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On World Town Planning Day

Afolabi Aribigbola

The World Town Planning Day 2021 was celebrated with fun fare globally on Monday November 8, 2021. It is a special day set aside to recognise and promote the role of planning in creating livable communities universally. This year’s celebration is significant in the context of Nigeria. Besides drawing attention to the precarious planning situation and deficiencies in the country, it came a week after Nigeria experienced its worst building collapse disaster in which Nigeria recorded huge losses in terms of valuable lives and properties. It should be noted that such disasters are consequences of lack of adequate planning and weak planning institutions and activities. The implication of this humongous disaster is the need to rethink and rejig our planning machinery and activities.
The international organization for World Town Planning Day was founded in 1949 by the late Professor Carlos Maria della Paolera of the University of Buenos Aires to advance public and professional interest in planning, both locally and abroad. The Day is celebrated in 30 countries on four continents each November. World Town Planning Day presents an excellent opportunity to look at planning from a global perspective, and the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP) like similar professional organisations all over the world, encourages its members to use the opportunity to ruminate over planning challenges and solutions around the globe on that day. In other words, NITP endorses World Town Planning Day as a strategy to promote a broad-based awareness, support, and advocacy of community and regional planning among the public and all levels of government through activities in recognition of accomplishments on World Town Planning Day of each year.
In a nutshell, World Town planning Day was designed and instituted to achieve some basic objectives. They include; to draw attention to the aims, objectives, and progress of urban and regional planning around the globe, to engage local citizens and officials in the value of planning and to participate in shaping their community, to highlight the valuable contributions sound planning has made to the quality of global human settlements and their environment, and to give worldwide coverage to the ideals of urban and regional planning not only within the profession but also among the general public.
Urban planning has been described as the political and technical processes concerned with the use of land and design of the urban environment. It is responsible for ensuring the orderly development of human settlements and satellite communities. The importance of urban planning is increasing, as modern societies face issues of unsustainable development, climate change, and population growth, rapid urbanization especially in developing societies such as Nigeria, Inadequate provision of infrastructure and facilities that make for good urban living. Indeed, planning helps communities to organize their land uses to ensure orderly development. In the absence of planning, growth and development of settlements will be haphazard, unorganized with a lot of crises as being currently experienced in several developing society of African including Nigeria.
In line with global practice of celebrating Town Planning Day, the 2021 edition was held in several states of Nigeria including Ondo state. However, as earlier noted, is there anything to celebrate in Nigeria with regards to current state Urban Planning? I ponder over this question for a long time coupled with several complaints from the public concerning ineffective planning and lack physical or master plans to guide and direct the growth of towns in virtually all parts of the country. In Ondo state for instance, there are no plans for the major cities, the plans generated for the major cities in the early 1980s expired in the year 2000. Past efforts since then have not been fruitful. Though commendable efforts are currently being made to prepare master plans for these cities by the state government, the fact that the state lacks master plans since the year 2000 calls for serious concern and worry by all.
Of course, another issue of concern is the realization that planning has not been given its pride of place. While people complain of the outcome of inadequate planning in terms of unorganized development and pollution, sufficient attention is not given to planning activity by all levels of government and the citizenry. For instance, the Urban and Regional Planning law enacted in 1992 was yet to be implemented by the Federal Government that produced the law. Again, most states including Ondo state are yet to domesticate the law for her local use. In other climes especially in the more prosperous societies, no physical development can take place without approval. Approvals granted are monitored from inception of project till completion.
Beyond the annual rituals of celebration, the reality of planning machinery and activity in Nigeria did not suggest significant improvement over the years. The reality is that urban planning is still in a state of comatose. In most states, planning is not being undertaken at all because the key instrument of planning, that is master planning that should guide, and control physical development are not available. Up-to-date laws to support planning actions are non-existence or outright outdated.
However, that the world Town Planning Day 2021 is coming after a major building disaster in Lagos, the commercial capital of Nigeria, provides an excellent opportunity to rethink and reflect on the precarious planning situation in Nigeria. In Ondo state, the dynamic and sincere efforts of town planners and the Ministry of Physical planning and Urban Development with support from the Un-habitat to generate plans for the major cities of the state must be supported by all to ensure its success. This is because it has the potential to change the narratives of lack of comprehensive plans for our cities. This will forestall the destructive consequences of lack of sufficient and inadequate planning activity.
Notwithstanding the shortcomings and inadequacies associated with planning activities, urban planning is still very relevant and useful and therefore should be better embraced and properly supported by all stakeholders in urban affairs in Nigeria. The benefits of well-planned environment far outweigh the consequences of unplanned communities that are allowed to grow haphazardly. As we celebrate planning as a veritable tool for improving human environment, efforts should be made to ensure the implementation of Urban and Regional Planning Act without delay. The law that purports to reorganise planning and assign definite assignment to the three tiers of government and departments of governments and agencies has the potentials to improve urban planning and urban development in Nigeria.
Also an essential ingredient of effective and efficient planning system is physical development guide or plans. Current and up-to-date plans are largely unavailable in most parts of Nigeria. In such a situation, how do we guide, control, monitor physical development of towns in a desired way? This needs to be quickly and urgently addressed in all parts of the country to forestall unpleasant situation and crisis accompanying poor and unorganized development. Of course, a society that fails to plan its cities will spend and dissipates more energy to resolve consequences of their inaction as being experienced with the Ikoyi building collapse in which monumental losses have been recorded. Finally, to secure the welfare and posterity of the people of Nigeria, planning and planning machinery should be invigorated to make its more effective and efficient. It is then that celebration of Town Planning Day can be meaningful as well as serve the purpose of creating the Day.
In addition, the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners(NITP), Town Planners Registration Council of Nigeria (TOPREC), the Ministries and Department as well as agencies responsible for planning and planning policies and actions need to brace up to the herculean task of making planning relevant and effective to healthy development of Nigerian cities in a sustainable way. Of course, all Nigerian must support planning to achieve its laudable goal of creating livable cities in the country. Otherwise, the country will continue to experience crisis in her major cities.

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