Land Use Act (Nigeria)

Nigeria's Land Use Act, enacted as a military decree on March 29, 1978, is the country's principal land tenure law. It vests all land within a state's territory in that state's governor, to be held in trust and administered for the use and common benefit of all Nigerians, with land in urban areas placed under the governor's direct control and management. The Act was meant to unify a land system that had varied across Nigeria's regions and to curb land speculation, but it has been widely criticized for bureaucratic delays, lack of transparency, and making it harder for the rural and urban poor to obtain secure land titles.