By Bukola Ajisola
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The attempt by the Magodo Supreme Court judgement creditors to enforce the judgement issued in their favour since 2012 can be viewed within the context of the mounting pressure on land as one of the factors of production which is not only scarce but a competitive resource endowment.
Shortage of affordable housing, a prime derivative of land resource has been a teething administrative twinge of successive administrations in Lagos State.
Giving the riverine taxonomy of Lagos landscape, availability of land for development is in much more restricted supply compared with most states of the federation.
As the de facto commercial capital of Nigeria, the population of Lagos, which is estimated at well above 20 million, is becoming a social economic burden on infrastructural delivery.
Notwithstanding the above narrative, Lagos seems to have missed a strategic and huge housing opportunity in Lekki Phase two.
With a land area of 514.53 hectares, Lekki Phase two was designed and mapped out in 1996 to provide 3,095 residential plots, 64 commercial plots, 47 mixed development plots, 26 institutional plots and 17 recreational plots.
This huge estate however is largely in a state of desuetude with more than 80 per cent of the landmass wearing the antiquated look of a thick forest.
The estate is already powered with electricity and almost all the roads are paved but landowners are not developing as expected owing to the holders’ tendency to hold the landed properties in perpetual speculation.
One other disincentive to development in this estate is the successive governors’ withholding assent into thousands of Certificate of Occupancy without which building approval can be processed.
Consequent upon this administrative negligence, Lagos is losing huge revenue accruable from hereditament value chains which include land use charge, development charge, building approval, consent fees and other sundry statutory revenues.
According to Section 28 of the Land Use Act 2004, “It shall be lawful for the Governor to revoke a right of occupancy for overriding public interest.”
More than 80% of Lekki Scheme 2 allottees are already in breach of this extant law.
Ultimate public interest would be served if Lagos State Governor invokes the act to revoke all certificates of occupancy or allocations on the undeveloped plots and immediately reallocate same to the Magodo judgement creditors with additional compensation on waivers on cost of title registration and building approval.
These waivers would make up for whatever value differential between Magodo Scheme2 and Lekki Scheme2. It would also put the new allotees in better stead to commence immediate development.
Apart from turning this sprawling estate into developers’ delight, it would incentivize the new plot owners on developmental imperative.
A step in this direction will both assuage the Magodo land debacle and further de-escalate the convoluted housing deficit in Lagos State.
Bukola Ajisola,bukymany@yahoo.com
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Authored by Ben Ijeoma Adigwe Esq., ACIarb (UK), LL.M, Dip. in Artificial Intelligence, Director at the Delta State Ministry of Justice, Asaba, Nigeria.
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