household income and expenditure surveyswere beyond the resources of the study, thereforetwo alternative approaches were taken to thisanalysis. First, information on the socio-economiccharacteristics most closely associated with wealthstatus was collected through the sample surveys ofowner households. Second, using localcategorisations of household well-being, participantsin focus group discussions considered whether poorpeople could acquire land in Enugu.

The socio-economic characteristics most closelyassociated with wealth status are the educationallevel of the household head and his or her workstatus. Over a third of current owners in both Emeneand Achara had university level education and overa fifth in Ogui Nike. Only a fifth in Achara had alow level of education (no or primary schooling),compared to a third in Emene and nearly 40 percentin Ogui Nike, where a larger proportion of currentowners were members of the indigenous landowninggroups. A significant proportion of all owners hadbeen in full-time wage work at the time they acquiredtheir plots (55 percent in Ogui Nike, 35 percent inAchara and 61 percent in Emene), predominantlyin the public sector. Wage work in large private

sector firms was also quite important for householdheads in wage employment in the centrally locatedarea of Ogui Nike. Today, despite the informalisationof the Nigerian economy, the figures are notdissimilar. Most of the remaining household headshad been self employed at the time of plot acquisition,mostly with micro or small businesses (about 80percent in Ogui Nike and Achara and nearly 60percent in Emene), but a significant minority werelarge scale or formal private entrepreneurs (15percent in Ogui Nike, 23 percent in Emene and 12percent in Achara). Respondents with relatively higheducational levels, regular wage employment or theirown businesses, even in the informal sector, are likelyto have relatively high incomes. With the exceptionof members of indigenous landowning groups, thosewho own land in Enugu are, and always have been,those wealthy enough to purchase it.

Even amongst indigenous landowning groups, oncethe owner of urban land, a family or individual cannotbe considered poor. The asset can be used toconstruct rooms for rent or it can be sold. Thusinterviews with two heads of Emene families whohad sold some of their land found that their primarymotivation had been to invest in further wealthcreation, by releasing funds for investment in theirchildren’s education or business activities.

The proportion of urban people who are poor inNigeria is estimated to have increased from 18percent in 1980 to 55 percent in 1996, and to havebeen 58 percent in the urban areas of Enugu Statein 199816. Poverty analyses distinguish between thevery poor, the poor and the non-poor. On the basisof economic status, food consumption andhousehold assets, a recent participatory assessmentin Enugu State by the Institute for DevelopmentStudies at the University of Nigeria Enugu Campuscharacterised the poorest of the poor (ogbenyemgbegele) as those who cannot feed themselvesand their families, the kinless poor (ogbenyemmadu) or the ill-fated poor (ogbenye chi ojoo).

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These groups deserve sympathy. The poor includethe hopeful or struggling poor who deserveencouragement and support17. Respondents in theWorld Bank sponsored ‘Voices of the Poor’ studyspecifically identified lack of security, not owning ahome and unhygienic and inadequate livingconditions, in addition to lack of food and money,as characteristics of poverty. After food, the aspectsof well-being identified as most critical vary betweengroups, but typically include being able to pay rent,being in full-time work, having children to supportone in old age, being able to meet communityobligations (such as levies to pay for security) andhaving ‘connections’18. Participants in focus groupdiscussions in Emene were reluctant to categoriseany member of the indigenous landowning groupsas poor, since all men are entitled to a place in thehomestead to lay their heads and even if their ownfamilies have no land available to allocate them, theycan be allocated land elsewhere in the city or, atleast, can buy it at a more reasonable price than anon-indigene. However, they also bluntly assertedthat “it is clear that a poor person cannot getland unless the poor person is from Emene”.

There have been sporadic efforts by the governmentto provide so-called ‘low-cost’ housing and evenserviced plots, but no serious attention has ever beenpaid to meeting the land and housing needs of theurban poor and such social policies as exist havenever really addressed problems of urban poverty.Enormous confidence has been placed on the realor imagined ability of extended family networks tocater for kinsmen everywhere and to provide fortheir welfare at all times. According to this thinking,the poor or destitute should go back to their homeareas or be catered for by their people whereverthey are. Those who remain in the towns are ignored,especially as they have resisted sporadic efforts toshove them into camps for the destitute.

Thus it is evident that none of the landowners in oursamples are poor, either because of the current valueof property assets acquired in the past or becauseonly high income people can afford to purchase landin contemporary informal settlements in Enugu.

Women’s access to land

Women are not entitled to land in their own rightunder the customary law which operates in theindigenous areas. This is because the Nike peoplehave a patrilineal descent and patrilocal residentialsystem. Descent is traced from fathers to sons andwomen move to live in their husband’s community.As the most important asset, land is bequeathed tomale heirs. Participants in a focus group discussionof customary land rights owners emphasised that atno time had their communities given a portion ofland to a woman in her own right, however wise,learned, strong or useful the woman might have beento her family or community. Simply put, a womancannot own land in the customary context. She isregarded as ‘belonging’ to a different community,as she is expected to be married to a husband in adifferent place someday. A woman may acquire apiece of land in her marital home. This, however, isin the name of her husband or male child. Such aportion of land is known as okaabi and is allottedto her for farming. She farms the land because shehas a male child among her husband’s people.Women respondents from indigenous communitiesin Enugu accept these arrangements, although manyare critical of the tendency of their male kinsfolk todispose of community land to non-indigenes in anuncoordinated manner, at the cost of futuregenerations’ access to land.

A representative of the Enugu chapter of theInternational Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA)– a women’s rights advocacy group – wasinterviewed to seek the organisation’s view on whythere seems to have been little challenge or changeto the position of women in the traditional law system

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with respect to land. In summary, the respondentattributed the situation to the age-old and stronglyentrenched male dominance of virtually all institutionsand every segment of both traditional and modernsociety, thereby giving women no platform toeffectively canvass for change.

The traditional setting has remained resilient, butnovel and exogenous forces mark the wider contextthat envelops it. Land remains exclusively in the maledomain in the rural areas. However, at the sametime commercialisation of land in urban areas servesas a liberating factor for women. Women and mencan now “buy” land outside their traditionalhomesteads. The Land Use Decree of 1978 giveslegal backing to women’s rights to participate in landtransactions. Under the decree, women (irrespectiveof their marital status) may get land in their own rightprovided they meet the criteria, which are invariablyeconomic. While this new trend is removing gender-based barriers to acquiring land, it is erectingeconomic ones.

