Land acquisition in Ghana

 Problems associated with land acquisition in Ghana is no news. It is an issue that has engaged the atten­tion of various stakeholders like civil society groups, government organisations, churches, chiefs, opinion leaders, individuals etc.

It is quite worrying that in most parts of the coun­try, there are litigation over ownership of land which makes land acquisition a risky venture especially in Accra.

Various administrations have initiated programmes geared towards resolving this problem of land ownership but more needs to be done to ensure that this issue is resolved once and for all.

Last week during the vet­ting of the Minister-designate for Foreign Affairs, a question was asked and the response brought a stark reminder of the urgent need to address the problems at the Lands Commission. How can an official search for the owner of a plot of land yield two different results?

During the vetting, the former Minister for Lands and Natural Resources was given permission to ask the nominee a question. He proceeded to refer to a post on X, formerly Twitter, which was attributed to the Minister-designate for Foreign Affairs to the effect that he had referred a plot in I think the Cantoments area as being government land that has been taken by for­mer President Akufo-Addo and given to two of his children.

He then declared to the nominee that what he posted on social media, specifical­ly X, was false and that the said plot or plots were not government land and that it was acquired in 1969 by one Justice Sarkodie.

The nominee then respond­ed by saying that he posted the official search results giv­en to him by Lands Commis­sion also on the same X and it was based on the official search results that showed that the plot belongs to government which has been taken over and given to Presi­dent Akufo-Addo’s daughters.

The worrying issue is, how can the Minister of Lands have a document which shows different ownership from the official search presented to the nominee issued by the same Lands Commission?

The need to prevent the occurrence of such incidents in future should engage the attention of the Commission because it scares foreign investors. Such occurrences can easily result in serious conflicts which depending on the nature of the plots, their location and the status of the actors involved, can become a national security issue.

There are rumours of un­patriotic people at the Lands Commission, a kind of a mafia who are engaged in all sort of shady dealings. It is quite baffling to get an official search from an organisation and different results regard­ing ownership are produced as was evident during the parliamentary vetting of the President’s nominee for For­eign Affairs.

In this era of computers, such lapses can easily be remedied by putting in place protocols that identifies who did what, in other words a system which enables wrong doers to be easily identified.

When people know that they would be easily found out when they break the rules, it serves as a deterrent. A clear example is what hap­pens to our compatriots who travel to live abroad.

They never litter the streets or go beyond the speed limit. The very same people who were flouting sanitation reg­ulations left right and centre as well as traffic regulations, suddenly become law abiding citizens because over there, you shall face the conse­quences of your actions.

When we make laws, they must be enforced and that is the difference between advanced nations and devel­oping nations. Developed or advanced nations enforce their laws and regulations while developing or third world countries lack enforce­ment regimes so everybody flouts the law with impunity.

Morality i.e. a mindset change, is what this nation needs.

By Laud Kissi-Mensah