YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD AND YOU a program sponsored by Sustainable Design Consult dedicated to enlightening listeners on environment and town planning related issues happening in their neighbourhood and also an avenue for groups of lower socio-economic status voices to be heard.
On a brand new episode of the program TPL Adeniyi Joshua was brought to answer some questions for the general public. He is the current chairman of Association of townplanning consultants of Nigeria, Ondo State chapter, and a principal lecturer in Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo.
On what building permit is, TPL Adeniyi Joshua said it’s like a driver’s license, it’s a permit or an approval given to a developer, a client that is willing to develop his property for any land use be it residential, commercial or industrial. He said that it is a set of documents that is given by the appropriate authority as an approval towards that particular development because there are rules and regulations guiding any type of development.
TPL Ogunseyi Ayodele Joseph asked the special guest, as the ATOPCON chairman, if the members of the association are not as feasible or grounded as other associations like the surveyors, because people do not really recognize townplanners, they mostly refer to them as surveyors, on occasions he has introduced himself as a townplanner with an office he was doubted so he wanted to know how the association markets its members even people go to the ministry to seek building permit. TPL Adeniyi Joshua answered that the Townplanning profession is not as grounded here in Nigeria as it is in foreign countries like UK, Canada, US or Germany where there are many vacancies for this position in organisations. He said that in Nigeria people are yet to know about townplanning, they believe that townplanners are the one who pull down structures whereas they do beyond that, they order the land uses i.e. they put the right thing at the right place at the right time so that the community will not be in chaos in an unplanned environment turning into slums or blighted areas. He said the association is well grounded in the state, that the association has over 80 practitioners in the state spreading all over the state, some are in Ondo North, central, South-south but majority are in the central. They have their private offices but unfortunately few developers that care to have their building permit normally go to the Ministry to seek their advice, but when they get there and there’s none of the members of the association to direct them to these practitioners, the ministry will now take over these responsibilities. He said without mincing words that there is a G.O (general order) of the civil service that prohibits any civil servant from private service. So any of the members in the civil service that indulges in these type of activities, he plead with them to put an end to it as they are being paid salaries whereas private practitioners rely on these little practices. He said there was a time when a senior staff of the civil service told him that he cannot define the status of its members either they are civil servants or contractors. He said the members are readily available and expecting the general public to patronise them.
On how to obtain a development permit and the processes to getting one, TPL Adeniyi Joshua answered that the requirement for development permit varies depending on the type of land use of the land a developer is interested in. However the common aspect of it is residential use which involves a set of building plans, if it’s more than two floors (ground floor and first floor) a developer may not need engineering drawings, instead will provide tax clearance certificate, CofO, plans (ground floor plans, cross sections, structure, roof plan, site plan) which will be in four copies but if it happens to be a government residential area it will be six copies including survey plans. For industrial or commercial purposes a developer will require environmental statement to be attached, structure plan and an undertaken letter by a registered structured engineer for supervision purposes.
TPL Ogunseyi Ayodele pointed out that the CofO being a requirement to getting development permit has made it difficult for developers looking to get their building plan approved to get approval, he said this will run contrary to the eleventh goal on the Sustainable development goal that Nigeria subscribed to, where it says that we need to make the cities and human settlements safe and sustainable. He said when people start to construct without development permit this will create an anarchy. TPL Adeniyi Joshua answered that ever since the circular on CofO has been in circulation it has really affected the practitioners and the ministry. He referred to the revenue generation for the past 12 months in comparison to the one from 2021 and previous years, there have been a fall in the revenue generation and there have been increase in contraventions. He said if there are 1000 developments within the city, hardly would you find about 50 of them that has building permit because of the policy. He said they are not totally against the CofO, but in Lagos state where the policy was first introduced, they still have registration where immediately there is an advertisement, you submit all your documents, pay the necessary fee and the application will be advertised in the daily newspaper and await response of the public, either the land is a controversial land or government owned for another three months, so within the three months a developer can use this to get approval, even if it is not a permanent approval, you will get a temporary approval. All of these are measures taken by Lagos state that Ondo State is not emulating. Getting a CofO does not happen in a day and some of these developers that are government workers might have taken a loan in hopes of utilising it to construct their building. this is one of the factors that make developers start their construction without a building permit. The development control department of the Ministry is at a disadvantage because they are understaffed, they do not have mobility, they do not have the required equipment. The master plan that the government ought to have equipped the staff in the ministry with, such that they have a technology that allows officials to be able to see the state at large remotely on a device. The introduction of CofO and tax clearance has really affected the practitioners practice and the smooth operation of the ministry’s officials and the government itself is losing millions of naira on daily basis because there are developments without approval going on in the state on a daily basis.
There are so many contraventions in town regarding town planning matters mostly in urban areas. On what the association is doing regarding this and if there is synergy between the association and the ministry of physical planning, TPL Adeniyi Joshua said that there are synergies, meetings, discussions and so many position papers to the Ministry on how they can synergize. He added that knowledge is not limited to just an individual. He said that in Ondo State they plan for people when they should have planned with the people. Planning as of today should be done with people. There are so many policies being rolled out in the profession without discussing with the people in the profession and that affects things, as most of these policies fail and then they will reverse it and if they refuse to reverse it there will be a lot of contraventions. He said development permit is supposed to be social services especially in terms of residential permit. He referred to the year 2020 that there was a slogan then, that said that by the year 2020 there will be Housing for all which meant that everyone will be expected to have their own house unit but today there is a burst shortage in the housing supply. There are lot of contraventions in the town and the association has been meeting up with the ministry to see if they can let them come in because the ministry is understaffed to combat these contraventions in our communities. A consultant or a planning practitioner can come in, it’ll be in form of an agreement for instance in the local government you see some people on the highway collecting rates from shops and commercial complexes, these people are not local government officials but they must have signed an agreement to deliver a certain percentage of what they generate to the government. So the practitioners and the consultants can form a synergy, they can be in agreement, then they zone the areas into different consultant companies whereby they can help to checkmate and control or reduce the number of contraventions in the community.
TPL Adeniyi Joshua recommended to the government that there can be auditing of building plans and permit. There are so many approvals with these developers that are not authentic, there are so many that have been bastardised where they are given approval for six months but they end up constructing their buildings completely. Government are missing or wasting a lot of resources so with this suggestion he knows there can be a better and virile community.
If the association has an input in change of land use that’s rampant in urban areas, TPL Adeniyi Joshua said that they are supposed to have an input but in most instances they are not, so most of these conversion of uses are done illegally because even the ministry might not be aware of the change.