In a fresh edition of your neighborhood and you, another heavy weight guest was welcomed on the program. Mr Bayo Philips, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development, Ondo State.
Host – A very good morning to you Tpl Ogunseyi Ayodele
Sponsor – Comfort, good morning, how are you?
Host – I’m very good thank you! That’s our sponsor in person of Tpl Ogunseyi Ayodele and we have our guest in the house as well. The is Your Neighborhood and You. My name is Comfort Omolafe, welcome to the program. Today we have a guest and he is no other person than Mr Bayo Philips. Can we meet you sir?
Guest – Good morning, I am Bayo Philips, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development.
Host – Without wasting time, this morning we have questions from Nigerians who wants to know so much about the environment, first question is, being a town planner and working in the mist of town planners, how are you coping and how has been the experience?
Guest – Thank you. I am not a Town Planner; I am an administrator but surrounded by Town Planners. My own job here is to coordinate and to administer the ministry, I am having professionals in charge of our line departments and all of them are Town Planners. There are 6 departments which includes department of Physical Planning, department of ensuring Enforcement and Compliance, department of Development Permit, Master Plan department, Urban Renewal department and Planning Research and Statistics department. All the officers in charge of these departments are professional Town Planners. It is not at all difficult to work with them because we have a shared vision. We have our goals and objectives clearly cut out and all respective departments are also having their core mandates, though interrelated. So we know what we are working towards and a shared vision, so it’s not difficult to just coordinate all the departments.
I also must tell you that I have my own way of double checking whatever I have from a department and as well can call in anonymously another professional department to look at issues for me so I have a balanced perspective of whatever decision are to be taken.
Sponsor – Thank you very much sir, town planning profession brings orderliness and functional harmonious economically viable and sustainable towns and cities but looking at Akure, Ondo, Ore, Okitipukpa, Owo, Ikare among others in Ondo state, can we say that we really have city being built orderly and apart from that, do we have any policy that is guiding our land use in Ondo state?
Guest – we have orderliness in our cities like those places you mentioned. Let me start with Akure, we are having all these cities that are already built up and if I must be sincere with you, this orderliness that we are putting in came at a later stage. In Akure today, you see our roads, the layout, particularly in GRA and the infrastructural transformation having to do with our roads. Look at Ijoka area for instance, you can begin to imagine how the picture will be like at the completion of that dual carriage. Look at Arakale today, the transformation that came put an end to the unsightly picture of Arakale of before. All this are transformation that keyed into government program of urban renewal. At a point in this state, we didn’t have where the mechanics domicile, at a point, our roads do not have the kind of bus stops that we now have, so there is conscious effort on the part of government to ensure that our cities are made functional, beautiful, healthy and physically sustainable. The current government of Governor Rotimi Akeredolu SAN is not sparing efforts to ensure that these principal cities of the state are transformed and the bedrock of any transformation is what you are now seeing in terms of road network. Our cities are being opened up, look at Ikare for instance, at a point where the current Oke Alafia, it was given a deadly name because of its characteristics but today the entire Ikare is wearing a beautiful look. So, we know that we still have to catch up considering the number of slums and old settlements that we have but everyone can see the transformation that the government is doing under this regime’s agenda to transform our cities.
Sponsor – Thank you sir, you made mention of good roads and other things that the present government have done, but sir I will like to bring to your notice that some of the planning tools that the town planners used in monitoring the development of the cities, like master plan, local plan and development plan and others, I am sure we don’t have any existing one in Ondo state.
Guest – That is not correct. As I speak with you, Okitipupa structural plan is being concluded, also we have an arrangement with UN habitat. Akure structural plan, Owo and then Ore, even the GRA Alagbaka and the extension that you are now having are not just happening by accident. We have our guide in terms of development, we have respective schemes even for Akure as I speak. We are upgrading but we have them in place, so we are not just having what we call have-a-site development, we are pigeonholing all our development effort in terms of residential areas, dreams for new cities, we are pigeonholing them into the Akure masterplan. Though, it’s being reviewed.
Host – You did talk earlier about transformation of infrastructural development and cited the case study of Ijoka road but Nigerians are complaining that it’s taking too long for it to get completed and that of Oda road as well, what’s your take on it?
Guest – We know that anxiety will be there, immediately you turn the sword and scratch the soil, people will expect that by the next day it must be asphalted but we know how seasons impacts on road construction. So it’s not delay, it’s sustained and ongoing, even though the pace of work had to go down during raining season. I am not an engineer but by rising of being a civil servant, I will tell you that the bulk of construction doesn’t come with asphalting, people outside there don’t know. Immediately a road is filled, drained and set out, you will see the pace of asphalting. So to our people at home, the road is ongoing and the government is not relenting, you will see a more rapid pace when the raining season abate.
Host – Thank you so much there, I am sure our town planner has another question for you.
