By Terver Akase
Have you ever wondered why it is the Governor’s signature that appears on your Certificate of Occupancy (C of O)?
It is not ceremonial decoration.
Section 1 of Nigeria’s Land Use Act vests all land in the territory of each state in the Governor, to be “held in trust and administered for the use and common benefit of all Nigerians.” The Governor is therefore not the personal owner of Benue land, but he occupies a central statutory position in its administration.
This is why the Federal Government’s proposed rehabilitation of grazing reserves and establishment of pilot ranching settlements in Benue raises a question that cannot be answered from Abuja alone:
Has Governor Hyacinth Alia approved any Benue land for this programme?
Yesterday, my argument was about business: animal husbandry is an economic activity, just like crop farming. Government should create the enabling environment and regulate the sector, not acquire land and build privileged economic communities with housing, schools, veterinary clinics, healthcare facilities, solar power, dams and other infrastructure for one category of private agricultural producers.
Today, the question is about land.
The Benue State Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law, 2017 makes the matter even more interesting.
Section 7 provides a clear process for land to be used for ranching. Recommendations involving the landowner, family head, kindred head and the community where the land is situated are to be forwarded to the Governor. It is the Governor who may approve the issuance of a ranching permit if satisfied that doing so serves the best interest of the state.
Section 8 goes further: the rancher is required to pay ONE year LEASE, not sale (take note of the word Lease) for the land.
That is private ranching through a defined legal process, not the arbitrary conversion of community land into government-created grazing settlements.
So, before anyone “reopens” a grazing reserve anywhere in Benue, there are questions Governor Alia must answer:
Where exactly is the land? Who owns or occupies it? Which communities are affected? Were they consulted? What is the size of the proposed reserve? Under what law is it being acquired or designated? Has the Governor given his approval? And how does the Federal Government’s proposal interface with the existing Benue ranching law?
These are not questions for the Minister of Livestock Development alone.
They are questions for the man whose office the Land Use Act places at the centre of land administration in Benue State.
Abuja may have the ranching policy.
But Abuja does not have Benue land in its pocket.
That is why Governor Hyacinth Alia’s silence is becoming louder by the day.
Who gave the land?
Akase, PhD writes from Makurdi, Benue state