Nevertheless, only 11 percent of landowners in ourcombined sample were women and by far the mostcommon channel through which these womenhousehold heads had acquired property was through

inheritance from their late spouses (two thirds inAchara and Emene and 83 percent in the older-established area of Ogui Nike). The type of marriagecontract governs women’s inheritance rights. Thereare basically two types of marriage: customarymarriage and statutory (civil) marriage (or marriageunder the Act). Customary marriage is marriagecontracted under native law and custom. There areas many customary laws as there are communities.In this type of marriage, the properties of thedeceased are distributed among his dependants inaccordance with the customary law applicable tohim before he died, that is, generally to his malechildren and, if he does not have a son, to his brother.These customs, in most parts of Igboland includingEnugu, are unfavourable to women and affect theirinterests adversely. On the other hand, in marriagesvalidly contracted under the Marriage Act, the lawis not as unfavourable to women as the customs.The Administration and Succession (Estate ofDeceased Persons) Law Cap 4, Revised Laws ofAnambra State Vol.1 (1990) makes it illegal to denythe wife or daughters of a deceased person whatthey are entitled to merely because they are women.Women’s growing preference for civil marriage isunderstandable in these circumstances.

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Land transactions in new and consolidated areas

Regulating land transactions: thestrengths and weaknesses ofinformal institutions and formalrules

In contemporary Enugu, three distinct institutionsregulate transactions in land. These are the customaryinstitutions, institutions associated with thedevelopment of a market in land, and the Land UseDecree of 1978. This is generally in agreement withIliffe’s characterisation of the forces at work inAfrican land markets. According to Iliffe, these arethe resistance of pre-capitalist elements (traditionalculture), the constraints of the world economy(scarcity), and the actions of the state19. Theseforces have often led to the emergence of threeparallel land markets and systems of prices: formal,informal and government regulated.

Customary institutions

The customary institutions are conditioned bypractices that still govern land delivery in prescribedcontexts. These are the institutions at play in theallocation of land in family circles. What apply hereare uncodified and informal sets of rules, the sociallegitimacy of which is undergirded by long usageand the threat or actual application of traditionalsanctions. Money does not play a role in these typesof institutions. Steeped in the customs and traditionsof Nike, discussants in the group discussion withcustomary land rights owners in Emene spoke wellof the traditional institutions that regulate land deliveryprocesses in their indigenous society. Theseinstitutions are said to cause few problems in theprocesses of acquisition and devolution of rights inland. When problems arise, channels exist throughwhich disputes are subjected to the touchstone ofcustomary law and practice (see below).

Why have traditional authorities and administrativestructures retained their strength, legitimacy andadministrative capacity in the context of Enugu? Tosome extent this resulted from the economic policiesand strategies adopted by the colonial administration.The promotion of crop production for export andthe adoption of governance through ‘indirect rule’meant that many of the ‘traditional’ structures inNigeria survived the colonial era. Anothercontributory factor may be the fact that formalgovernment at all levels has performed woefully. Thefailure of government to positively affect the people,particularly since independence, has made them clingmore to the traditional systems with which they arefamiliar. According to the authors of the Voices ofthe Poor study, after such a long period of militaryrule, there is a whole generation of Nigerians whodo not trust the state – either its statements or itsactions in contributing to the well-being of theindividual20. This presents problems in public policyterms: government as manager is rated negativelyacross all areas – as service provider, regulator andprotector. This perception of the state seems to havereinforced people’s belief in the efficacy of traditionalinstitutions, thereby strengthening them.

Market institutions

The institutions of the market operate outside thecustomary context and are mediated through the useof money. Within this context, land is seen as aneconomic commodity. Two types of markettransactions can be identified: initial transactions inwhich customary rights are sold and immediately orlater converted into statutory leaseholds, andsubsequent transactions between leaseholders. Theassociated institutions and procedures here are muchmore recent than the customary ones and theyprovide the channels through which most “strangers”(non-indigenes) get access to land in Enugu. Theseinstitutions and procedures accommodate theincreasing role of land agents who step into landdeals by intervening between vendors and vendees

Regulation

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(Figure 4). One of the requirements for markets towork efficiently is freely available information. Inpractice, however, there are various constraints onthis and so to work properly, special arrangementsmay be needed to overcome imperfect information:agents emerge to perform such a function.

There is ample evidence from the present study thatthe institutions of the market are fraught withproblems. In the first place, they permit transactionsbetween non-intimates. However, boundarydisagreements frequently arise, especially inundeveloped sites, and multiple sales of plots dooccur. Despite the transfer of money, paperworkand witnesses, land transactions under marketconditions cause more problems than those carriedout under the other types of institutions in Enugu.The perception of the indigenous land rights ownersconcerning land transactions based on cash is thatthey are inevitable given the changing times, but thatthey are fraught with problems. This group thereforeperceives commercial transactions in land as havingdoubtful legitimacy. This is mainly because suchtransactions are attended by a range of processes

that are, at best, only partially understood bymembers of the indigenous communities. Theseinclude receipts, lawyers, assignments, deeds, andsometimes litigation. Wading through all these canbe difficult and frustrating.

On the question of trust in market transactions inland, customary land rights owners soundedfatalistic, expressing the need for anyone involvedin such transactions to trust in God and hope that noproblem arises. In spite of papers and covenants,the akpu obi (hot heads) in the landowningcommunities, who oppose the alienation ofcustomary land, have sometimes destroyed beacons,damaged uncompleted buildings and generally madeit impossible for a man or woman who has paid thefees and fulfilled the specified conditions to occupyand develop the land acquired. The effectiveness ofthis set of institutions is thus dicey, yet most of theresidential plots owned by strangers are obtainedthrough the commercial land market. It is thissituation that explains the overwhelming desire ofpurchasers of such land for formal titles, which theyhope will afford them the protection of the courts.

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Figure 4: Sources of information on plot availability compared

The quest for formal titles over land acquired fromcustomary sources has created an importantinterface between informal and formal landadministration systems not just in Enugu but also inother Nigerian cities.

State institutions

Under the Land Use Decree the owner of a plotpurchased from an indigenous landowningcommunity can apply for registration of his or hertenure. If the plot is in an approved layout,application is made to the Ministry of Lands, Surveyand Town Planning21. Following the necessaryverification and survey process, a leasehold title isregistered. If the plot is not in an approved layout,application is made to the State Land Use andAllocation Committee (constituted by the Governor)and, following a similar process of verification andsurvey, a certificate of occupancy is issued. Ratherthan being proof of title, this certificate recognisesthe rights that have been transferred.

