Monday, 14th July, 2025
Hon Kofi Obiri Yeboah
Subin
Mr Speaker, I thank you for the opportunity to speak on this matter of urgent public importance concerning the embargo placed on the Lands Commission halting the sale, lease and processing of transactions involving state and public lands.
Mr Speaker, upon assumption of office, the President, H. E. John Dramani Mahama, by a letter dated 10th January 2025, directed the Lands Commission to halt the sale, leasing and processing of all state and public lands. Mr Speaker, although the decision of the President may aim at safeguarding public lands for the benefit of Ghanaians, this directive may also affect individuals, corporate entities which may have legitimately acquired interest in these lands.
For instance, Mr Speaker, there are lands within the Osu Mantse layout that were vested in the state, but, subsequently, individuals and corporate entities acquired interest in same, upon application to the Lands Commission. Mr Speaker, as you may be aware, the composition of the Lands Commission Board provided under Article 259 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana comprises a chairman who is neither a Minister nor Deputy Minister and representative of various bodies, including the National House of Chiefs, the Ghana Bar Association, the Ghana Institution of Surveyors, the National Association of Farmers and Fishermen, inter alia.
Mr Speaker, it is imperative to know that before one may acquire an interest in State lands, he or she may have gone through a rigorous process as structured by law and practice. Mr Speaker, although the directives by the President to halt all state transactions may have been issued with good intentions, it may pose serious challenges. Among the challenges I envisage include disruption to land registration processes. Registration of state-owned lands, such as the Osu Mantse layout, which are often owned by individuals and corporate entities, are now in limbo. This directive means that individuals seeking to perfect or register their lands with the Lands Commission are unable to proceed. This creates uncertainty and stagnation in land administration, a critical sector in the economy of Ghana.
Secondly, Mr Speaker, it deprives the private investor, both individuals and corporate bodies to use their legally acquired lands to secure loans from the bank. If, indeed, the Government thinks that the private sector is the engine of growth, then the Government, as a matter of urgency, should lift the ban. Also, there will be an impact on financial transactions.
Mr Speaker, individuals and corporate entities which may have acquired interest in state lands and use same as security for loans from financial institutions will face difficulties as they may not be able to assign their interest in such lands to the financing institutions. This restriction could lead to defaults on obligations. Again, there will be an impact on consolidated funds.
Impact on Consolidated Fund.
Mr Speaker, revenue generated by the Lands Commission through stamp duties, consent fees, lease preparation fees, premium costs and all charges as embedded in offer letters will by virtue of these directives, become non-existent. This revenue loss will adversely impact the Consolidated Fund, thereby affecting Government budgets. The Lands Commission is said to be the second source of revenue for Government in terms of non-tax revenue after the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA)
Impact on Joint Venture Agreements
Mr Speaker, this directive will also affect joint venture agreements between individuals or corporate entities and the state, which were entered into prior to the issuance of these directives. In the quest of Government to safeguard state property, especially the eminent domain ones, one of the tools or methods that successive Governments have deployed is joint venture agreements with individuals and corporate entities.
Mr Speaker, these types of agreements do inure to the benefit of the state in that such arrangements, more often than not, may come at no direct cost to the state. In most of these transactions, the private parties to the agreement are required by the Government to build executive townhouses to accommodate Ministers and other top government officials using their own resources. The Government in turn, pays back by offering them lands that are termed ‘‘demise land’’.
Mr Speaker, these individuals or corporate entities may have performed their obligations under the joint venture agreements, awaiting the Lands Commission to engross leases in their favour. With this directive, however, the Lands Commission is estopped from performing their duties under these agreements. If care is not taken, the state will be saddled with lots of court actions and judgement debts. As we speak, several individuals and corporate entities have secured court judgement in respect of state lands against the Lands Commission. The Lands Commission, however, is unable to comply with the court judgement as a result of these directives.
