By Iddi Yire, GNA
Accra, Sept 03, GNA – President John Dramani Mahama has inaugurated a 26-Member Governing Board of the National Lands Commission, to help integrate land institutions, manage public lands, and promote judicious land use.
The Governing Board, which was inaugurated at the Presidency in Accra, is under the Chairmanship of Dr Wordsworth Odame Larbi.
President Mahama in his remarks said to the newly inaugurated Commission, that their assignment was generational.
“You have been entrusted with the sacred task of resetting Ghana’s land governance for the 21st century.
“You have the full backing of the Presidency to be bold and impartial, to eliminate bottlenecks and rent-seeking, to uphold the constitution and always act in the national interest.”
The President said: “Let your leadership leave no doubt that a new chapter has begun. We do not inherit land from our ancestors. We borrow it from our children.”
“We do not inherit land from our ancestors. We borrow it from our children because it belongs to our children and we are using it for the meantime. And so we need to know how to guard it.
“Therefore, let us act boldly, wisely, and selflessly to protect our land, reform our systems, and restore public trust.”
President Mahama said the Commission must be a beacon of hope; stating that “and let this Commission be remembered as one that transformed Ghana’s land sector, not only in policy, but in practice”.
He reiterated that the inauguration of the Commission must mark the end of impunity and the beginning of integrity.
“Let us write this new chapter together,” he said.
He said the inauguration of the newly constituted Governing Board of the National Lands Commission was not merely a statutory obligation; saying “it is the first bold step in a comprehensive national reset, an ambitious agenda to reimagine and rebuild Ghana’s land governance architecture for present and future generations.
“We’re gathered here not just to inaugurate a commission, but to make a solemn commitment. Never again shall the custodians of our nation’s land act with impunity or indifference.
“Land is at the heart of our development. It is the basis for agriculture, for housing, industrialization, transportation, environmental preservation, and indeed cultural identity.”
President Mahama said it was also critical in attracting investment, securing livelihoods, and sustaining peace.
“Yet for far too long, our land administration system has become a symbol of everything we seek to change in Ghana. Confusion, conflict, and expropriation,” he said.
President Mahama said public confidence in land governance was at an all-time low; stating that land acquisition was fraught with multiple sales and ending litigation and extortion, and also indeed violence.
The President said the problems persisted in rural, peri-urban, and predominantly urban areas; declaring that nowhere more pronounced than in the Greater Accra Region, which is the capital region.
He said from the illegal alienation of forest reserves in the eastern region, to the conversion of public lands in the north, they have witnessed a national tragedy of greed, impunity, and dysfunction.
“Indeed, no area of our national life is in greater need of a reset than our land administration system.
“Our ancestors taught us that land is scarce. However, successive years of mismanagement compounded by political interference and institutional decay have left our land governance system broken and vulnerable.”
President Mahama said independent anti-corruption surveys had consistently re-ranked the lands commission amongst the most distrusted institutions in the country.
Dr Wordsworth Odame Larbi, the Chairman of the Governing Board of the National Lands Commission, on behalf of his colleagues thanked the President for giving them the privilege to serve the nation.
GNA
Edited by George-Ramsey Benamba