The Land Use Decree is also an instrumentempowering government to effect compulsoryacquisition of land. The application of the decreefor this purpose is rare compared to its use for thetypes of institution already discussed. Nevertheless,its import can be telling. One application of thedecree can deprive landowners of more land thanthey have sold for years. Customary land rightsowners view this use of the decree with trepidationand resentment, particularly as the payment of“prompt and adequate compensation” promised bythe decree is tardy, if it arrives at all. Of the threetypes of institutions that regulate land delivery inEnugu, the one most vilified by customary land rightsowners is the Land Use Decree. In the words ofone focus group participant “the Land Use Actbrought more problems than previously(existed)”. They perceive the Decree as highhanded, unjust and uncaring, representing a systemthat could ultimately render the landowningcommunities landless. The land rights owners point

to the vast areas of land appropriated by governmentthrough the Decree for phases 1 to 5 of the EmeneIndustrial Layout, as well as other areas. What seemsto gall them most is that land acquired under theprovisions of the Decree for one purpose is oftennot put to that use but is parcelled out to individualusers (who are usually ‘big men’) for private ratherthan public use. Also, following its application onthe basis of overwhelming public interest, the Decreesometimes moves blindly, knocking down evenpeople’s ancestral homes, as the proposed railroadextension is likely to do in parts of Enugu. Theseissues cause bitterness among customary land rightsowners. Hardly does a discussion or interview endwithout the request that government should abrogatethe Decree, since it has not worked in the interest ofthe common man.

Regulation of land use, subdivision and building is alocal government responsibility. Applications forbuilding permission can reportedly be processed intwo weeks if an owner has good contacts and isprepared to invest time in chasing the process andmoney in fees and ‘tips’. It is also possible for theprocess to take six months or more. Althoughdevelopment permission should comply with the1978 Master Plan22, in practice non-compliant useshave obtained approval, for example on public landintended for other purposes, generally throughpolitical interference in the planning process.

Land disputes and their resolution

One important function of the institutions regulatingtransactions in land is the provision of mechanismsfor the satisfactory resolution of disputes. It hasbeen suggested that, as urban settlements becomeconsolidated, customary mechanisms for resolvingdisputes break down. Therefore as part of theresearch the nature and frequency of disputesexperienced by owners, the resolution methodsemployed, the types of evidence admitted and thestatus given to informal land transactions and ruleswere assessed.

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In practice, disputes over transactions in land,ownership, boundaries or inheritance were rare.Only 11 percent of owners in Ogui Nike, 7 percentin Achara and none in Emene reported that they hadhad disputes relating to their plots. In Achara theinfrequent occurrence of disputes was attributed tothe rituals (Nri Ani) that accompany land transfer.A goat, other food and drinks are shared by theparties involved and a fowl sacrificed and its bloodburied on the plot. These rituals are believed tobind the former owner and the buyer to the terms oftheir agreement, or to face the wrath of the gods. InEmene, the signature of the traditional ruler and ten

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members of the land selling community safeguardagainst multiple sales of a plot, the lease certificateis considered valid proof of ownership and thepractice of commissioning a survey and installingbeacons prevents boundary disputes. If a buyersubsequently wants to resell, consent must beobtained from the community that originally sold theland. Among the few cases identified in the formalcourts in Enugu, disputes over ownership of land(encompassing trespass and inheritance) were themost prevalent. A few cases of boundary disputeswere also noted, but these are usually dealt with atthe Customary Court level (Figure 5).

Figure 5: The hierarchy of courts in Nigeria

Supreme Court

Sharia Court of Appeal

Court of Appeal

Upper Sharia Court

High Court

Customary Court of AppealMagistrate’s Court

Customary (Native) CourtSharia Court

(Moslem Northern Nigeria) (Southern Nigeria)

Thus there are two methods of resolving landdisputes in Enugu: customary arbitration andadjudication in the courts of law. Customaryarbitration relies on informal institutions, particularlythe family, elders and traditional rulers, i.e. peoplewho are versed in the customs and traditionsregulating land tenure practices in a community. Thegreatest strength of traditional institutions lies in thefact that, because of the high cost of litigation,ignorance of state law and procedures, and illiteracy,they are handy for a vast majority of Nigerians. Thesource of legitimacy of these institutions lies in thefact that the processes that they prescribe andregulate are socially acceptable to all the actors. Amajor weakness of traditional institutions in resolvingland disputes is, however, that influential membersof society can bend them and gain undue advantage.Also, they do not offer objective standards orprocedures for trial and are not based on strict legalprinciples, unlike the formal courts.The formal courts, in contrast, are guided by legalprinciples, such as those enunciated in the constitutionof the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Land UseDecree and the Evidence Act Cap 112 Laws of theFederation of Nigeria 1990. The disadvantages ofthe formal courts, however, are the high cost oflitigation (which low income earners often cannotafford) and the fact that a court case can drag onfor a long time.

What type of evidence do the courts admit in theadjudication of land disputes? From a plethora ofdecided cases, one finds that it is only credibleevidence guided by legal principles and which isrelevant to the issues in contention that is admittedby the courts. A plaintiff whose claim for declarationof title to land is founded on traditional history mustplead and establish such facts as:

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a) who originally founded (owned) the land,b) how he founded the land,c) the particulars of the intervening owners through

whom the plaintiff claims the land, andd) the history of how the land tenure practices have

evolved from the time of the ancestors.

In a landmark judgement, the Supreme Court ofNigeria highlighted important issues of lawconcerning the position of traditional history,decisions of the Native Courts and reliance ontraditional customs and other such informalinstitutions in settling land disputes. This was in thecase of Achiakpa vs Nduka (2001) 14 NWLR, Pt734, 623 – Supreme Court of Nigeria. Among theissues highlighted was that a party relying on acts ofpossession and ownership as proof of title to landmust show that such acts not only extend over asufficient length of time, but also that they arenumerous and positive, in order to warrant theinference of exclusive ownership of such land. Also,where title to, or interest in, family or communal landis in dispute, oral history of the family or communaltradition concerning such title or interest is relevantand thus admissible in evidence, an exception to thisbeing hearsay evidence. It was further upheld thattrials and decisions of Native (Customary) Courtson matters which are peculiarly within theirknowledge, arrived at after a fair hearing based onrelevant evidence, should not be disturbed withoutvery clear proof that they are wrong.

