07/04/2023
DETAILED INTELLIGENT APPROACH TO LAND MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION BY THE HOPE UZODINMA LED GOVERNMENT OF IMO STATE.
"Management refers to the act, art or manner to handle and control things carefully".
The Land Use Act 1978 vested all land in the territory of each State solely in the Governor of the State, who would hold such Land in trust for the people and would henceforth be responsible for the allocation of land to individuals resident in the State and to organisations for residential, agriculture, commercial and other purposes.
Before the emergence of His Excellency, Distinguished Senator Hope Uzodimma as Governor in January 2020, Imo State over the years, witnessed large-scale maladministration of her land resources. With the increase in human population, and the explosion of economic activities, coupled with the scarcity of lands within Owerri metropolis, corrupt practices in land allocation and ownership became the order of the day. Due processes were not adhered to in so many instances.
The administration of Governor Uzodimma right from inception harped on the need for a more careful and systemic management of land and land-related resources. Following the implementation of the whitepaper on land and related matters, government lands unlawfully taken by individuals were recovered and restored to their original owners and/or purposes. Even individuals whose lands were misappropriated had such lands reverted to them.
One can comprehend the perspective of the Governor when he said, "I realized that the only way to assuage the pains of the people was a complete restoration of the lands back to their rightful owners - And today, we have gathered for the first phase of the restoration of lands forcefully taken away from their rightful owners"
The Governor then proceeded, "At the time that I took over the mantle of leadership of our great State, the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Lands and Related Matters was already sitting. At my interactive session with the members of the Commission, I confirmed that the Commission should continue and complete its work and I promised Imo people that I will implement the report of the Commission..."When the report was submitted on 1st June 2020, I immediately saw and felt the pains of Imolites whose lands were forcefully wrested away by the then administration. The Government itself was not spared in this land-grabbing madness...Our Town Hall meeting this morning is one of our ways of sending a message to past and future leaders of our State that nobody can violate our sacred values and get away with it. My administration will continue to be the protector of the helpless. The era when leaders or government officials will usurp the property of Imolites and hope to get away with it is gonpe forever".
The government carried out the following measures to protect institutions and individuals;
+ Lands belonging to institutions were restored.
+ All occupants of greenbelts and verges were directed to remove structures in such areas. These areas were spelt out in both the Whitepaper and the Owerri Twin City Master Plan.
+ Open spaces /water channels: all
those who built or distorted the open spaces, drainage etc in the layouts were to remove and make good those spaces.
An innovation worthy of mention was the setting up of the ease of doing business desk at the Imo State Ministry of Lands Survey and Physical Planning. As explained by Barrister Kezie Ogaziechi the immediate past Commissioner in charge of the ministry, "The search office is made up of staff from all specialized departments of this Ministry so that when you come here, just within the same office, like a one-stop office, you will do your transaction without any problem. We have a dedicated line – somebody collects your file or request and within 48 hours, you get a phone call to come to the search office and collect – with this, nobody will ask you to spend extra money apart from the money that goes into the government account".