In conclusion, Mr Speaker, I strongly believe that while decisive measures are sometimes necessary for governance, a blanket halt on all state transactions, without considering its ripple effects on critical sectors such as land administration and financing, is counterproductive. It is crucial that the directive be reviewed to allow for essential land transactions, especially those already in process. The Government must strike a balance between enforcing policies and maintaining the smooth functioning of critical institutions like the Lands Commission, which imparts the livelihoods of Ghanaians.
Mr Speaker, I am grateful for this opportunity and Subin Constituency is grateful.
Hon Maxwell Kwame Lukutor
South Tongu
Mr Speaker, I would like to commend my Colleague for the Statement he has ably made.
I want to put on record that inasmuch as he has tried to draw our attention to some of the issues that may be worrying at this moment, he failed to advert our minds to the basic reasons the President issued this ban. Now, the number one reason for which the President issued the ban is to ensure that we safeguard public lands. I remember in 2017 thereabouts, the former Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, then Hon Peter John Amewu, said that state lands were being sold like kelewele in the market. Inasmuch as he attracted a lot of laughter from the populace, it was like lands were just being sold without recourse to the rules and regulations that governed them.
Unfortunately, people who were given land prior to their coming were such that even now, some of them have not got their land. I happened to serve on the Lands Commission Board then and even when they were in Government, I had the opportunity to serve under the Ghana Institution of Surveyors as a Board Member, so the things that happened within this Lands Commission are such that rules and regulations were not observed.
For instance, one of the rules is that if it is a residential land, no one should have more than one plot. The question comes to play, what is the definition of one plot of land? One plot of land can be 0.16 of an acre or 0.18 of an acre, or 0.23 of an acre, or even 0.43 of an acre. So, that is the discretion some of our administrators have to “create loot and share” and these are the very things we understood were going on in the land administration system, which calls for some of these stringent measures to be put in place. We also want to review and have accountability for our state lands. As stated in the ORAL document, most of our lands were looted. So Government, in its wisdom, wants to ensure that we investigate and understand the basis for the allocation of some of these lands. We also want to prevent irregularities, that is to curb and prevent corruption and improve efficiency across public institutions.
The Lands Commission is one of the very public institutions that sometimes, some of us who play within the system, when people describe, makes one want to leave the system because it looks as if it is a citadel of corruption. Most of our issues that we heard in the past were based on this fact that lands were sold just anyhow. So I support the President when he says that we should allow a lot of investigation into the system to get where there were irregularities. There were a lot of land sale regulations that were so open and it was up to the discretion of whoever was granting the land.
We are saying that we want to look into these situations and ensure that where we had to rehash or regularise some of these systems, we do it to curb the over-dependence on discretion on the authorities or the people who matter in this situation. I believe that the Executive Secretary of the Lands Commission was appointed exactly on 14th April, 2025, about four months down the line. I am not sure that he would have been able to finish with the issues that concern the allocation of these lands. Is the Member saying that because people are losing their value, they should be allowed to go through the system of registration without due recourse to what we want to do to ensure that we nip these situations in the bud?
Mr Speaker, I thank you so much, but I wish that he does better by bringing out to the public the things that caused the President, His Excellency John Dramani Mahama, to put a ban rather than the causes and the consequences he thinks that people are suffering due to this.
I thank you very much for the opportunity.
Hon Anthony Mmieh
Odotobri
Mr Speaker, in the first place, I would like to commend the Hon Member for Subin for his delivery.
Mr Speaker, it has been over seven months since this embargo was placed on the sale, leasing, as well as all transactions affecting Government lands. It started off by one. I would like to enumerate it. It started off by: First, the Executive Director was asked to present a report on all recent transactions.
In the same letter dated 10th January, 2025, he was also asked to present a comprehensive review of the current framework which the Lands Commission goes by. Subsequent to these two directives, there was a more serious one: directing the Lands Commission not to process any transaction dated after 2017. The Government knows why they did that, which I believe Ghanaians would want to know.
Mr Speaker, my concern is that it is a very well-known fact that the Lands Commission generates a lot of money for the businesses of this Government. We have individuals, organisations, et cetera who have acquired lands, completed buildings, occupied their premises, but do not pay rent, because according to the letter dated 10th January 2025, they were not supposed to be doing any business regarding transactions dated 2017 and beyond.