Informal transactions in land are recognised by thecourts as long as such transactions are consistentwith existing state laws and are also not opposed topublic policy.

Policy implications

The overall objective of any urban land policy shouldbe to ensure that land markets are efficient, equitableand environmentally sound and sustainable23. Thekey to formulating effective policies is to firstunderstand the existing realities and processes onthe ground and then to determine ways and meansof reducing the negative impacts of these processesand maximising their positive impacts. The precedingsections of this report have attempted to explain theexisting realities and processes on the ground withregard to informal land delivery in Enugu. We shallattempt, in the sections below, to draw out theimplications for policy of the main findings of theresearch (see also the summary on page 5) and tomake recommendations, starting with theimplications for conceptions of tenure.

Forms of tenureIt has been shown that Enugu is surrounded by landheld under customary tenure by indigenouslandowning groups. Hence, the bulk of land forconversion from rural to urban use is in the hands ofthe indigenous landowning communities/families. Inmuch earlier times land belonged to the community

as a group and members (usually male) had onlyusufructuary rights over land. Payne has highlightedsome efficiency losses in such customary patternsof landholding and tribal/collective tenure practices.These include the reduced incentive for landdevelopment and constraints on those desiring socialmobility. Payne noted, however, that as long as landis abundant, these losses (which are compensatedby the high level of personal security) are small24.

It has been mentioned that in Nigeria, with thepassage of time, communal land began to beallocated to its constituent families, usually on afreehold tenure basis. It was noted that, withpopulation increases, the continuing allocation ofcommunal land to families has resulted in a situationin which communal land reserves are being depletedwhile family ownership is gaining ascendancy as thedominant mode of customary landholding. InMabogunje’s view, the long-term vesting of land infamilies has both reduced the control of communitychiefs over land and given rise to a tenure form thatis more accurately described as ‘customary freehold’than usufruct25. Although much of the land in the casestudy settlements is still held by indigenous

Policy

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Figure 6: Nature of ownership documents compared

communities as ‘customary freehold’, leases on moreor less all the plots in Achara have been sold to non-indigenes who have constructed blocks ofapartments on them. Many have now registered theirtitle (Figure 6). In Emene, leases on about two-thirdsof the plots have been sold, with most purchasersreceiving Letters of Agreements, while about a thirdcontinue to be occupied by members of theindigenous community. Finally, in the oldestsettlement, Ogui Nike, at least 40 percent of theplots have been sold (mainly leasehold).

The advent of urbanisation and colonialism heraldedthe commercialisation of rights to land andindividualisation of titles. Once individuals orcorporate entities acquire either land or land-userights, they acquire tenure. It was shown in thepreceding sections that freehold and leasehold tenurearrangements dominated free-market landtransactions in our case study settlements, withleasehold being more prevalent in recent times.Freehold has very few restrictions on it and isconsidered by economists to be more secure. It wasnoted, however, that the 1978 Land Use Decreeintroduced public ownership of land and effectivelyextinguished all private freehold titles, convertingthem to leaseholds, usually of 99-year duration.Leasehold is considered more equitable as it reservesthe ownership of land to society as a whole ratherthan to an individual. As noted above, the currentpolicy of government as expressed in the Land UseDecree is in favour of leasehold tenure and, whileland purchasers would prefer freehold tenure inprivate land transactions, the provisions of theDecree are in accord with the preference oftraditional land rights owners. One reason for thepreference of customary land rights owners forleasehold tenure on alienated communal land canbe traced back to the concept that customary landis held in trust for future generations. So, while thepresent generation of a community may agree toforego their rights in return for benefits such as cash,they reject the notion of future generations beingdeprived. Leasehold tenure enables a community

to alienate its members’ interest in the land for oneor two generations, not the whole community’sinterest for all time.

It is important to note that the complexity reportedby some analysts to dominate urban land tenureissues in the urban areas of most developing countriesis largely absent in Enugu. This is because landinvasion/squatting as a source of land supply for low-income groups hardly occurred in the past andcertainly does not occur at present. None of therespondents in the household sample survey hadacquired land through illegal occupation. The absenceof squatting means that the usually complex varietiesof non-formal tenure systems associated with it arelargely absent in Enugu, whether on communal orgovernment-owned land. Also, renting of plots orsubdivision of plots after purchase for resale is rare.Only one percent of all respondents in the householdsample survey rented their plots and fewer than tenpercent had subdivided their plots since acquisition.

The tenure systems that are to be found in Enuguare, therefore, customary (tribal/collective) andformal (leasehold or freehold). Durand-Lasserveargues that, contrary to a still widely held idea, theprivatisation or nationalisation of all land isunnecessary, since a diversity of sub-markets doesnot constitute an obstacle to the smooth operationof the land market as a whole26. Despite its vaunted‘efficiency’, he maintains that a unified market isdangerous because it leads to social exclusion,segregation and instability. Diverse markets respond,on the contrary, to diverse demand and the differentsolvency levels of the urban population. The mainissue with respect to tenure, as previously noted, isthe need for clarity and certainty in ownership andtransfers on the part of owners and buyers.

The forms of tenure available to land holdersshould provide clear and certain rights ofownership and reliable procedures fortransfers

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It is also suggested that, since leases are the onlyform of landholding now recognised by law, landbuyers need to adapt their behaviour with respectto the level of investment and their expectations of alikely return on that investment in relation to the leaseperiod.

Land buyers should adapt their investment inproperty and expectations of returns on theircapital to the length of leases sellers areprepared to offer

Poor migrants are completely priced out of the city’sland markets. Government’s responsibility forincreasing the opportunities for low-incomehouseholds to access land should, therefore, beacknowledged, even if earlier efforts were notsuccessful. In an earlier paper, the author suggestedthat government should permit condominiumownership of land in its land delivery programmes27.In such an arrangement, a person or persons mayhave absolute title to only part of a property, thusmaking it possible for a group of individuals to jointlyobtain land and then build a multi-occupancy dwelling(such as a compound or rooming house) which isshared among them. It should also be possible for aplot of land to be subdivided into smaller ones onceindividuals have built on it. The advantages of suchan approach would include not just the lowering ofland costs for individual households, but also moreoptimal use of scarce urban land to accommodateas many housing units as possible.

