ABSTRACT
A very close enquiry was held by the Government of Northern Nigeria in the years 1907, 1908 during the Governorship of Sir Percy Girouard into local native law and custom regarding land tenure. In the course of this enquiry it was found that it was an invariable rule that the tribe or community regarded the area which it considered to be its own to belong to its members generally. A full enquiry having revealed the native laws and customs governing land tenure in Northern Nigeria, the question as to what position the Government should adopt vis-a-vis these laws and customs was then gone into. The question of land tenure is connected in the closest possible manner with the burning question of labour. The African native sets greater store by the right to the use and enjoyment of sufficient land to support himself and his family by the individual.