Mr Speaker, apart from that, no stamp duty is being generated, but we are aware that every government requires a lot of money, a great deal of money, to be able to do its business. Mr Speaker, that aside, we all know the problem in Accra. There are problems with family lands, stool lands, and a lot of people are comfortable acquiring government lands because of these problems. Not to forget about investors, and this is also affecting the interest of investors in doing business in Ghana.
For seven months now, no businessman or business entity can acquire government land. If even one acquired it, one cannot go ahead to process documentation on said land. We would have to look at this critically. Seven months is too much. Everybody is suffering; the individual is suffering, and institutions are suffering. I would urge the Government to expedite action on this, so that it would serve as a deterrent to those who have committed crimes.
Then again, for those who have acquired lands genuinely, they can pay the necessary statutory fees, duties, et cetera for the Government to earn money to do its business. Then the foreign investors, can also have confidence in our system again, acquire lands, and come and do their business.
Mr Speaker, I am grateful.
Hon Haruna Iddrisu
Tamale South
Mr Speaker, let me thank you for the opportunity to comment on the Statement made by Mr Kofi Obiri Yeboah.
I do not know if I have his permission to call him Osikani, as he was popularly referred to in Commonwealth Hall during our days at the University of Ghana. He was my campaign manager.
Mr Speaker, on the larger issue, I am sure the Hon Deputy Minister for Lands and Natural Resources will provide policy guidance. But to assure the maker of the Statement, President Mahama is a law-abiding President of the Republic. Yes, it is true that he issued a directive on the 10th January, 2025, to sanitise land acquisition in Ghana.
Mr Speaker, those who lawfully and genuinely acquired their lands should not worry about the consequence of these directives. What the President sought to do was to have first-hand information on who got what, when, how, and for how much. Mr Speaker, and then to specifically deal with those who, in the name of influence and authority, are grabbing public lands against the public interest and not even acquiring land.
Mr Speaker, may I with respect refer you to Article 257 of the Constitution and it says: “All public lands in Ghana shall be vested in the President on behalf of, and in trust for, the people of Ghana.”
Mr Speaker, it imposes a fiduciary responsibility on the President that tomorrow, he should be able to account to the Ghanaian people how public lands were managed in Ghana under his watch, having assumed office as President of the Republic. The President is well aware that we would need land for farming and we would need land for investment. In fact, the President thinks that there must be a rapid response to people who stand in the way of foreign investors who come into Ghana to acquire land in order that we can accelerate how attractive Ghana can be in respect of foreign direct investment.
Mr Speaker, in concluding, we also know, that in Ghana, people have taken advantage of this acquisition of public lands. Hon Kofi should look at Article 20 very well. If for instance, he acquires a land for public purpose, and he has not used it for the public purpose, the land must go back to its original owners. That has not happened in many instances.
Mr Speaker, to assure my Colleague, the directive of the President was to have first-hand information on how public lands have been managed over the last eight years, and who took undue advantage of this in order that he can provide correctional measures as the person to whom this land is vested? So, Hon Kofi should be assured that those who are doing legitimate business and want to acquire land for the purpose of business, are not the target of the directive of the President. His target is the looters of land in the name of influence. How can one acquire a school park or a school building or a school land for the purpose of acquiring a public land?
Mr Speaker, elsewhere, the law even on Ashanti lands is different. The law on Upper-East lands is different. The laws in other jurisdictions are different.
Mr Speaker, I am sure the Minister for Lands and Natural resources will provide an appropriate response. The President acted lawfully within his mandate in order to sanitise the acquisition of lands in Ghana and to stop the looting of public lands in the name of public influence. So, he has accordingly directed that no Minister under his watch should be associated with the acquisition of any public lands. I am sure we would oblige him in order that we help him achieve their sanity.
Mr Speaker, I thank you.
Hon John Darko
Suame
Mr Speaker, I thank you for the opportunity to comment on the Statement ably made by my Brother, the MP for Subin, Mr Kofi Obiri Yeboah.
