BY Mayowa Tijani
Sam Adeyemi, senior pastor of Daystar Christian Centre, says Nigeria’s Land Use Act is a formula for mass poverty, and must be removed, for the country to unleash its potentials.
Speaking at The Platform on Saturday, about “unleashing potentials for wealth creation”, Adeyemi said “the elite class makes it difficult, for example, for you to own land, which is the baseline for wealth creation”.
“When it takes you five years to change the ownershipof landed property to your name at the land registry, how do you derive economic value for it?” Adeyemi questioned.
“You own land, they say you cant own what is under it, they sell what is under it and then spend the money on themselves. You deposit money in banks, and the banks won’t loan you the money; why are you putting your money in the banks?.
“If we want to prosper and see Nigeria develop, we must ensure some deep changes in our economic and political institutions. For the potential of the average Nigerian to create wealth to be unleashed, we need to be given property rights more easily.
“The Land Use Act must be removed from our constitution and must be thoroughly reviewed. To buy a landed property and to wait for years for governor’s consent or the certificate of occupancy, is a formula for mass poverty.”
Adeyemi ended his speech with a message of hope, courage, and prophecies for a developed Nigeria.
“I should say that I see a developed Nigeria. Whatever our situation is, it has been so in other parts of the world. In Europe, yes there was underdevelopment. The elite class ensured there were only a small group of people. They frustrated innovation,” he said.
He said the man who first designed a machine that could mass-produce textile was denied patent by Queen Elizabeth I, and was thrown into jail, when he spoke too much.
His offence, according to her, was that “she cannot afford to see him destroy the wealth of her citizens. Innovations can be destructive, they destroy old ways of making money”.
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