Promulgated by the Obasanjo military government as the Land Use Decree No. 6 of 1978 on 29 March 1978, following the Land Use Panel chaired by Justice Chukwunweike Idigbe (1977 report). Section 1: 'all land comprised in the territory of each State in the Federation are hereby vested in the Governor of that State and such land shall be held in trust and administered for the use and common benefit of all Nigerians.' Distinguishes Statutory Rights of Occupancy (urban land, max 99 years, governor's consent required for assignment/mortgage/sublease — s.22) from Customary Rights of Occupancy (non-urban, granted by Local Government). Compensation on revocation is for unexhausted improvements only — not for the bare land — at rates fixed under s.29.
Entrenched in §315(5) of the 1979 and 1999 Constitutions, meaning the Act can only be altered by a two-thirds constitutional amendment, not by ordinary legislation. Every National Assembly since 1999 has flinched.
The Land Use Act is the direct constitutional successor to the 99-year Royal Niger Company mineral royalty deed of 1899 and the Petroleum Act 1969. The 1899 deed asserted Crown ownership of Northern minerals; the 1969 Petroleum Act asserted State ownership of all petroleum; the Land Use Act 1978 generalised the principle to all land and all sub-surface rights everywhere in Nigeria, completing the transfer of allodial title from communities and individuals to the State. Where a Yoruba family or an Ijaw community had once held land under customary tenure, they now hold only a right of occupancy — terminable for 'overriding public interest' on payment of compensation for crops, not land.
Consequences still ricocheting in 2026: (i) the mortgage market is structurally underdeveloped — a bank cannot perfect a mortgage without governor's consent, which routinely takes 12–36 months; (ii) compulsory acquisition for federal projects (FCT layouts, oil pipelines, rail corridors) pays out at statutory rates that bear no relation to market value; (iii) the Land Use Act is the legal mechanism by which Plateau, Benue and Kaduna State governments have asserted authority over open grazing (and by which Benue Open Grazing Prohibition Law 2017 survived court challenge); (iv) it is the reason no private oil company can lease land directly from a Niger Delta community. Reform proposals — Femi Falana SAN, the 2014 National Conference, the PEBEC team — have all stalled at the entrenchment hurdle.