Mr Speaker, his Statement has brought up important issues happening in the land administration sector. In this country, at least in Accra, sometimes it takes five to six years to register lands. Mr Speaker, you know that in this country, or at least in Accra, it takes five to six years to register a land. So, the Policy by His Excellency the President, in my view, has put an undue burden on the Lands Commission and the people of Ghana.
As I already said, Mr Speaker, it takes so much time to register a land in Ghana, so for the President to maintain this Policy for the past seven months, without review, means that now the time for registration of lands is going to go way up. Is that what we want as a country that if you buy a land and want to register, it would take you six to eight years?
Mr Speaker, I am aware and I have clients who have lands purchased from private individuals and they are supposed to transfer their titles to another private people even though the lands were originally government or public lands, and because of this Policy, they are unable to register or get their titles.
Mr Speaker, this is a worrisome situation and I believe that the Minister should be able to tell us when the government intends to review this Policy. The Policy as it is right now, in my view, Mr Speaker, with respect, I believe was not properly thought through. If it were, Mr Speaker, timelines would have been given. For instance, the President would have said that he is putting this embargo for three months for a review to be done. When embargo was placed, it did not give timelines. So, the people of Ghana do not know how long this embargo is going to take before it is reviewed, especially those who are registering lands.
Mr Speaker, this is a very important Statement, and I believe every Member in this House should support the Statement ably made by my Brother, especially Mr Speaker, as it deals with the time within which registration of land is done.
Mr Speaker, without more, I thank you for the opportunity, and I yield the floor.
Hon James Enu
Tema West
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. Let me start by thanking the maker of the Statement for this very important Statement to the House.
Let me also say that I want to associate myself with the submissions that were made by the Hon Minister for Education. Indeed, this directive by the President was triggered by certain circumstances. We witnessed what we call the state capture, particularly in Tema West.
We had a situation where football parks and markets were being sold out under very bizarre circumstances. And if you look at a place like the Ramsar Site, it has been completely sold out to the extent that recently there were some demolitions around the area and it came out clearly that people were even building in the centre of the Ramsar site because all these places were sold out. So, it was important for such a directive to come to sanitise the system. I believe that by so doing, we will ensure that all the lands that were acquired under the wrong circumstances can be revoked and reverted to the state.
Mr Speaker, I thank you very much for the opportunity.
Hon Yusif Sulemana
Bole Bamboi
Mr Speaker, I am very grateful for this opportunity to contribute to this Statement made by my good Friend, Hon Kofi Obiri Yeboah on this very important subject matter.
Mr Speaker, listening to him, I asked myself whether this was the right time to read this Statement, given the fact that from where I sit, I have a lot of information. But I will be measured because if I were to come out with detailed information that I have with respect to land sales, especially government land sales, I am sure my Brother would have decided that he would wait and make this Statement another time.
Mr Speaker, His Excellency the President acted lawfully, and like my hardworking Minister for Education stated, he acted within the law. I thought that Hon Colleague would be praising the President, because in his own Statement, he said that the President did what he did in order to safeguard government lands. That is an admission that indeed what he has done is the right thing. I know him as a lawyer—
A land lawyer, and I know he has so much interest in issues that have to do with land, and so I am not surprised he came out with this Statement. But let me just say this, that even within this House, especially with reference to Hon Stephen Amoah, who made a public Statement that he is appealing to the President and this government to ensure that a land that was taken away from schools in the Ashanti Region be reverted to the schools.
This is a Deputy Minister who served in the previous administration for some number of years. I know he could not talk while his government was in power, but he was bold enough to call on the President to ensure that this land is given back to the school. It tells you that indeed there is a problem. It tells you that there is the need for the President to investigate the sale of government lands over this period. I heard somebody asking why 2017 to date? Under the previous administration, there was a committee that investigated the sale of land between a certain period ending in 2016. So, there would be no need for you to go back and do investigation when those investigations have already been done. We are also told that the government is going to lose revenue because people who are now willing to pay their taxes are not paying.