Measures are needed to ensure that relativelypoor urban households can obtain access toland, through arrangements such as sharedownership

Joint ventures between the public and private sectorare increasingly seen as a way forward in integratingcustomary tenure systems with others for urban landmanagement. These include lease-lease back andguided land development options. In addition,NGOs may be encouraged to act as developers,intermediaries or representatives of customaryowners in negotiating development options withgovernment agencies28. Although more institutionalanalysis is needed, such an approach may be usefulin the Enugu context where, as revealed by theresearch, customary land rights owners view theLand Use Decree with bitterness and trepidation. Itmay provide a means of addressing the unpopularityof compulsory acquisition by increasing the level oftrust between customary land rights owners andgovernment agencies. According to Payne, theadvantage of these approaches is that customarygroups would retain some or all of their primaryrights. It would also help to reduce excessiveexpectations by bringing home to them the types ofdevelopment and therefore the profit levels that arelikely to receive official sanction.

Public-private joint ventures should beencouraged as a way of reconciling customarytenure systems with the needs ofcontemporary urban development

The lack of detailed and up-to-date land registersor inventories is a major impediment to anyassessment of existing tenure systems and theirperformance in meeting either productivity or equityrequirements. Clearly, the establishment of suchregisters or inventories to record details ofownership and rights to land and property is aprecondition for both improved understanding ofurban land tenure systems and the formulation ofappropriate policies concerning them.

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An improved land inventory or registrationsystem is vital to provide a record of ownershipof property and rights in land

Processes of subdivision andtenure registration

It was noted earlier that landowning aboriginalcommunities in Enugu have for decades beensubmitting their lands for planning and formalsubdivision in line with the Nigerian Town andCountry Planning Ordinance No.4 of 1946 enactedby the colonial administration. These communitiesengage in the development of planning schemes inwhich large tracts of communal land are surveyedand subdivided. The planning authorities haverecognised this process as legitimate for many years(even when official national policy preferred the stateto take the main responsibility for subdividing landfor transfer to individuals) and have been preparedto approve the schemes. Indigenous landowningfamilies mostly sell land in such approved layouts tonon-indigenes (migrants). This practice has resultedin many formally laid out settlements in Enugu, evenwhen land was supplied from customary sources.Hence, many of the processes of land subdivision inEnugu (including those on customary land) are, inmost cases, both formal and legal.

The attempts of informal land subdividers,developers and community leaders to fosterorderly layouts, register land transfers,develop guarantees of tenure security andservice land should be encouraged

The situation in Enugu is, to some degree, similar towhat Kombe and Kreibich found in their work inTanzania29. They pointed to growing evidencesuggesting that, even though informal housing landsubdivisions, transactions and development takeplace outside the formal or statutory urban landmanagement process, there are initiatives to adaptsome of the formal principles for the spatialorganization and development of land. These canbe seen in the attempts of informal land subdividers,developers and community leaders to foster anorderly spatial structure, demarcate plot boundaries,register land transfers, develop mechanisms forguaranteeing security of tenure and service land.Kombe and Kreibich suggest that these integrativestrategies and instruments applied at the grassrootslevel can constitute a framework for regulatinginformal land markets and settlement growth. In theEnugu context, government should encourage localcommunities’ practice of embarking on formalplanning/subdivision of communal tracts of land.However, excessive formalisation of the processshould be avoided. The emphasis should be onencouraging such communities to imbibe theprinciples of good layout design. Standards shouldbe flexible, especially with regard to plot sizes.

Initiatives by local communities to plan andsubdivide land should be supported by, forexample, disseminating principles of goodlayout design and adopting flexible planningstandards

On the issue of tenure registration, the proceduresthrough which individuals who acquire unregisteredland from customary or other private sources inEnugu officially register their plots have beendescribed. It was observed that the quest for formaltitles over land acquired from traditional sources hascreated an important interface between informal andformal land administration systems in Nigerian cities

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and that a lot of activities are occurring at thisinterface. Government should facilitate this processby ensuring that unnecessary bureaucratic demandson the part of the agencies involved are eliminated.

The practice whereby landowning communities inEnugu keep a register of alienated communal landshould also be encouraged and strengthened. Itwould be possible to combine information fromplanning schemes prepared by indigenouslandowning communities and approved bygovernment with the community land registers andthe record of tenure registration by individuals withgovernment agencies to build the detailed and up-to-date land registers or inventories so vital foreffective land management. Since only formal titlesare accepted as collateral by financial institutions,enhanced tenure registration would increase the valueof both land and property, allow greater accessibilityto credit, stimulate economic development andcreate dynamic financial and real estate markets. Forexample, Kagawa and Turkstra have highlighted theadvantages that the regularisation policy, involvingland titling and registration, have brought to Peru30 .

Initiatives by indigenous landowningcommunities to keep registers of alienatedland should be encouraged and strengthened

The registration of land acquired fromcustomary or other private sources should befacilitated

Provision of infrastructure andservices

Although it was not possible to obtain figures forrevenue generated from property taxes anddevelopment levy from any of the local governmentsin Enugu, respondents in detailed interviews all

claimed that they pay such taxes to the localgovernments. Yet infrastructure, especially roads, isin a dilapidated state and the services for which localgovernment is responsible, such as solid wastecollection, are not provided. Officials of the Ministryof Lands, Survey and Town Planning stated in aninterview that the development premium whichallottees of plots in government land deliveryprogrammes have to pay is for provision ofinfrastructure and services in the layouts concerned.They admitted, however, that sometimes this fee ispaid by allottees without any infrastructure beingprovided.

It is clear that neither the state nor the localgovernments have taken their responsibility forproviding and maintaining infrastructure/servicesseriously. Although the present study revealed thatlocal governments in Enugu do use purchasers’ anddevelopers’ desire to build as a way of raisingrevenue through the development levy and propertytax, it was not possible to investigate how systematicand fair these revenue generation activities are,whether they make a positive difference to thefinancial capacity of the local governments, or howthe proceeds are used. In most countries, it isinevitable that a large proportion of local governmentfinancing will take the form of fiscal transfers from ahigher level of government. Thus the design of theinter-governmental fiscal transfer system is critical.However, it is generally accepted that, to increaseautonomy, local accountability and responsiblefinancial management, efforts to increase localrevenue generation are also desirable. Since, inpractice, capital gains tax on land is hard toimplement, it is better for local governments to focuson the stream of revenues which land can generateon an annual basis to improve services like provision/maintenance of roads and drainage. In Nigeria, thereis also a need for improved transparency andaccountability in the expenditure of funds, particularlyat the local government level. It is hoped that theproposed local government reforms will address thisproblem.

