NiLand is a major factor of production and a vital element in the socioeconomic development of any country or society. In Nigeria, it accounts for a great percentage of individual and corporate wealth. Its administration/management greatly influences the development policies and programmes of the country as well as the socio-economic course of the people. Invariably, the success of the government has a direct relationship with the inter-relationship of the people to land. Indeed, no country can sustain stability within its boundaries unless it has a land tenure system that promotes internal confidence between its people, its commercial enterprises, and its government. The overall aim of land administration in Nigeria is to ensure that the ownership of this natural resource is protected, preserved and managed in a form that explores all the inherent potentials. It is recognized that land registration is a system by which the estates in land are recorded and registered in order to confirm the evidence of title and are committed to improving the system. The ultimate expectation is to facilitate dealings in land and provide state guarantee.
Computers have been considered to be the liberator of the 20th century. As a result, all endeavors of life in every location on the globe are on the fast lane of adopting automated techniques in flipping the paradigm for future decision making. In Nigeria, the then minister for FCT vowed to transform land and environmental matters with a more sophisticated but smooth-sailing procedure-based activity using computer aided systems. This is the establishment of the geographic information system, an agency which is now a beacon and pacesetter throughout the federation. The Gombe state Geographic information system (GOGIS) is one of the great recognisers of such technological advancement as a panacea for overcoming various land and environmental issues. There is no doubt indeed, that the Gombe state government has made the right decision for the betterment of the state and its citizens at large.
Land, which is agreed to be the most important resource is also said to be limited. In this regard, it is of paramount importance that land issues must be effectively managed to ensure the future is not put to peril. Sustainable development experts have agreed that the entire idea of sustainability is totally vested on how man manages land as a resource. Environmental disasters have also been attributed to the injurious anthropological activities which on the long run boomerang. David Harvey, a renowned environmentalist posited that the creation of concrete jungles has done ample harm as a result of poor land administration in cities.
Be it as it may, land administration before the advent of automated techniques has always been a cumbersome activity for any government. Managing the urban area has also failed to work in African cities because of this phenomenon. Though, there are laws regulating land administration in every urban and rural area in Nigeria, the methods of approaching it is falling short in terms of data acquisition, storage, management and retrieval. In Gombe metropolis, the defunct ministry of lands and survey has a stockpiled repository utilizing orthodox means for sorting and processing data as it relates to land matters. This “dark age” method has relegated and slowed-down the potentials of the city and the entire state. It is expensive to run, difficult to monitor and creates room for fraud, somewhat encouraging speculation, costing the government of Gombe state a big loss. The city is an epicenter for revenue generation, but without proper documentation, processing and output, a lot will be lost and management becomes an uphill climb. With the establishment of GOGIS under my leadership, these challenges will be greatly mitigated by the will of God.
GOGIS is a fully automated enterprise which delivers the dividends of a city to the right purse. The responsibility of a government is to ensure easy access of urban services to her people. Land being an important resource on which all other activities are vested will have a transparent allocation procedure. It is also easy to ascertain who the smallest parcel of land belongs to with just the click of a button. In this regard, ground rents, processing fees for land and other professional fees can be easily monitored ensuring stern accountability for the benefit of the entire state. Land dispute issues will be remotely resolved for swift feedback without sending a team to make physical measurement resulting to fund release for transportation, number of manpower and the time taken to do the job. Illegal change of use, encroachment into right-of-way and utility lines, non- adherence to building setbacks and other development control mechanisms can be subtly offset at low cost.
For effective land administration through GOGIS, a Land Information System can be established. Land Information System (LIS) consists of an accurate, current and reliable land record cadaster and its associated attribute and spatial data that represent the legal boundaries of land tenure and provides a vital base layer capable of integration into other geographic systems or as a standalone solution that allows data stewards to retrieve, create, update, store, view; analyze and publish land information. A land information system is a geographic information system for cadastral and land-use mapping, that will be utilized by GOGIS to perform the following functions and tasks;
Land Tenure System, to secure legal rights in land such as titles, mortgage and easements
Land Value System, to assess the value of land and properties and to levy land taxes
Land-Use Control System, to enable comprehensive and detailed land use planning
Land Development System, to enable regulation and implementation in change of land use.
Identification of all land-use restrictions imposed by the public such as development restrictions connected to the protection of specific natural features, identification of urban and rural zoning areas, and of local planning areas.
Within the system an elaborate repository can be created. It will contain spatial and attribute data, comprising records of land owners, occupier status, and lot coverage area, year of acquisition, household characteristics, ground rent payment status and even photograph. A database will be created with the data that can be updated from time to time and queried for desired results. Querying is the technique used to process the data to give desired output. With this, any information about a parcel of land can be known with just a few clicks. Payment records can be easily tracked to identify defaulters for any year within the database. Through a proper networking system, the process of land allocation will become less cumbersome.
The future of land administration in Gombe state relies on automated techniques for effective management. Managing an urban area is indeed a gargantuan task that over the years have employed a lot of man power, though skilled, but fell-short of any GIS expertise. Preparing or updating the development plan of Gombe metropolis which is also a monitoring tool will be catalysed by the presence of GOGIS. Indeed, GOGIS is the future of land administration and management. Therefore, if land is a gold mine ready to be tapped, then, GOGIS is the tool for effective exploitation.
Dr. Kabiru Usman Hassan is the Director – General of Gombe Geographical Information System.