This does not mean that when the ban is lifted, they will not pay those monies. So, no money is going to be lost. It is important to also put this on record. The maker of the Statement said that some people legitimately acquired their lands. Let us advert our minds to the very law that gives the right for us to be able to acquire such lands as individuals or as corporate organisations and that law is the State Land Act, 1962 (Act 125). The Act came with it, State Lands Regulations, 1962 (L.I. 230) and in that LI, there is a form called Form 5. The Hon Member should take a look at the requirements of that form very well. Let me mention some of the requirements:
One, the applicant must provide his bank statement; two, the applicant must provide two passport-sized pictures; the applicant must also state his source of funding to develop the land; the applicant cannot also acquire more than two plots. There are instances where people have plots in Ashaiman, government land in Osu and everywhere. These are the reasons for the need for us to investigate the sale of government lands.
Mr Speaker, let me also say that the President has put in place a very strong bipartisan committee. Let me announce to the House that the committee is made up of people like Prof Kwame Gyan and I know you know him very well. We have Prof Yakubu Banor and Rev Lawrence Tetteh serving on this committee. We also have Dr Sepran at the Ministry of Works, Housing and Water Resources serving on this committee. It tells us that the President means business. The President wants to interrogate and assess the way lands were sold in this country within this period, so that he can account to the good people of Ghana for the stewardship they have given him within the period that he is supposed to govern.
Mr Speaker, let me also state that there were some government land arrangements. For instance, he made reference to the swap arrangement, where government land is given to private individuals, so they value the land and also provide some asset to the Government in lieu of the land that they have given to them. We have come to realise that there was no value for money for some of those lands. So, it is important to ensure that Ghanaians benefit from the very land that they bequeathed to us. Very soon, the committee will come out with its findings. The President has given us up to the second week of August to submit our report. Once that is done, I can assure the House that the ban will be lifted and there will be policy guidelines.
Also, if there is a need for some legislation to be made, we will do that in order to ensure that government or state lands are not abused in the way we are currently seeing it. Indeed, there was a rush to register government lands in the last days of the previous Administration and the records are there. If we go to the Lands Commission, the number of applications that they saw within that short period is unimaginable. Why were they rushing to do it? Clearly, something went wrong somewhere.
Let me say that some people have called me, as the chairman of the Committee, that they were worried that, with the way we are going about this issue, how are they also going to get lands. I told them that this is a different Administration; this is the Mahama-led Administration. It is not like the previous one, where people can acquire land anyhow. And for us, it is about Ghanaians and nothing. So, I have told those people that, very soon, there will be a policy guideline that will not allow people to acquire government land the way we saw it under the previous Administration.
Mr Speaker, let me end it here and assure the maker of the Statement that, very soon, the ban will be lifted and there will be a report. I am inviting him to appear before the committee. We are inviting so many people. And if he wants to give us some information, he is most welcome. We can arrange for him to come and provide us with the information he has.
Mr Speaker, when I spoke about Dr Stephen Amoah that he made a call to the President and for that matter, to the Ministry, that there are some lands that were acquired by the previous Administration and that those lands belong to schools, the Hon Minister said it here. School lands were acquired and given to private individuals. Now, if the school wants to expand, where do they go? So, I intend to invite Hon Stephen Amoah to also come and provide us with information, so that we can get that land back to the school. When we do that, then we will know that, indeed, we are resetting this country. With this,
Mr Speaker, I thank you.
Hon Abdul Aziz Fatahiya
Savelugu
Mr Speaker, I am very grateful for this opportunity to contribute to this Statement made by my good Friend, Hon Kofi Obiri Yeboah on this very important subject matter.
Mr Speaker, listening to him, I asked myself whether this was the right time to read this Statement, given the fact that from where I sit, I have a lot of information. But I will be measured because if I were to come out with detailed information that I have with respect to land sales, especially government land sales, I am sure my Brother would have decided that he would wait and make this Statement another time.