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The study also showed that the utility providers aregenerally willing to provide connections to those whocan afford to pay, even if a property does not fullycomply with all the legal and regulatory requirements.Coverage, cost in relation to household income andquality of service were not investigated systematicallyin this study. There is considerable internationalevidence that urban people are usually willing to payfor services that are actually provided, provided thataccess by the poorest is safeguarded. Furtherattention should be paid to the basis and incidenceof user charges (e.g. for water and electricity), witha view to improving the coverage and quality ofenvironmental health services.

The proceeds of property tax anddevelopment levy should be used to fundinfrastructure installation and maintenance(mainly roads and drainage) and to provideenvironmental health services (especiallysanitation and solid waste collection), andtransparency and accountability in their useimproved

Direct roles for public sectororganisations in land supply anddevelopment

One fact that clearly emerged from both the focusgroup discussion with customary land rights ownersand the in-depth interviews that followed is theincreasing reluctance and sometimes inability oflandowning communities/families to sell suitablylocated land to strangers as such land becomesincreasingly depleted, due to the need to allocateland to a rapidly growing population of family/community members. In separate discussions, bothyouths and women living in indigenous landowningcommunities clearly voiced their objection to thecontinuing alienation of their communal land to

strangers without adequate attention being given tothe needs of the present and future generations ofcommunity/family members. It would thereforeappear that suitably located land from customarysources will increasingly become more scarce,expensive and difficult to come by in the not toodistant future. What this implies is that governmentwill have to assume a greater role in making suitablylocated land available for urban development, bystrategic investments in trunk infrastructure(especially roads) and key social facilities (such asschools and markets). This view agrees with thecurrent thinking of both academic analysts andmultilateral agencies. Durand-Lasserve and Clercrecommend an approach to urban planning basedon “prevention and follow-up”. According to them,government’s role should be to provide a frameworkfor local area development. Subdivision anddevelopment at the local level can then be carriedout by private sector actors within the context of aminimum regulatory framework, and followed up,in concert with public agencies, by gradualinstallation of basic infrastructure31.

Government should assume a greater role inmaking suitably located land available forurban development by strategic investmentsin trunk infrastructure, so that local subdivisionand development can be carried out byprivate sector actors

The regulatory framework for localdevelopment should permit the initialinstallation of basic infrastructure andencourage its gradual upgrading

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It should be pointed out that the 1978 Enugu masterplan (which is still officially in use) envisaged a“greater Enugu” which incorporates most of thesurrounding communities not cut off by physicalconstraints. Thus, proposals exist in the masterplanfor the extension of infrastructure to these peripheralareas. Although there may be need for somemodifications to reflect new realities, the 1978 masterplan provides a framework for implementing the roleadvocated for government in steering futuredevelopment by investing in major infrastructure. Thedemand for land already exists in these surroundingcommunities (even where infrastructure does notexist as yet) and the indigenous communities aresubdividing and selling communal/family farmland(although not homestead areas). The extension ofurban infrastructure to these areas would onlyenhance the process.

The 1978 master plan provides a frameworkfor future urban development, but should bereviewed and modified where necessary toreflect new realities

The research demonstrated that, with the exceptionof members of indigenous communities that still haveland on the urban periphery, low-income householdsare unable to obtain access to land in Enugu becausethey cannot afford to buy it. While, as noted above,there may be scope for reviewing planning standardsto enable more affordable subdivision andconstruction, there is still a potential role for thegovernment in supplying land for housing. In anearlier paper, the author recommended a programmeof rapid land servicing and sale by the public sectoreither to individual households or to small-scaledevelopers32. Government should ensure thatlocational decisions on land for housing the urbanpoor are related to the overall pattern of urbandevelopment. An offer of land at a low price is of nobenefit to the poor if it is offset by increased

transportation costs or absence of opportunities forincome yielding activities, due to the land’s remotelocation.

To improve access to land by relatively poornon-indigenous urban households, thegovernment should provide a significantvolume of suitably located low-cost servicedland for sale to individuals or small-scaledevelopers

As there is no stock of publicly owned land in Enugu,government would have to acquire land for thispurpose from private owners. Mainly localcommunities in and around the city, these are likely,as noted above, to be resistant to compulsoryacquisition using the powers of the Land UseDecree. Compulsory acquisition should, therefore,be limited in favour of a negotiated approach. If,however, compulsory acquisition is necessary forthe purpose of obtaining appropriately located andaffordable land, the procedures adopted must beclear, transparent and fair. The legitimate concernsof owners, based on their previous experience,should be addressed and the reasons for theunpopularity of such acquisition addressed at thenecessary policy, legislative and practical levels33.

This recommendation is based on the sites-and-services principle. It is recognised, however, thatfor a sites-and-services scheme to succeed, otherissues need to be considered. These includedetermining what levels of subsidy are appropriateto ensure affordability, cost recovery andreplicability; designing cost recovery strategies; andaddressing political and managerial considerations,including the location of decision-making authorityand ensuring capacity to deliver.

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Much urban land policy has been based on anassumption either that land should be nationalisedand plots for urban uses delivered through anadministrative process or that a market in privatelyowned land is the way to achieve a match betweensupply and demand. The experience of Nigeria andmany other countries shows that neither succeedsin delivering a supply of housing land in appropriatelocations and at appropriate prices to satisfy therequirements of sustainable urban development andthe needs of all groups in the urban population.Another common feature of urban land policy hasbeen to condemn informal subdivision and transferof land as illegal and undesirable. In practice, thepublic sector has failed to directly supply sufficientland for housing; operate effective tenure registration,development and building regulation systems; orextend infrastructure to many areas of active urbandevelopment. The result is that perhaps three-quarters of the urban population depends on landdelivery systems that do not comply in one or morerespects with the tenure registration and regulatorysystems and lives in settlements that are poorlyplanned and under-provided with infrastructure andservices. Should the solution, however, be universalformalisation of freehold or leasehold title andcontinued attempts to enforce existing regulatoryrequirements over new development?

