Why state governments in Nigeria need to embrace Town Planning – Olugbenga Oladimegi

The National Public Relations Secretary of Nigerian Institute of Town Planners, NITP, Ashiru Olugbenga Oladimeji has highlighted the need for state governments to embrace Town Planning in their localities.

In an exclusive interview with Daily Dispatch, Oladimeji bared his mind on the profession which has been in existence in Nigeria for over 50 years and other issues. Read excerpt below:

What is NITP

It is a non governmental organisation that was created over 50 years ago, precisely 1966. We have our branches all over the states while the national body supervises what happens at the state.

NITP is in charge of planning, supervising and promoting the course of town planning in Nigeria. It was founded by 10 people in September 1966 in Ibadan, Oyo State.

After i was elected, i came to release that the issue of image making was a serious business, no matter the job you are doing if there is no good image you are wasting your time.  If you look at most of the professional bodies there is always the bad aspect but they don’t project that always. I couldn’t imagine having a mortuary at the entrance of a hospital, it is always located at the edge because it is designed to give the profession a good image.

In a bid to create a good image, i called up all  Public Relations managers of the institute from the 36 states to come to Abuja for the training.

I told them we are image promoters in NITP, how to do you promote and manage efficient information and as a PRO you have a lot to do because your job is multi tasking, you get feed back from the public and pass it to the management and get feedback from them which is in turn disseminated back to the public. In doing this we look at the human factors that makes you to be able to deliver on your job.

NITP decided to carry out this programme because we are not trained to be Public Relations secretaries we are only electing ourselves so as to operate within the armpit of the NITP law.

How have you been able to create good image for yourself within and outside Nigeria

Taking about diaspora, Nigeria is a force to be reckon with. As i’m talking to you today the Chairman of the African Association of Town Planner i person of Waheed Kadiri is the Chairman of the Institute of Town Planners in Africa. In the ECOWAS region Nigeria takes the lead and that is why every year we have what is called common wealth association of Town Planners for Nigeria, Ghana and other West African countries and we are always taking the lead, this is in the aspect of administration.

In the aspect of human development, like i said earlier, we started with eight members but today we are more than 10,000  in terms of membership strength which is a plus. We have only the Polytechnic in Ibadan as the only institution offering Town Planning course then but today we have Town Planning courses being offered in universities, this are achievements one traces to the profession.

In terms of delivery, we have not disappointed, Abuja as a federal capital is one of the deliverable from the institutes. Most state capitals, politicians and stakeholders are now beginning to realize that physical planning affects socio- agric- economic development , if there is no good roads you can’t have good physical, socio and economic development so planning is the first thing for the nation to grow. Right now Lagos and Kaduna States have started doing master plans.

The institute has been able to create awareness in terms of telling the government what they need to do, for example we are planning the development of the North eastern region and i ask what is it about, is it about road construction and this is where Tow Planners are needed. There is a law that was necessitated since 1992 for the creation of local Planning authority executive for Abuja, Lagos and Ibadan most states are yet to do this and this is why we are not moving the way we ought to. As a planner, we are trying to see how to solve the problem of the economy and until there is a plan wastage is inevitable. Everything i this country is in comatose today due to the non-planing nature of our leaders and relevant stakeholders.

You just spoke about national development plan, now what is your take on the difference between what was obtainable back then and now as regards Town Planning

What we have now is a little bit better than what was obtainable back then in terms of education, awareness, however, we have this problem of image bastardization where people see us when we mark house for demolition, that is just an aspect of planning which is environment control. When you see us mark and pull down a building that is not demolition its correction.We are like the police, we don’t have good image with the public because of the nature of our job, people might be saying police arrest crime created by humans but we arrest crime created by physical development. If there is somebody doing what is wrong through physical development it is our duty to go there and stop such, we are seen as town council but we are law abiding.

We travel outside the country and we see how their buildings are well arranged and when you come to Nigeria the aesthetics is not even there, one building comes up before the other, what happens to the site, why will somebody build a seven story building beside a bungalow, it is a very complex situation and until we rise up to embrace planning we may ot get the required answer. Town Planers have been able to show case one or two things and politicians now understand what we have been saying, they are now focusing on Tow planning terms to propagate their programmes.

How can we have an effective and proper city planning considering the fact that most cities are not properly planned.

Well two things are involved, first are they existing before and those existing what do we do to them. The World Bank as funds for this purpose but are we actually tapping into it, lets know the old ones existing before now so the new ones has to be on planing. If we can implement the law of Nigerian Urban planning of 1992 that says there must be master plan, local plan every area will be efficient i terms of physical planning  but if there is no plan what are we building on? As at today there are not up to three or four states with master plan guiding there development. Lagos for example, you hear of 4th Mainland Bridge, its in the plan of former governors of the state but the current governor is saying they are going to start construction now. It’s a phase thing because there is a plan. Let all stakeholders, politicians accept planning in every aspect of our lives

Considering your level of experience, do you thing Abuja and Lagos see as fast growing cities are well planned

The only perfect situation we have is God and that is why there is always review, every master plan must be reviewed after 10 years, when last was that of Abuja reviewed. Abuja was created to be eared for a major reason which is to develop the surrounding cities, you can leave in Nassarawa, Kogi and come here not to congest Abuja so if you are planing for Abuja how about the bordering states. Abuja is supposed to be the growth prone center, the development here is expected to grow and by the time we have efficient transportation system by road within two hours you are in Lokoja, if such is in place the problem of congestion i Abuja will reduce.

Also there should be control for plans not to be basterdised, there is no perfect plan but they are subject to review as events and socio dynamic nature of human unfold its self .

Finally, how lucrative is the profession and what is the prospect for young graduate 

The most sort after profession in Canada today is Town Planning.  Why we are having problem here is because Nigeria is a developing state, if you go to other African countries like Kenya, Mozambique