PROTECTING OUR LANDS

Page 7: Daily Graphic, April 21, 2012. LAND administration remains a major headache for the country and this is compounded by the inherent delay in the adjudication of land disputes. The challenges associated with land administration have subsequently led to multiple sale of lands, difficulty in having access to title of land or not having the title at all and the use of land guards to safeguard the parcels of land we have bought. Some chieftaincy disputes, litigation and violence in some parts of the country could be traced to the competing claims to land title. These disputes have also put the security of investments at risk, thereby making a lot of investors hesitant to invest in some parts of the country. The mad rush for land all over the country has also put our status as an agricultural nation at risk as farmlands are being sold for brick and mortar, especially in the urban areas. There appears to be no spatial planning that takes account of areas earmarked for recreational purposes. The Achimota Forest is currently under threat from developers while the Efua Sutherland Children’s Park in Accra is in a poor state. We do recall that during the Operation Feed Yourself campaign, many households had backyard farms to support the home. But how many homes do have backyard gardens presently? All the spaces available are being occupied by houses or metallic shops. That is why the Daily Graphic sees the launch of the second phase of the Ghana Land Administration Project (LAP-2) as something coming to help address the challenges associated with land administration in the country. The financiers of the project, the World Bank/IDA, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the Government of Ghana, appreciate the frustrations of Ghanaians and investors in dealing with land matters, hence the decision to implement the initiative. The first phase, we are told, laid the foundation by reviewing the statutes on land, carrying out institutional reforms and undertaking pilots on a number of initiatives such as Customary Boundary Demarcation, establishment of Customary Land Secretariats, Digitising Land Records, establishment of Land Courts, and Systematic Title Registration among other things. The second phase (LAP-2) aims at consolidating the gains made under phase-one by deepening the reforms, enabling the land sector agencies to be more responsive to clients, cutting of cost, time of doing business and providing an enabling environment to reflect the objective of an efficient and transparent service delivery. But we hesitate to ask how effective, efficient and relevant the first phase has been to the beneficiary communities and the people who have had to buy land from such traditional authorities and families? We have many challenges in this country because of our attitudes and mindsets to changes being initiated. Change must lead to desirable goals to improve the living conditions of the people. The Daily Graphic believes that if one is to follow up to the communities that benefited from the first phase, the difficulties that we recounted, particularly the multiple sale of lands and the use of land guards still persist. Most of these problems are as a result of the collusion and connivance of officials from the Lands Commission and the Survey Department. There have been complaints from the public accusing these officials of selling parcels of land to unauthorised people, which has been a huge source of conflicts in our society. They are to work on and end up seeds of conflict in the communities. We think that the financiers have good intentions to sponsor the project and we all have a stake to make it work. If we help reform land administration, we believe there will not be the need to use land guards to protect one’s land and so will it be easy for everybody to acquire land without sweat.