WHEN GOVERNMENTS ARE LAWLESS AND IGNORANT, PLANNING IS ENDANGERED: IT IS NOW TIME TO PLAN!
WHEN GOVERNMENTS ARE LAWLESS AND IGNORANT, PLANNING IS ENDANGERED: IT IS NOW TIME TO PLAN! BEING TEXT OF THE FOURTH MEDIA CONFERENCE ADDRESSED BY TPL. OLUTOYIN AYINDE FNITP, NATIONAL PRESIDENT, NIGERIAN INSTITUTE OF TOWN PLANNERS ON FRIDAY, 11TH FEBRUARY, 2021 AT THE NITP-BAWA BWARI HOUSE, ABUJA
PROTOCOLS
Distinguished gentlemen of the News Media, this Conference is being addressed as an update on the Advocacy visits of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners to States in Nigeria. So far, 20 States have been visited.
When this administration set out to lead the Nigerian Institute, it recognized the lack of sufficient knowledge of the profession of Urban and Regional Planning, generally known as Town Planning. The focus of the administration was therefore to engage with various stakeholders including government, to enlighten the ignorant and make the public aware of the profession and its benefits to the development of the geographical space of the nation.
NIGERIAN URBAN AND REGIONAL PLANNING LAW
In 1992, the Federal Government of Nigeria promulgated the Decree 88 which subsequently became a Law of the Federal Republic of Nigeria CAP 138 (LFN 2004). The principle underlying that law is its domestication in every state of the federation. One of the reasons for the state to state visits was therefore to ascertain the state of the Urban and Regional Planning Law in each of the states and to advise on steps necessary to ensure ordered development. The visit was also an advocacy visit to raise awareness about physical planning and to emphasize that the sequence between planning and development must of necessity be like the sequence between thinking and speaking.
After visiting 20 states, spoken physically to 7 state governors, met 3 state governors’ representatives, discussed with 5 speakers of houses of assembly, engaged 10 Vice Chancellors, 3 Rectors and 2 Deputy Rectors, was hosted by several traditional rulers, spoke at every state radio and/or television stations, the general view is that Nigerian governments are largely lawless and ignorant, with only a few showing willingness to get rid of these limitations. The truth about laws is that they are principles. Principles are never broken for free; the consequences become glaring in a very short term.
The Nigerian Institute of Town Planners is able to classify the states visited into six categories:
- Those that have domesticated and are operating the URP Law;
- Those that have domesticated and are operating the Law in breach;
- Those that have not domesticated the Law, even if they are still working at it; some are said to be awaiting governor’s assent, or at the houses of assembly, etc.
- Those that have muddled up the whole system mistaking Geographical Information System for Physical Planning; states in this category include Kwara and Imo who have turned the process upside down. Some of these state just need to be helped. They think they know, whereas they are very ignorant; I don’t know who bewitched these governments to embark on this path of destruction;
- Those that see Urban and Regional Planning as a revenue generating tool; there are quite a lot doing this, making money out of confusion, and then turning around to say the planners aren’t working;
- Some states at the Executive or Legislature levels think it is a political document used to trade between professions, and to see who occupied one office or the other as created by the Law./li>
PREPARATION OF DEVELOPMENT PLANS
Apart from domestication of NURP, another worrisome issue is the lack of investment in preparation of Physical Development Plans in States. Without these plans, building plan approvals (development permit) are baseless and illegal. Governors/politicians should first invest in planning before seeking to develop. Doing otherwise is subscribing to foolishness.
But planning truly answers to visionary leadership. Unless governments are run through well thought out policies, planning is difficult to locate. What planning does is to take you from your point of location to a destination you already determined. Many governments seem to have no destination, which is why they probably need no plans and are thus satisfied with the mess they find themselves in. In the absence of policies that deliver good governance, the people resort to self help and no approach to development is more dangerous than this – when everyone takes their destiny in their own hands.
But planning truly answers to visionary leadership. Unless governments are run through well thought out policies, planning is difficult to locate. What planning does is to take you from your point of location to a destination you already determined. Many governments seem to have no destination, which is why they probably need no plans and are thus satisfied with the mess they find themselves in. In the absence of policies that deliver good governance, the people resort to self help and no approach to development is more dangerous than this – when everyone takes their destiny in their own hands.
CONSEQUENCES OF DISREGARD FOR URBAN AND REGIONAL PLANNING
The following consequences would result as a matter of time from the disregard for planning:
- Building collapse, which is rooted in the collapse of values, morals and ethics
- Increasing clash between farmers and herders
- Heightened incidence of crime and insecurity in the ungoverned spaces
- Stunted national development.
Nigeria needs to wake up or look forward to the doom that lies ahead of planless and lawless nations. I thank you all for listening.
TPl. Toyin Ayinde FNITP
National President
