Land ownership is of legal and
social interest; hence, its function as judicial policy has been appropriated
by politics. Relatively, MACOMIK said that “there are few more important
aspects to life in any society than land and the relation between land and
human kind. Economics recognize land as been of the three economic fundamentals
of the society along with labour and capital.
Ownership of land as throughout
all ages and in all societies being a factor in determining class structures. Policies
about land are policies of society, how it shall be governed and what
relationship it shall has between the different groups and people in the
society”.
The Land Use Act being a federal stature
established a uniform land ownership structure throughout Nigeria. In the
states in the former Southern Nigeria, the new structure as it concerns the
maximal ownership title, represent a major departure from the pre – existing
situation described in chapter two above. In the states in the former Northern
Nigeria, however, the new structure in the main represents a general
endorsement of the basic structure established by the Land Tenure Law 19622.
Under the land use Act, two
palmary forms of land titles are recognized namely: the maximal ownership
title, which may be absolute or radical and the right of occupancy.
In addition, the Act, by its
various provisions which effectively preserve and protect existing customary
land tenure system subject to S. 1 of the Act, permits the continued existence
and operation of various ancillary customary land relationships and
transactions, the principal and most profound among which is the customary
tenancy.