Mr Speaker, His Excellency the President acted lawfully, and like my hardworking Minister for Education stated, he acted within the law. I thought that Hon Colleague would be praising the President, because in his own Statement, he said that the President did what he did in order to safeguard government lands. That is an admission that indeed what he has done is the right thing. I know him as a lawyer—
A land lawyer, and I know he has so much interest in issues that have to do with land, and so I am not surprised he came out with this Statement. But let me just say this, that even within this House, especially with reference to Hon Stephen Amoah, who made a public Statement that he is appealing to the President and this government to ensure that a land that was taken away from schools in the Ashanti Region be reverted to the schools.
This is a Deputy Minister who served in the previous administration for some number of years. I know he could not talk while his government was in power, but he was bold enough to call on the President to ensure that this land is given back to the school. It tells you that indeed there is a problem. It tells you that there is the need for the President to investigate the sale of government lands over this period. I heard somebody asking why 2017 to date? Under the previous administration, there was a committee that investigated the sale of land between a certain period ending in 2016. So, there would be no need for you to go back and do investigation when those investigations have already been done. We are also told that the government is going to lose revenue because people who are now willing to pay their taxes are not paying.
This does not mean that when the ban is lifted, they will not pay those monies. So, no money is going to be lost. It is important to also put this on record. The maker of the Statement said that some people legitimately acquired their lands. Let us advert our minds to the very law that gives the right for us to be able to acquire such lands as individuals or as corporate organisations and that law is the State Land Act, 1962 (Act 125). The Act came with it,
State Lands Regulations, 1962 (L.I. 230) and in that LI, there is a form called Form 5. The Hon Member should take a look at the requirements of that form very well. Let me mention some of the requirements:
One, the applicant must provide his bank statement;
two, the applicant must provide two passport-sized pictures;
the applicant must also state his source of funding to develop the land;
the applicant cannot also acquire more than two plots.
There are instances where people have plots in Ashaiman, government land in Osu and everywhere. These are the reasons for the need for us to investigate the sale of government lands.
Mr Speaker, let me also say that the President has put in place a very strong bipartisan committee. Let me announce to the House that the committee is made up of people like Prof Kwame Gyan and I know you know him very well. We have Prof Yakubu Banor and Rev Lawrence Tetteh serving on this committee. We also have Dr Sepran at the Ministry of Works, Housing and Water Resources serving on this committee. It tells us that the President means business. The President wants to interrogate and assess the way lands were sold in this country within this period, so that he can account to the good people of Ghana for the stewardship they have given him within the period that he is supposed to govern.
Mr Speaker, let me also state that there were some government land arrangements. For instance, he made reference to the swap arrangement, where government land is given to private individuals, so they value the land and also provide some asset to the Government in lieu of the land that they have given to them. We have come to realise that there was no value for money for some of those lands. So, it is important to ensure that Ghanaians benefit from the very land that they bequeathed to us. Very soon, the committee will come out with its findings. The President has given us up to the second week of August to submit our report. Once that is done, I can assure the House that the ban will be lifted and there will be policy guidelines.
Also, if there is a need for some legislation to be made, we will do that in order to ensure that government or state lands are not abused in the way we are currently seeing it. Indeed, there was a rush to register government lands in the last days of the previous Administration and the records are there. If we go to the Lands Commission, the number of applications that they saw within that short period is unimaginable. Why were they rushing to do it? Clearly, something went wrong somewhere.
Let me say that some people have called me, as the chairman of the Committee, that they were worried that, with the way we are going about this issue, how are they also going to get lands. I told them that this is a different Administration; this is the Mahama-led Administration. It is not like the previous one, where people can acquire land anyhow. And for us, it is about Ghanaians and nothing. So, I have told those people that, very soon, there will be a policy guideline that will not allow people to acquire government land the way we saw it under the previous Administration.
Mr Speaker, let me end it here and assure the maker of the Statement that, very soon, the ban will be lifted and there will be a report. I am inviting him to appear before the committee. We are inviting so many people. And if he wants to give us some information, he is most welcome. We can arrange for him to come and provide us with the information he has.