This research argues that, in the light of the inherentand practical limitations on public sector capacityto do so, a different approach is needed. It hasshown how, in Enugu, most of the land for urbanresidential development is delivered by indigenous

landowning communities and families through moreor less formal processes of subdivision and sale.Although there are shortcomings in this process, someof the indigenous communities have begun todevelop practices that can overcome the problems.In addition, an intricate set of relationships betweengovernment structures, formal land institutions andindigenous landowning groups has evolved. Insteadof condemning the main existing processes of landdelivery as illegal, deficient and unsuitable for modernurban development, they should be reviewed,encouraged where possible, and their weaknessesaddressed through mutual adaptation on the part ofthe government and private landowners. Thisresearch has begun to address the relevant issuesby developing a better understanding of the rolesand practices of all the actors and institutionsinvolved.

The formulation of appropriate policies at nationaland state levels, drafting of legislative reform,modifications to local practice and development ofthe necessary capacities to implement desirablechanges must be collaborative processes that buildon this knowledge.

Finally, policies and practices related to land deliveryfor urban development should be linked to otherareas of government responsibility, including povertyreduction and gender equality strategies, thearrangements for financing local government,programmes of infrastructure installation and servicedelivery, and housing policy.

Conclusion

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Methodological approach anddata collection

The research instruments employed for datacollection in this study included secondary(documentary) data search and quantitative andqualitative surveys. These were employed in orderto build a complete picture by using information fromdifferent sources for the purpose of triangulation.The sequence of the instruments was in the orderthey are listed above, i.e. the research commencedwith a documentary data search, followed byquantitative (household sample) surveys, and thenqualitative research. This sequence was the mostlogical, since the documentary search illuminated thecontext in which the quantitative and qualitativesurveys were carried out, while some of the potentialrespondents for the qualitative interviews wereidentified during the quantitative surveys.

A search for secondary and documentary data wascarried out in order to

a) understand contextual factorsb) review previous research on land and informal

settlements in the cityc) identify key policy and legal documents, andd) assess the availability of data from government

sources

Documentary data came from various sources,including various ministries and local governmentsin Enugu and elsewhere; libraries and archives; thecustomary, magistrate’s and high courts; the Instituteof Development Studies, University of Nigeria EnuguCampus; the Federal Office of Statistics (FOS); andthe National Population and Planning Commissions.

Quantitative (household sample) surveys

Part of the research hypothesis, as stated previously,was that the dynamics and effectiveness of theinstitutions governing transactions in land have

a. changed over time, with changing political andeconomic contexts, governance arrangementsand legal frameworks, and

b. vary between residential settlements accordingto their stage of development.

A historical perspective was therefore necessary, inorder to capture and fully appreciate the processesat work. Hence, three settlement types were selectedfor study: consolidated, intermediate and incipientperipheral settlements. Ogui Nike was selectedbecause it represents an old, fully consolidated, fullybuilt-up settlement in the traditional inner core ofEnugu. Emene was chosen because it represents anoutlying settlement on the urban periphery whereactive conversion of agricultural land to urban usesis occurring. Achara represents a consolidatingsettlement that, in terms of the various processes atwork, is intermediate between the first two.

A common questionnaire was designed for use bythe six participating teams, in order to facilitatecomparative analysis. Allowance was made,however, for each local team to make a fewamendments to reflect their local situation. The finalversion of the questionnaire was then translated intothe Igbo language, the local vernacular.

At a methodology workshop held in Maseru in July2002, it was agreed that a uniform sample of 100respondents per settlement type be adopted by allthe participating teams. Questionnaire administrationwas concluded in November 2002. The responserate (in terms of the number of questionnaires thatwere correctly filled out) was as follows: Ogui Nike92 percent, Achara 89 percent and Emene 89percent, yielding 270 complete questionnaires. Thequestionnaires that were left out of the analysis were

Appendix

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mostly cases of non-contacts. A relatively largenumber of the plots initially selected in the three casestudy settlements had absentee owners: 24 in OguiNike (2 of whom could not be contacted afterseveral attempts), 42 in Achara (9 of whom couldnot be contacted) and 27 in Emene (5 of whomcould not be contacted). In addition, there were afew refusals (6 in Ogui Nike, 2 in Achara and 4 inEmene) and two cases in Emene where therespondents refused to supply basic household data,citing cultural inhibitions on listing of one’s householdmembers (particularly children).

The lack of up-to-date maps of the settlementsnecessitated pragmatic approaches to sampling. InOgui Nike, 50 metre square grids weresuperimposed on a map of the settlement, fromwhich twenty were randomly selected. As far aspossible, all the plots/buildings in each square (anaverage of five) were included. In Emene, a randomsample was selected from a rough census of all thebuildings/plots in the residential part of the area. Inthe southernmost part of Achara, where new informalsubdivision and development is occurring, ownersof all the completed and occupied buildings wereincluded and owners of uncompleted buildings andvacant plots traced to make up the sample sizedesired. The data was analysed using SPSS (version10).

Qualitative surveys

The qualitative components of the research adoptedthree different perspectives: sociological/anthropological, legal and physical planningperspectives. A wide range of semi-structuredinterviews were conducted with professionals,government officials, formal and informal land agents/brokers, the traditional ruler of Ogui Nike, aCustomary Court President and two representativesof residents’ associations in Ogui Nike. In addition,in-depth follow-up interviews with a number ofrespondents identified during questionnaireadministration were used to develop a betterunderstanding of their experiences, motivation,decision-making and views on land developmentprocesses. They included two women landowners,two members of landowning families who had soldland in the past and two members of householdswho had inherited property acquired in the past.Finally, focus group discussions were held with fourgroups: customary land rights owners, landpurchasers in Emene, women living in indigenouscommunities in Emene and young male members ofa landowning community in Emene. Analysis ofqualitative survey data was done progressively, aswhat was learnt from one group influenced thequestions put to subsequent groups.

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1 For the purpose of this study, ‘institutions’ aredefined as “rules, enforcement characteristics ofrules and norms of behaviour that structurerepeated human interaction”, North, D.C. (1989)“Institutions and economic growth: an historicalintroduction”, World Development, 17(9),pp.1319-1332.

2 Rayner, C. J. (1898) Report on Land Tenure inWest Africa, London: Colonial Office; Elias, T.O.(1956) The Nature of African Customary Law,Manchester: Manchester University Press; Kio,P.R.O. (1971)”Shifting cultivation and multiple useof forest land”, Nigerian Opinion, 7, pp.9-12;Hopkins, A.G. (1973) An Economic History ofWest Africa, London: Longmans;Onwuamaegbu, O. (1975) “Nigerian indigenousland law”, in Elias, T. O. et al (eds) AfricanIndigenous Laws, Lagos: Government Printers,pp.340-362.

