Human rights lawyer Femi Falana (SAN) has cautioned that Nigeria’s ongoing push to digitise land administration will achieve little unless the government first confronts the deep-rooted inequalities created by the Land Use Act. He argued that merely computerising registries without structural reform would only modernise a broken system rather than transform it.
Falana explained that the Land Use Act, which vests all land in state governors, continues to empower powerful interests while sidelining ordinary Nigerians—especially rural communities struggling to secure formal rights to their ancestral lands. He warned that the country risks repeating the same mistakes if digitisation is rolled out without addressing the imbalance the Act has entrenched.
According to him, land reforms must be accompanied by strict enforcement mechanisms, transparent consent procedures, and genuine redistribution policies to prevent governors and political elites from exploiting the law to dispossess citizens. He stressed that if the Act remains unchanged, digital tools will simply make land grabbing more efficient instead of ensuring fairness.
Falana urged both federal and state authorities to treat equitable access to land as a constitutional and socio-economic justice issue. He insisted that any reform must guarantee tenure security, curb arbitrary revocations, and strengthen judicial oversight so that citizens can challenge illegal government actions without intimidation or bureaucratic obstacles.
He concluded that technology is a tool—not a cure—and that only a combination of reform, accountability, and enforcement can dismantle the land ownership inequalities affecting millions across the country.
