¹ Berry, Sara S., ‘Social Institutions and Access to Resources’, in Africa (London), 59, 1, 1989, pp. 41–55.Google Scholar For a general comment on this trend, see Kholi, Atul, ‘The Politics of Land Reform’, in Gauhar, Altaf (ed.), Third World Affairs, 1985 (London, 1985).Google Scholar

² See, for example, Ergas, Zaki (ed.), The African State in Transition (Basingstoke, London, and New York, 1987);CrossRefGoogle ScholarRothchild, Donald and Chazan, Naomi (eds.), The Precarious Balance: state and society in Africa (Boulder and London, 1988);Google Scholar and Nyang'oro, Julius E. and Shaw, Timothy M. (eds.), Corporatism in Africa: comparative analysis and practice (Boulder and London, 1989).Google Scholar

³ This concept has been explored in detail from another perspective by Moore, Sally Falk, Law as Process: an anthropological approach (Boston, 1978).Google Scholar

⁴ See, for example, Schatz, Sayre P., Nigerian Capitalism (Berkeley, 1977), pp. 3–5,Google Scholar and Forrest, Tom, ‘State Capital, Capitalist Development, and Class Formation in Nigeria’, in Lubeck, Paul M. (ed.), The African Bourgeoisie: capitalist development in Nigeria, Kenya, and the Ivory Coast (Boulder, 1987), p. 312.Google Scholar

⁵ Central Bank of Nigeria, Annual Report and Statement of Accounts (Lagos, 1980).Google Scholar

⁶ Ohiorhenuan, John F., Capital and the State in Nigeria (New York, 1989), pp. 179–82.Google Scholar

⁷ Ayeni, Victor and Olowu, Dele, ‘The Politics of Revenue Allocation and Intergovernmental Relations’, in Ayeni, and Soremekun, Kayode (eds.), Nigeria's Second Republic (Apapa, 1988), p. 201.Google Scholar

⁸ Federal Republic of Nigeria, Decree #6, Land Use Act (Lagos, 1978), section I.Google Scholar

⁹ All land in Northern Nigeria had been placed in the hands of traditional rulers by the Land and Native Rights Proclamation of 1916, designed not only to preserve their existing socioeconomic controls, but also to prevent both European and Southern Nigerian interests from acquiring land for commercial purposes. This colonial policy only became controversial in the North as a result of the accelerated economic developments initiated by the Federal Government in the early 1970s. See Nwaka, Geoffrey I., ‘The Nigerian Land Use Decree: antecedents and prospects’, 24th Annual Congress of the Historical Society of Nigeria, Calabar, Cross River State, 04 1979,Google Scholar and Yakubu, M. G., Land Law in Nigeria (London, 1985).Google Scholar

¹⁰ See, for example, Onimode, Bade, Imperialism and Underdevelopment in Nigeria: the dialectics of mass poverty (London, 1982),Google Scholar and Graf, William D., The Nigerian State: political economy, state class and political system in the post-colonial era (London and Portsmouth, NH, 1988);Google Scholar

¹¹ See, for example, Ega, Lawrence A., ‘Land Policy and Land Administration in Nigeria’, in Urban Law and Policy (Amsterdam), 8, 12 1987, pp. 423–34;Google ScholarIhonvbere, Julius O. and Shaw, Timothy M., Towards a Political Economy of Nigeria (Brookfield, VT, 1988); and Ohiorhenuan, op. cit.Google Scholar

¹² Joseph, Richard A., Democracy and Prebendal Politics in Nigeria: the rise and fall of the Second Republic (Cambridge, 1987).Google Scholar

¹³ Berry, Sara S., Fathers Work for Their Sons: accumulation, mobility and class formation in an extended Yoruba community (Berkeley, 1985),Google Scholar and Atteh, Oluwayomi D., ‘The Role of Traditional Rulers and Local Government in Land Management Policy’, in Akinbode, Adefolu, Stoten, Bryan, and Ugorji, Rex (eds.), The Role of Traditional Rulers and Local Governments in Nigerian Agriculture (Ilorin, 1987).Google Scholar