Mr Speaker, when I spoke about Dr Stephen Amoah that he made a call to the President and for that matter, to the Ministry, that there are some lands that were acquired by the previous Administration and that those lands belong to schools, the Hon Minister said it here. School lands were acquired and given to private individuals. Now, if the school wants to expand, where do they go? So, I intend to invite Hon Stephen Amoah to also come and provide us with information, so that we can get that land back to the school. When we do that, then we will know that, indeed, we are resetting this country. With this,
Mr Speaker, I thank you.
Hon Jerry Ahmed Shaib
Weija-Gbawe
Mr Speaker, I thank you very much for this opportunity. I want to commend the maker of this Statement, Lawyer Kofi Obiri Yeboah, who is well known in these land matters as an expert.
Mr Speaker, just as he captured in his Statement, he says that and I quote: “Although the directive by the President to halt all state transactions may have been issued with good intentions, it may pose serious problems or challenges.”
Mr Speaker, I can understand where my Colleague is coming from; this is obviously not a bad step. But consequentially, what we have seen over the period is that lands which have been acquired by individuals who had to go through proper legal processes are being taken from them by all manner of people, including people now labelling themselves as National Security operatives. They enter into people’s lands, in fact, including ones which have been registered and have been properly titled and forcefully take them. This brings about a lot of problems.
Mr Speaker, as I speak with you, there are individuals who are even now fighting chiefs to claim lands that belong to the Government just because of this directive. Mr Speaker, when we go to Cantonments, Labone, and several other high-end areas, some of these lands have now become the lands of some traditional leaders. Now, what they say is that, since the President has given this directive, the lands have automatically reverted to them, causing a lot of problems.
Mr Speaker, land “guardism” is now on the rise—It is the order of the day. Mr Speaker, unless my Friends do not want to bear with me and to learn from me the truth. When we go to areas I have indicated supra, people go and say that—[Interruption]—It is all right to listen and learn—[laughter]—People go with all manner of forces to forcefully take lands from people. Besides that, there is also a problem that I have noticed with this directive. It is for the purposes of moving Ghana forward. If a person is given a directive and the directive only ends in 2016, obviously, there is a problem with that directive. Because state lands were given out in 2015, 2014 and 2013.
Mr Speaker, nobody is saying that they should not give the natural course of directives. But when they stop and we still find friends who can still go behind the scenes and have these lands registered, that is questionable. Does that make this directive a proper directive? This is what we have to ask ourselves. With that comes in witch-hunting because it is believed that if Hon Habib Iddrisu has one or Dr Mahama has one or I have one; then people will come after me, while the others can go and register. That is a problem.
I was expecting the Deputy Minister for Lands and Natural Resources to also tell us that, pursuant to the Constitution, I think Article 259, the Regional Lands Commissions have been commissioned. As we speak, I do not think there is any Regional Lands Commission that has been commissioned.
Mr Speaker, if the Regional Lands Commissions have even been commissioned, I have information, again, that where there are requirements, as stated by the Constitution, for instance, that the Ghana Bar Association has to have a representative, Mr Speaker, who is giving the name of the Ghana Bar Association representative to be a part of the commission? I am telling him on authority that the information that I have is not coming from—
So, a lawyer who is supposed to be a representative on the Commission who is supposed to be submitted by the Ghana Bar is not what is happening. I expect my Colleague, the Minister, to rather go and do a foolproof check to find out if the right people are the right people on the Commission.
Mr Speaker, that is the truth. We are doing all of this to ensure that the right things are done. I have followed this over the period as a former Commissioner and I know what I am saying.
Mr Speaker, with all this said, I want to thank you for the opportunity and I want to thank my Friend, Hon Obiri.
Hon Ayariga Mahama
Bawku Central
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. Mr Speaker, I think this is one of the very important Statements made in this House.
It touches on one of the very important matters that border on accountability of public officers. Mr Speaker, I was Minister more than eight years ago and I drive around property that I lived in that Colleague Ministers lived in. Today, I see almost all those properties pulled down and new buildings put up. It has become a practice for public officers when they occupy government bungalows, by the time they leave the government bungalows, they would have acquired the bungalow, either in their names or in the names of third parties. And it is not just elected public officers; it is also the senior civil servants and technocrats.
