Ernest Kissiedu
13 August 2008
A group calling itself the Land Developmental Force of Ghana has appealed to the government to see and discuss land issues in the country as a national developmental issue.
"Land issues affect everybody and it is the basic source of livelihood for all Ghanaians but it is never discussed as a national developmental issue," the group told ADM last weekend.
The Communications Director of the group, Madam Cecilia Acheampong said land is the most important physical asset in the universe. "Nations and communities have fought over it. And its related conflicts remain one of the most difficult conflict situations to resolve," she said.
She said in Ghana, there has been several seemingly intractable land related conflicts dotted throughout the country and mentioned Peki-Tsito, Nkonya-Alavanyo and Nanumba-Konkomba as some of the areas affected by land related conflicts.
"Only God knows many other simmering ones that are yet to come to the limelight," she said.
Madam Acheampong called on stakeholders to make contributions to the policies and laws that are being reviewed under the Land Administration Project (LAP).
She said it is very essential that land owners, users, administrators, researchers, environmentalists, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and farmers sit together to review the current land tenure system and land administration framework and make recommendations for improvement.
She described lands acquired by the government as a form of ownership system.
On her perception of the security of tenure on lands, Madam Acheampong said in Greater Accra especially, having legal ownership or registered documents does not always guarantee a secured tenure. "Victims are denied physical access and possession of these lands," she said.
She told ADM that the influence of religion (Islamic and Christianity) has resulted in reduced respect for customary land institutions. "There is now the loss of belief in land god concept," she said.
The communications director said there have been several conflicts of interest in the sale of lands to people. Some authorities, she said, sell a single land to three to four people and the situation causes disputes over the ownership of the land.
She said subjects have lost trust in some traditional authorities and there is much division among chiefs. "They now see traditional authorities to have a weak capacity to manage and arbitrate over land issues and land related conflicts. Political interference in customary land administration is also a factor," she said.
Madam Acheampong called for the need to institutionalize reforms and develop a one-stop service centre to help check poor record keeping and the management of lands.The one-stop service centre, she said, would help reduce time for service delivery and land litigations and create confidence and client satisfaction in service delivery.
It would also provide a ready service delivery and information flow to the client, eliminate service duplication of functions, reduce bribery and corruption, and provide reliable data and uniformity of conditions of service for staff.
"We must formulate strong regulations and supervise various policies on the management of lands," she advised.
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