3 Rakodi, C. (1997) “Residential property marketsin African cities”, in Rakodi, C. (ed) The UrbanChallenge in Africa: Growth andManagement of its Large Cities, Tokyo: UnitedNations University Press, pp.371-410.

4 Nwaka, G. I. (1979) “The Nigerian Land UseDecree: antecedents and prospects”, Third WorldPlanning Review, 1(2), pp.193-204.

5 Mabogunje, A. L. (1992) Perspectives onUrban Land and Urban Land ManagementPolicies in Sub-Saharan Africa, WashingtonDC: World Bank, World Bank Technical PaperNo. 196.

6 Mabogunje,1992, ibid.7 Onibokun, A. G. et al (1995) “Urban land

management, regularization policies and localdevelopment in Nigeria”, Abidjan: Paperpresented at Seminar on Urban LandManagement, Regularization Policies and LocalDevelopment in Africa and the Arab States,March.

8 See, for example, Okpala, D.C.I. (1982) “TheNigerian Land Use Decree re-visited”, HabitatInternational, 6(5/6), pp.573-584; Dickerman,

C. (1988), “Urban land concentration”, inDowns, R. E. and S. P. Reyna (eds) Land andSociety in Contemporary Africa, Hanover, NH:University of New England Press, pp.76-90;Olaore, O. G. (1988), “Land developmentpractices in Nigeria, 1830-1980: a study ofAbeokuta”, Urban Law and Policy, 9(3),pp.201-217; Udo, R.K. (1990) Land Use Policyand Land Ownership in Nigeria, Lagos:Ebieakwu Ventures; Okolocha, C. F. (1993) “Theevolution of a land policy”, in Taylor, R.W. (ed)Urban Development in Nigeria, Aldershot:Avebury, pp.189-195.

9 Njoku, O. N. (2001) Economic History ofNigeria in the 19th and 20th centuries, Enugu:Magnet Business Enterprises, p. 171.

10 Isichei, E. (1976) A History of the Igbo People,London: Longmans, p.203.

11 Nnamani, C. (2002) “By the hills and valleys ofUdi and Nsukka: the people, their heritage, theirfuture”, Tell Newsmagazine, No.50, December16, pp.64-69.

12 Okin, T. A. (1968) The Urbanised Nigerian,New York: Kaufmann.

13 Enechukwu, A. (1993) History of Nkanu, Enugu:Kaufhof Publishers, p.10; Nnamani, 2002, op cit,p. 66.

14 Dike, A. A. ( 1983) “Land tenure system inIgboland”, Anthropos, 78, pp.853-871.

15 US$1 = Naira 130 in December, 2002.16 Federal Office of Statistics (FOS) (1999)

Poverty Profile for Nigeria, 1980-1996, Lagos:FOS, p. 26; Institute for Development Studies(IDS)(1998) Enugu State Poverty Report,1998, Enugu: University of Nigeria EnuguCampus, IDS, p. 5-2.

17 IDS, 1998, ibid.18 Ayoola, G.B. et al (2000) Nigeria: Voices of the

Poor – Country Synthesis Report, WashingtonDC: World Bank, Report prepared for the WorldDevelopment Report 2000/1.

19 Illiffe, J. (1983) The Emergence of AfricanCapitalism, Minneapolis: University ofMinneapolis Press, p.35.

Footnotes

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20 Ayoola et al (2000) op.cit, p. 2.21 Layouts are prepared and approved by the

Ministry’s Town Planning Division for publiclyowned land and by the relevant LocalGovernment authority for other land.

22 Government of Anambra State of Nigeria (1978)A Comprehensive Physical Development Plan forEnugu (or Enugu Master Plan), Enugu:Government Press.

23 United Nations (1997) Urban Land Policies forthe Uninitiated, New York: United Nations,p.53.

24 Payne, G.K. (1997) Urban Land Tenure andProperty Rights in Developing Countries: AReview, London: IT Publications, p.39.

25 Mabogunje, 1992, op.cit.26 Durand-Lasserve, A. (1997) “ Regularizing land

markets”, Habitat Debate, 3(2), pp.11-12.27 Ikejiofor, U. (1996) “Land for housing and

development control issues in Abuja, Nigeria,”Ekistics, 376/377/378, pp. 143-151.

28 Payne, 1997, op.cit., p.43.29 Kombe, W.J. and V. Kreibich (2002) “Informal

land management in Tanzania and misconceptionabout its illegality”, in Kreibich, V. and W.H.A.Olima (eds) Urban Land Management inAfrica, Dortmund: University of Dortmund,Faculty of Spatial Planning, Spring ResearchSeries No. 40, pp.284-298.

30 Kagawa, A. and J. Turkstra (2002) “The processof urban land tenure formalisation in Peru”, inPayne, G. (ed) Land, Rights and Innovation:Improving Tenure Security for the Urban Poor,London: ITDG Publishing, pp. 57-75.

31 Durand-Lasserve, A. with Clerc, V. (1996)Regularisation and Integration of IrregularSettlements: Lessons from Experience,Nairobi: UNCHS, World Bank and UNDP,Urban Management Programme Working Paper6.

32 Ikejiofor, 1996, op.cit., p.185.33 Farvacque, C. and P. McAuslan (1992)

Reforming Urban Land Policies andInstitutions in Developing Countries,Washington, D.C.: World Bank, UNCHS andUNDP Urban Management Programme PolicyPaper No. 5; Rakodi, C. (2002) “Interactionsbetween formal and informal urban landmanagement: theoretical issues and practicaloptions”, in Kreibich, V. and W.H.A. Olima (eds)Urban Land Management in Africa, Dortmund:University of Dortmund, Faculty of SpatialPlanning, Spring Research Series No. 40, pp. 11-33.

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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 thePoor 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 forthe 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 thePoor in Lusaka, Zambia

Policy briefs

1. Ikejiofor, C.U. (2004) Informal Land Delivery in Enugu, Nigeria: Summary of Findings and PolicyImplications

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 PolicyImplications

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 Findingsand Policy Implications

6. Rakodi, C. and Leduka, R.C. (2004) Informal Land Delivery Processes and Access to Land for thePoor: A Comparative Study of Six African Cities

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

Publications

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