Nigeria has one town planner to 70,000 persons – NITP | Prestige Real Estate News

The National President of Nigerian Institute of Town Planners, Nathaniel Atebije has lamented the acute shortage of town planning professionals in the country.

Atebije said that as against having at least one town planner to 3000 residents as it is obtainable in some developed countries, Nigerians could only boast of one town planner to about 70,000 people.

According to him, this has no doubt reduced their visibility across communities in Nigeria and has therefore impacted haphazard building and the consequent challenge of flooding among other environmental challenges.

Atebije disclosed this while speaking with journalists during the Southwest Nigerian Institute of Town Planners Town Hall Meeting and Leadership Training held on Tuesday at the Ogun State secretariat of the association, Leme, Abeokuta.

The three-day programe has as its theme “Creating the Livable Environment We Need Through Collaboration and Community Participation”.

Atebije decried inadequate planning in the country saying that it has led to avoidable losses and waste of scarce resources.

He said “One of the challenges we have in creating a livable environment in Nigeria is that we don’t even have enough professionals, we don’t have enough town planners, architects, engineers, and builders among others.

“Planning is a government job, it is a social responsibility of the government to the people of Nigeria and so they must take the lead. In some other developed countries, we have one town planner to 3000 population but here in Nigeria, one town planner will be to about 70,000 population.

“That is why eyes cannot be everywhere, there are illegal developments everywhere, in fact, they have not engaged enough town planners either those in the private sector for consultancies nor do they have enough in the public sector to help in the implementation of their building plans.

“So we need more town planners, engineers, architects, and other professionals in the built environment to ensure that things go smoothly”

Speaking on the lack of adequate planning for the country, Atebije said “People should know that if you invest without a plan you will fail…this is the problem with Nigeria, we want to develop but we don’t want to plan.

“For example, when Late President Sheu Shagari was in power, they built many of these houses called Shagari houses across the country but today most of them are housing rats, rodents, and reptiles.

“Why? Because there is no proper planning and this has continued from one government to another.”

He explained that while the country enjoyed a lot of physical planning during the military, not much of it had been recorded as the country returned to civil rule.

The president said, “With all due respect to the political administration, one of the beautiful things about the military is that they plan but one of the funny things about the political administrations is that they act.

“During the military regime, there were a lot of plans that were made for various towns and settlements in Nigeria and that is why you have a semblance of order and organisation in some parts of the nation.

“But for a person who wants to perpetrate himself in office or thinks that he may not be returned after four years, he just wants to build, he wants to do what people can see today not knowing that what people will see long after you have left is even better”.

He said that the association settled for the theme of the training because “we are talking about creating a living environment that we need, we need a livable environment, and a livable environment that is free of diseases, that is accessible, that promotes healthy living, good neighbourliness and communication.

“The only way to achieve this is if we all put our acts together and involve other professionals in the built environment with the community and we can then all go and achieve our desired goals”.

The Chairman of NITP, Ogun State, Adefela Sogbesan, said that the town hall meeting provided a forum for the town planners to engage the stakeholders and other members of the public towards building a better understanding and cordial working relationship.

Sogbesan said that even though some sizeable Nigerians make use of the professional services of the town planners but majority see them as property destroyers and demolishers saying that “whereas we are just doing our best to ensure public order”.

He maintained that organising town hall meetings like the one held along the leadership training will further go a long way to let the public understand the vital role of the town planners.

Sogbesan also urged the government to employ more town planners to increase their visibility across the country as this will help ensure that people are not contravening the town planning laws.