THE IMPERATIVE OF LAND REFORM FOR ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT IN NON- URBAN AREAS IN NIGERIA

Abstract Land reform, indisputably, has been identified as a major catalyst for economic development and invariably, as a source of economic empowerment. Majority of Nigerians are reportedly living below the poverty line, even though they are abundantly blessed with large land mass. The inability to easily, simply, efficiently and securely convert their land which is described as dead assets to capital assets is the thorny issue preoccupying the minds of majority of Nigerians, and as such, has necessitated several attempts to initiate land reform usually aims at extirpation of the perceived inequities in the land rights distribution pattern in a state and the inauguration in its stead of a more equitable system of land distribution. However, judging by Nigerias experience, land reform has largely remained mere academic jingoisms and theoretical extrapolations, albeit, a mirage, a hoax and a simulacrum. It is yet to transmute into the el-dorado expected of it. The basic impediments to effective implementations of the variously proposed land reforms are traceable to the defectiveness in the various land tenure laws in conjunction with other fundamental factors such as the infinitesimal states of infrastructure, lack of cadastre maps delineating land boundaries and defining the interests therein5, grossly inadequate land titling among others. These are the numerous challenges of which experts and stakeholders alike are agreed, must be effectively tackled, in order to guarantee the sustainability of land reform as the pivot for economic empowerment.