Defending the Land Market in Ghana

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Defending the Land Market

The structures of the land market will ever remain malnourished until we all stand to face the guilt of our own actions and inactions.

There has always been this idea about our land markets being weak and malfunctioned. That is true, but we all have to bear in mind that the immediate cause of the weakness in our land markets attributes to none but our own selves. Users of the land have turned to be a thorn in their own flesh. I sometimes listen to my lecturers and say “you are doing a great job”. However, the system of education has produced what I call ‘book-based graduates’ hence has left graduates less practically minded.

There have been scary land investment forms springing up in our markets which scare away the less privileged from making demands for land. This issue of investment has come to create a discrepant land market for us today. Different forms of investment have emerged in the land market necessitating the demand for lands. We hear of land speculation, land gazumping, and other forms of investment, which I call ‘Land hoarding techniques’.

In the investment world and inasmuch as there are other tangible reasons to some of these practices, and how perfectly they are accepted, there is the contrary view, an insatiable demand for land, and persisting unfair distribution of resources across the length and breadth of the society. How long will we continue to hoard lands?

Management is another terrible actor we can talk of. There is weak human capacity on the side of management. Continuous mismanagement persists in the land sector. As stated earlier, our system of education has produced some of them as so, thus (book-based). Nonetheless, these people have got to start building their capacities.

It is even more striking to realise that our able land lawyers have failed us in regulatory enactments to guard our land markets. They only read acts and instruments and go back to sleep on them whether such instruments are adhered or not they care less. It becomes more frightening when they resolve a case using different laws that contradict one another. Our lawyers and lawmakers must stand on their feet to save us from the shame.

Before I rest my case, I will like to ask my last question of concern, when will Ghanaians learn to adopt a particular system of land administration? In the days of our fathers, we practised our customary administration of land happily until the white man came and introduced another form of administration. Today, we have combined these two systems and things are not working out for us. I sometimes ask if we are waiting for another white man to come and tell us to adopt a particular system of administration. The answer I leave it to as all.

However, on a personal basis, it is high time we paid no recognition to the modern system of land administration and gave more attention and emphasis on improving and restructuring our customary land administration.

It is worthy to understand that these practices and systems of administration have their good and bad sides; nonetheless, it is high time we all (the land actors) realized that the rise and fall of our land market is the core mandate of each and every one of us.
Let us by this article, acknowledge our guilt and rehearse the voice of I STAND TO PROTECT THE DIGNITY OF THE LAND MARKET

ADOMBIRE SAMSON
0544778035

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