So, public officers, generally, lands that were acquired by Nkrumah and the colonial government for public infrastructure, we have made it a habit that, as for our generation, not only will we disappoint the future by not acquiring new lands, but even what has been bequeathed to us, we will make sure that they do not survive us. So, this is a very serious matter.
Mr Speaker, I think that, sometimes, we take certain matters lightly. But the public is watching. They know every inch of land in this country; they know which ones belong to the state. And when we steal those lands, they see and they know, so let us get serious There is legal stealing and illegal stealing.
Mr Speaker, I heard him. He said that we should come to the probe and prove that due process was not followed. The fact that someone followed due process does not mean that person did not steal public lands. The fact that someone went through due process does not mean that public land has not been stolen. There can be conspiracy to go through due process to steal public lands. It happens all the time, where public officers connive and go through due process to steal public land. That has happened.
Mr Speaker, yes, I went to the School of Law. But I am saying that public officers will conspire to go through due process to steal public lands. Mr Speaker, that is what is happening. We are stealing public lands and this became a major campaign issue. Where Ga communities were complaining about their lands which were taken from them to establish the capital city. Now, we say we do not need those lands and we are not returning it to the Ga people. We are finding ways and means of going through due process to take the lands for ourselves. So, it is a big issue and the Ga people have been marginalised and they are living just along the coast.
The very expensive parts of the city: Roman Ridge, Cantonments, Airport Residential area, et cetera are far beyond their means. Acquiring state lands have become a mechanism of corruption because we undervalue the lands; we acquire the lands, then we sell them for their real values and then we cream off the difference. It is a clear case of stealing.
Mr Speaker, if we take the sales at the point where the property was being passed from the state to the private person and now go to the market and check the value of the same land, the difference is ridiculous. An acre of land that costs millions of dollars will be sold to individuals at just a few hundred thousand Ghana cedis and, immediately, they will go and flip it. That is clear corruption. This is what President John Dramani Mahama has decided that he will put an end to and that is the basis of the directive that was given. So, I am surprised that anybody on this Side will actually be discussing this matter. We would have just kept quiet because if we really go into the records and we really pursue the matter, there will be issues.
Mr Speaker, so, I think that we should be commending the President for the boldness. Why? Those who were there and were rushing to sell, it is not just that they are the ones who know money or know how to acquire property. The President has brought a team into Government by stopping the transactions. The manner in which he sent a clear signal to his own team that this is not something he will tolerate. We are not talking about those who were selling left and right and then somebody said he was not saying they should not sell. But before they sell, they should pass it through him. Have they forgotten so soon? — that a certain President said they should seek clearance from him before selling—They have not heard?
Mr Speaker, they should go and check the records. Mr Speaker, I think that those of us in public office must learn to at least respect the trust that the citizens have reposed in us. If we will not multiply their assets, let us not steal what they have given to us to guard and I am so proud of President John Dramani Mahama that within weeks of being in office, the first issue he seeks to tackle is the issue of the looting of public lands.
I think that it is an opportunity for us in this House, as Members of Parliament, to follow his footsteps and to ensure that we also track the process that he himself has put in place to hold each other accountable so that every regime that comes will steadfastly hold the previous regime accountable. I hear people talk about the political class. I hate the notion that as a political class, we should conspire to loot property, to be corrupt and divest the state of its assets.
Mr Speaker, the people voted us to protect those assets and we must be seen doing that. Let me thank the maker of the Statement. I can assure him that the process President John Dramani Mahama has put in place will be a transparent and open process. If public land needs to be sold, we should declare and explain why that public land needs to be sold and if public land needs to be sold, the sales should be transparent.
It should be through auctions so that the highest bidder will bid for it. So that the state can get the best value out of the sale of those properties. It is not the case that we should never sell state property, but when we are selling, let us make sure that the state gets the best out of it. Mr Speaker, on that note, let me thank the maker of the Statement and assure him that the Minister will soon present the report to this House, our people say that, we will get to know the full length of the toad.
Thank you, Mr Speaker.
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