¹⁴ Francis, Paul, ‘For the Use and Common Benefit of all Nigerians: consequences of the 1978 land nationalization’, in Africa, 54, 1, 1984, pp. 5–28,CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Ross, Paul J., ‘Land as a Right to Membership: land tenure dynamics in a peripheral area of the Kano close-settled zone’, in Watts, Michael (ed.), State, Oil, and Agriculture in Nigeria (Berkeley, 1984), pp. 223–47.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, Information and Requirements for Loans and Savings (Lagos, 1980), p. 14.Google Scholar

¹⁶ These conditions have been noted by Okpala, Ifebueme, ‘The Nigerian Land-Use Decree Revisited’, in Habitat International (Elmsford, NY, and Oxford), 6, 5–6, 1982, pp. 573–84,Google Scholar and Omotola, J. A., ‘Law and Land Rights:Whither Nigeria?’, Inaugural Lecture, University of Lagos, 29 June 1988.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Oyo State of Nigeria Statistical Handbook (Ibadan, Office of Planning and Budget, 1988), p. 5.Google Scholar

¹⁸ A Decade of Oyo State, 1976–86 (Ibadan, Ministry of Information, 1987), p. 31.Google Scholar

¹⁹ The certificates of occupancy were drawn from a sample of 20 applications per year, selected at random from the 24,376 filed in the Oyo State Lands Office from 1979 to 1989. A ‘replacement’ file was requested only if a substantial portion of the relevant information needed in this survey was missing or illegible. Permission was not granted to examine separate files for plot allocations in the various housing estates administered by the Oyo State Government.

²⁰ Oyo State Ministry of Lands, Housing, and Survey, September 1990.

²¹ Interview with Adegboye, Rufus O., Professor of Agricultural Economics, University of Ibadan.Google Scholar

²² Okpala, loc. cit. p. 580.

²³ Abdulai, Taiwo, Establishing a Business in Nigeria (Lagos, 1986 edn.), p. 47.Google Scholar

²⁴ Nigerian Tribune (Ibadan), 3 05 1980 — also confirmed in several interviews during 1990.Google Scholar

²⁵ According to the ‘Land Use (Advisory Committees) Regulations’, in Oko State Gazette (Ibadan), 3, 20, 4 05 1978, pp. B27–54, land within a 12 kilometre radius around 24 of the largest centres in the State is identified as ‘urban’, while all other property constitutes ‘rural’land.Google Scholar

²⁶ See Francis, loc. cit. and Adegboye, Rufus O., ‘Land Tenure Systems and the Constraints They Impose’, University of Ibadan, 1988.Google Scholar

²⁷ Reported by Hay, Richard A., ‘The Political Economy of Recent Urbanization in Kaduna, Nigeria: land and housing’, Ph.D. dissertation, Northwestern University, Evanston, 1986, p. 114,Google Scholar and by Oke, G. D., ‘The Land Use Act, 1978— a Bundle of Confusion: an appraisal of the customary land tenure under the Act’, Faculty of Law Seminar, University of Ibadan, 26 April 1990.Google Scholar

²⁸ Daily Sketch (Ibadan), 28 06 1978.Google Scholar

²⁹ Interviews, Oyo State Ministry of Lands, Housing, and Survey, September—October 1990.

³⁰ Ibid.

³¹ Udo, Reuben K., ‘Land Acquisition and Land Allocation Constraints on Development’, draft report for N.I.S.E.R.'s project, Land Use and National Development in Nigeria (Ibadan, 1985), p. 104.Google Scholar

³² Yinka Abodunrin, ‘Land Use Decree and its Implications on Urban Land Utilization Strategy’, draft report for ibid. p. 337.

³³ Ibid. p. 340.

³⁴ Ibid. p. 347.

³⁵ Famoriyo, Segun, Land Tenure and Agricultural Development in Nigeria (Ibadan, 1979), p. 80,Google Scholar and Clarke, Julian, ‘Peasantization and Landholding: a Nigerian case study’, in Klein, Martin A. (ed.), Peasants in Africa: historical and contemporary perspectives (Beverly Hills, 1980), p. 206.Google Scholar

³⁶ Adegboye, op. cit. p. 48.