Sponsor – Yeah, this question is about HOCOS, the only part of it that is of more concern to me or to a town planner is the development permit. Instead of asking for approved building plan, government is asking for photogragh, is that not illegal?
Guest – Thank God the concept of HOCOS program is well understood. It’s an amnesty program for property owners over existing properties, now we are just trying to redeem the status and also time for existing properties. It’s not going to last forever, it’s going to last maybe next 1 year, subject to the further renewal or consideration by the Governor. One thing everyone must know about HOCOS program is this, if you are having an existing house or even the one bequeathed to you by your forebear, what you need to do is that you come and obtain your title document with a lot of waivers. Now, you won’t go the whole length of separately going to procure your tax clearance almost at #150,000 – #180,000, of coming to take your building plan approval, which also has its own qualifications and conditions of going to take your survey. All these are rolled into one and the amount scaled down for a bungalow to about #150,000, an amount not equal to amount singularly payable for tax clearance alone. Because it’s an amnesty you can easily understand that certain things will be waived. So at our level, we are not requiring just the photograph of the house, if you have the plan of the house, bring it but it’s just for the purpose of documentation for that scheme alone. Now, our involvement as physical planners in the entire HOCOS program is that before you can be given your CofO, we have some technical input to make. The photograph is not standing in the place of building plan, it’s just part of documentation. For the HOCOS program, our input as technical town planners is to ensure that before you are given CofO for a built property, it must not be on the right of way, under high tension, on government wetland or in a gully.
Sponsor – Do we have any town planners in HOCOS presently?
Guest – Yes, we deploy competent hands.
Host – And do you have enough equipment to support them, like maps, vehicles, local plans, development plans, zoning maps, masterplan and all that?
Guest – We have our equipment, our officers know all government acquisitions around the state. Aside from that, they also work with our law, though we are working on a review but we have our town planning law and building subdivision regulations they’re guided by all these. Let me correct an impression, people think the level of operation is define by the number of Hilux vans that you have. I can tell you that government cannot afford to procure vans for each of its function, some of us who knows how this thing works, it’s not hilux that define our logistics. We have our ways of going around it and it has been working.
Host – Without slowing down the pace?
Guest – It doesn’t slow down anything.
Sponsor – Thank you very much, recently, about few months ago government increased assessment fee, I think by 500%, how far with the figures of approved development permits before and presently?
Guest – Now, one thing is very constant about the governor, he approaches things from humanitarian angle, now if you check across the southwest, we have almost the least rate. This rate was reviewed last in 2013, from then till date, Mr Governor has just approved that we move the rate for a bungalow from #20,000 to #40,000, some #47,000 and some #49,000, some #50,000. Now, you need to have a glimpse of what is happening in Ogun or Oyo or Lagos to know how compassionate our governor is to the Ondo state public. The wrong impression people are having is this, we have some other qualification before you can procure your approval, one of it is the tax clearance and as a law abiding citizen, you are expected to have your tax clearance and it is not only used solely for the purpose of building plan. You can use it to obtain your CofO, vehicle license etc. When you have all these, you can come with your drawing, evidence of tax clearance and a paltry sum of #49,000, #47,000 or #50,000 and based on the area covered by your building. And yes, we’ve been having a good responds and it’s the obligation that you people have to this government. Help educate our public. To build a 3 bedroom now will cost nothing less than #4 – #5million and to register such for less than 50,000 is really cheap. Nothing beats having your full titled documents, it emboldens you and it has commercial and financial value.
Sponsor – Thank you very much sir, this last question is about ministries having a hand in hand work with Nigeria Institute of Town Planners, like the development control department in the ministry, I am sure you have very few staffs and they cannot cover Ondo state. In view of this, there is a concept called Resident Town Planners where your ministry makes use of Practicing Planners to check the control and development. I don’t know if this government is looking in that direction. Maybe Tpl Along will can answer this question.
Guest (Tpl Alonge) – We have been trying to do our job and ensuring that it is adequately done, we have patterned our movement in such a way that we cover the whole sphere of the state. We have offices in the entire 18 LGAs and we have registered town planners, at least one in each of those offices with other staffs. They’ve been doing their work but still we need people to come in but nevertheless, we will not wait, we will still continue doing our work to ensure that it is well done and well implemented.
Guest – We have a good rapport with NITP and they complement our efforts here. We recognize NITP as watchdogs and that’s why from time to time, we seek out their opinion. Their present leadership was at a point a director in the ministry. The relationship has been cordial, helpful and resourceful.
Host – thank you so very much. On till next week edition of the program, thank you to Perm Sec of Minstry of Physical Planning and Urban Development Mr Philips Bayo for been part of today’s edition.
Guest 1 – My pleasure
Host – And also Tpl Alonge, thank you for been part of today’s edition.
Guest 2 – Thank you
Sponsor – Thanks to our listeners at home, see you next week.