Volume 3 No 1, 2007 Page 140 INFORMAL LAND DELIVERY SYSTEM IN LAGOS STATE, NIGERIA
Year: 2008

There is a growing body of research concerned with the relationship between informal land delivery system and housing development in Lagos State. Studies originate from a diversity of sources, and encompass a variety of geographic scales and locations. To add to this diversity, many different characteristics of urban form as well as land acquisition patterns have been examined. This paper brings together informal land delivery system and housing development systematic patterns over the last 20 years. This paper is divided into three sections in the area of the existing modes of land accessibility; variations in land market transactions under different cultural and social influences and practical attributes that make land transaction arrangements better suited to society's needs. The study found that informal land delivery system is more effective in delivering land for housing, because of its user friendly characteristics and social legitimacy. The study recommended that the informal processes of subdivision of family land for sale should be based on approved layouts to ensure the reservation of access ways and sites for social facilities. Finally, the issue of security of tenure and the harassment encountered by developers from the "Omo onile" should be addressed by both the local and state governments.  Shortly after Nigeria gained independence in 1960, there occurred a rapid rural urban migration with its attendant urban growth in Lagos. During this transition period, many households were able to get easy access to land for the construction of their own houses through land acquisition from various land owning families while developments were mostly through peer group support programmes in the rural areas and peer group cooperative financing or other similar local arrangements in the urban areas. This was made possible because the allocation of customary land by legitimate rights' holders was fairly practiced and accepted by the society. However land policies by various governments in Nigeria since independence, be it military or civilian, have concentrated Informal Land Delivery System In Lagos State, Nigeria: Oloyede, Ajibola and Oni Volume 3 No 1; 2007 Page 141 on analyzing the shortcomings of informal land administration rather than understanding how these processes were sustained in the past. As a result, various land policies and administrative reforms embarked upon after independence seemed to be ill informed and ill suited to both urban and rural dwellers hence the seemingly non compliance by the populace and inability to enforce laws by government agencies, partly because the policies were not based on an understanding of the social norms and cultural practices governing how people operate partial commercialized informal land delivery systems within their communities. This paper reports on some of the findings from recent research projects that have examined contemporary informal land delivery systems in Nigeria and other countries all over the world. By this research, informal urban land delivery and development processes were analyzed; the characteristics of informal land markets and the institutions that regulate transactions and disputes in land effectiveness were also examined. The paper assesses the strength and weaknesses of alternative land delivery channels, both formal and informal. Conceptual Framework Rakodi and Leduka, (2003) noted that the success of informal land delivery system for urban residential development, for all categories of people can be attributed to their practical attributes in addition to their social legitimacy. They were of the opinion that practical attributes make land transaction arrangements better suited to the needs of urban land sellers and purchasers. On the other hand, wide understanding and acceptance of the social rules enable transactions to occur smoothly. However, as urban development proceeds, the informal institutions that regulate land transactions and use within each zone, change over time especially when the remaining land holding dwindles and at times break down when genuinely acquired land by individual or corporations, left undeveloped over a long time, is impounded by children of the land owning families because they are conscious of the depletion of their inheritance. As urban areas consolidate and the density of development increases, the rules and social relationships governing transactions and regulating land disputes become increasingly strained, and sometimes lead to eventual break down of law and order. The conceptual framework employed in this study was based on three premises. First, Tripp (1997) analyzed urban development in terms of compliance with formal rules, with passive relations between land market actors and the government and observed that there was a widespread non compliance to state laws which forced government to modify its policy and practice in Tanzania. Structure and agency theory allows actors to interpret, apply and/or challenge formal rules thus creating opportunities for changes to existing rules and/or relationships between the state organs that govern land delivery and non state actors. Institutional analysis, as analyzed by North (1990) stresses the importance of institutions or rules in minimizing cost of land transactions and in setting acceptable behaviourial patterns within the various segments within the larger society. Social institutions govern the cultural, economic and political relationships between and among individuals or group actors. According to Pamuk (2000) formal institutions dictate rules of the game e.g. state laws while informal institutions dictate social norms and practices, including customary rules. With respect to land transaction processes and land dispute resolutions, Razzaz (1998) revealed that non compliance to set rules and regulations is often regarded Journal of Land Use and Development Studies