Why Grazing Bill Can't Work - Senator Sunmonu

Why Grazing Bill Can't Work - Senator Sunmonu

Chairman, Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, Senator Monsurat Sunmonu, on Thursday was reported to have said that the controversial National Grazing Reserve Bill should be considered dead on arrival.

Senator Sunmonu who represents Oyo Central Senatorial District noted that though her investigation showed that no such bill was pending in the Senate, she had been consistently inundated with telephone calls by concerned citizens of her constituency about the “Grazing Reserve Bill” and the massacre of Nigerians by people alleged to be “Herdsmen.”

She noted in a statement entitled “My thoughts on the #GrazingReserveBill and “Herdsmen” that there cannot legally be an Act of National Assembly providing for the compulsory provision or confiscation of land.

The Land Use Act, she said, is unequivocal that all land is vested in the hands of governors to hold in entrust for the people.

She insisted that any such law, promoted for compulsory acquisition or confiscation of land, will undoubtedly be unconstitutional and therefore void.

The former Oyo State House of Assembly Speaker noted the Land Use Act has been elevated beyond the realms of being a normal Act of National Assembly, because it can only be amended in the same way that the Constitution can be amended.

Sunmonu said, “As a Nigerian, a legislator and representative of the people I have had recourse to think long and hard about these issues and ask myself what I, as a member of the Senate can do to help solve the problem."

“The genesis of land law in Nigeria is the Land Use Act 1990, CAP 202, Laws of the Federation (“the Act”). Section 1 of the Act unequivocally vests all land in a State in the Governor of that State and such land shall be held in trust and administered for the use and common benefit of all Nigerians in accordance with the provisions of the Act. The tenors of the law are very clear: Governors are in control of land within their states on trust for the people.

“Section 49 of the Act goes on to state that the provisions of the Act shall not affect any land that the Federal Government (or any of its agencies) already has title to (i.e. the Federal Government shall continue to own land it already owns irrespective of section 1). This is further to section 297 of the Constitution, which provides that the FCT and national boundaries are vested in the Federal Government."

Section 315(5)(d) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) (“the Constitution”) provides thus:“Nothing in this Constitution shall invalidate the following enactments, that is to say –

(d) the Land Use Act, and the provisions of those enactments shall continue to apply and have full effect in accordance with their tenor and to the like extent as any other provisions forming part of this Constitution and shall not be altered or repealed except in accordance with the provisions of section 9 (2) of this Constitution.

She noted that “In effect, what the Constitution has done is to incorporate the Land Use Act as part of it (the Constitution). The Constitution unequivocally provides that the Act shall not only apply, but shall have full effect just like any other part of the Constitution.”

The intendment of the draftsman to incorporate the Act as part of the Constitution, she said, is unambiguous and is further demonstrated by the provision that any alteration or repeal to the Act shall be done in accordance with section 9(2) of the Constitution.

The lawmaker said that it is significant to realise that while normal Acts of National Assembly can be amended by passing the amendment in the National Assembly followed by Presidential assent, constitutional amendments needed to be passed in the National Assembly and also in 2/3 of the State Houses of Assembly (i.e. 23 states) before the President can assent.