I want to welcome us to a new week and we will be continuing from where we stopped last week. Today, we would be taking a look at the GRUNDNORM of our legal system. The word "Grundnorm" is a German word meaning "fundamental norm". The jurist and legal philosopher Hans Kelsen coined the term to refer to the fundamental norm, order, or rule that forms an underlying basis for a legal system. Thus, in our country Nigeria, our Grundnorm is The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 which guarantees the rights of every Nigerian to own immovable property anywhere in Nigeria, as noted in Section 43 of the constitution.

A Nigerian Citizen has the right to own a property within any State in the country and may apply to the Governor of such State for the grant of a Right of Occupancy (this is known as Certificate of Occupancy in Lagos State) and it does not matter if the applicant is from that State of origin or not. This provision was not inserted in previous constitutions, but was just inserted in the current 1999 constitution in order to stop the discriminatory practices in States where a person may be denied immovable property just because the person is not from that State.

The Constitution expressly stated in Section 43 that "Subject to the provisions of this constitution, every citizen of Nigeria shall have a right to acquire and own immovable property anywhere in Nigeria." The process of acquiring and owning property is incidentally connected with the transfer of property from one party to another. The Constitution also has a provision that prevents government from compulsorily acquiring the properties of Nigerians except in the manner and for the purposes prescribed by law. While, Section 44 (1) went further to state that "No movable property or any interest in an immovable property shall be taken possession of compulsorily and no right over or interest in any such property shall be acquired compulsorily in any part of Nigeria except in the manner and for the purposes prescribed by a law that, among other things-
(a) requires the prompt payment of compensation therefor; and
(b) gives to any person claiming such compensation a right of access for the determination of his interest in the property and the amount of compensation to a court of law or tribunal or body having jurisdiction in that part of Nigeria.


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