³⁷ Decree #6, Land Use Act, sections 5–6.

³⁸ Nigerian Tribune, 11 June 1978.

³⁹ Olaore, G. O., ‘Public Versus Private Land Development in Nigeria: convergence or divergence’, N.I.S.E.R. Seminar, 26 November 1986.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Newswatch (Lagos), 14 08 1989.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Ibid.

⁴² Ibid. 29 November 1985.

⁴³ Omotola, J. A., ‘Does the Land Use Act Expropriate?’, in Journal of Private Property and Law (Lagos), 3, 04 1985, p. 3.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Nigerian Tribune, 10 October 1978.

⁴⁵ Ibid. 19 May 1980.

⁴⁶ Okpala, loc. cit. and Olaore, op. cit.

⁴⁷ State, Kaduna, White Paper on the Report of the Land Investigation Commission, Vol. I, General Findings and Recommendations (Kaduna, 1981), pp. 40–3.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Koehn, Peter, ‘State Land Allocation and Class Formation in Nigeria’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), 21, 3, 09 1983, pp. 461–81; and Hay, op. cit. p. 106.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Koehn, Peter, ‘Political Access and Capital Accumulation: an analysis of state land allocation processes and beneficiaries in Nigeria’, in Afrique et Dévelopment (Paris), 12, 1, 1987, p. 179.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Koehn, , ‘State Land Allocation and Class Formation in Nigeria’, p. 477.Google Scholar

⁵¹ Interviews, Oyo State Ministry of Lands, Housing, and Survey, September—October 1990. For a more general statement on this phenomenon, see International Labour Office, First Things First: meeting the basic needs of the people of Nigeria (Geneva, 1982), p. 234.Google Scholar

⁵² Decree #6, Land Use Act, section 10.

⁵³ Oyo State Ministry of Information and Culture, What You Deserve to Know About the Military Administration in Oyo State (Ibadan, 1988), p. 13.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ In the African context, customary law may be distinguished from statutory law in that legal rules are not codified, courts often function on an informal basis, and presiding authorities constitute élites from a highly localised, indigenous community. See, for example, Ogwurike, C., Concept of Law in English-Speaking Africa (Enugu, 1979).Google Scholar

⁵⁵ See Francis, loc. cit. and Adegboye, op. cit.

⁵⁶ Lloyd, Peter C., Yoruba Land Law (London, 1962), p. 182,Google Scholar and Fadipe, Nathaniel A., The Sociology of the Yoruba (Ibadan, 1970), pp. 106–9.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ ‘Land Use (Advisory Committees) Regulations’, in loc. cit. p. B54.

⁵⁸ Famoriyo, Segun, ‘Land Resources Management in Nigeria: the Land Use Act revisited’, FAMAN Second National Conference, Zaria, 5–7 August 1985, p. 17.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ Williams, Donald C., ‘State-Society Relations in Perspective: the politics of land reform in Nigeria’, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Florida, Gainesville, 12 1991.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ Interviews, Oyo State Ministry of Lands, Housing, and Survey, September—October 1990.

⁶¹ Confirmed by an abundance of accusations in opposition newspapers concerning the preferential manner in which land rights were being handed out in States controlled by the Unity Party of Nigeria (U.P.N.). See, for example, National Concord (Lagos), 20 12 1981, 12 02 and 7 August 1982.Google Scholar

⁶² Daily Sketch, 6 January 1984.

⁶³ Interviews, Oyo State Ministry of Lands, Housing, and Survey, September—October 1990.

⁶⁴ Ibid.

⁶⁵ Udo, loc. cit. pp. 84 and 92.

⁶⁶ Abodunrin, loc. cit. p. 346.

⁶⁷ Udo, loc. cit. p. 107.

⁶⁸ Osemwota, Osa, ‘Ownership, Control and Management of Land in Bendel State, Nigeria’, in Land Use Policy (London), 6, 1, 1989, pp. 75–83 and 81–2.Google Scholar