“YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD AND YOU” a program sponsored by Sustainable Design Consult to educate citizens on all that they need to know regarding land matters and offer solutions to issues you might have on land matters in your neighbourhood.
On a brand new episode of “Your Neighbourhood and You”, the program hosted a fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners; Tpl. Gbolabo Osunsanmi (fnitp), to discuss Urbanisation, if it’s a good development or not. The guest speaker said Urbanisation is a trend, and a good development. He said that Urbanisation is a global phenomenon and it’s not just peculiar to Ondo State or Nigeria alone, it’s all over the globe.
The show’s sponsor, Tpl. Ogunseyi Ayodele Joseph, pointed out that Urbanisation draws people away from rural areas to urban centers, however people are moving from rural and the urban areas in the country to go to a more developed country, he then ask if Urbanisation can now be referred to as the movement from a less developed country to a more developed one. The guest speaker said that the definition of Urbanisation cannot change, it remains the movement of people from a rural area to urban centers. He added that, the United Nations provided statistics that by 2050 Urbanisation will continue to increase, by that time out of 10 people in a rural area, 7 will leave to move to urban cities. He said in Africa in 1950, the Urbanisation rate was at 27% the UN gave Africans a report that by 2014 Urbanisation will be at 40% and its estimated that by 2050 it will be at 60%. He said for Nigerians leaving to other countries, he said even in Canada and UK that people tend to leave their locations and move where the standard of living is cheaper. He talked about the push and pull factors of Urbanisation. The push factors include increased population and the most recent one now insecurity, a lot of people move from rural areas to urban cities because they don’t safe in the rural areas.
Urban centers require effective town planning tools, on what these tools are, TPL Gbolabo Osunsanmi said generally there are many tools used in Urbanisation, but there are some basic ones, he said town planners are given approximations of land uses either in urban areas or rural areas but with respect to Urbanisation, it is about management of Urbanisation itself since Urbanisation is not bad as many tend to assume that it is. He added that Urbanisation is a welcome trend however, uncontrolled Urbanisation is where it becomes a problem. This is where town planners come in, by building sustainable and environmentally friendly cities, making provision for essential services like access to good roads, health services, electricity and other social amenities, and employment opportunities. He said all of the aforementioned and more are what Urban planners may use to control Urbanisation. Another factor is population control, he said according to global statistics this nation cannot afford to keep making children that cannot be catered for. He pointed out instances in some countries where they restrict you to the number of kids you can have either directly or indirectly so as to control the population also to avoid situations where they give birth and cannot cater for the children.
TPL Ogunseyi Ayodele Joseph questioned that what has changed for town planners now because in those days, people used to fear town planners and obeys whatever they instructed them to do, however now people just ignore their instructions and do whatever they want. TPL Gbolabo Osunsanmi answered that it is a collapse of Urban governance, the disrespect to issues and town planning rules now is not limited to town planning. He gave an example of how people used to fear sanitary inspectors then as well, whether it is waste management rules or town planning rules people do not obey them anymore. Compared to urban areas, rural areas still observe setbacks to an extent and retain gray areas, whereas in urban areas there is an attitude of non-compliance. To manage and control Urbanisation, town planners are expected to use land use zoning, urban fund growth management, city development planning, urban development policy, these are documents that are established and should be for everybody not just a selected group of people. So when there is a defined standard on construction, it should be for everybody but the nation does not have them. He said the Akure master plan has been made since but it has expired since the year 2000, this means that Akure has been developing haphazardly for the past 23 years which implies town planners do not have the justification to tell a person who is not complying with setback the right thing to do. The urban regional planning law that was domesticated in 1999 and signed into law in Ondo State is not being implemented and a lot of attempts has been made to review with the current government but it is still at the house of assembly level. He said that since there are no rules or laws that guides developments there will always chaos and haphazardness. He said that the opposite of a planned environment is chaos, so what Akure is experiencing now is uncontrolled Urbanisation. He said it is a very sad situation compared to other states that are actually making progress, as he just returned from Benin and the government is currently making a regional development plan for the people of Edo state and master plan.
When asked what he meant by urban governance and how they are the cause of collapse of urban policies made by the government, he said that how can development be implemented when there is no plan. He said urban governance should give the people a chance to participate in the decision making of urban services to be provided and when they are to be provided, they should ensure they are integrated into the implementation and thereafter they are there to own the project such that they will be there to monitor the sustainability of the facilities it could be roads, transformers or power supply. He added that the politicians do not deem it fit to be responsible to the people and only do as they please. He said that if there is a development plan and it is being followed and properly implemented there is no need for a manifesto.
TPL Ogunseyi Ayodele Joseph asked if the town planners or the professionals in charge of development control are not doing their jobs or maybe they just lack the political will to do their jobs right, he gave an instance, in some of the government owned estates that have approved layout and have documents guiding the development but some of the developments there do not have approval, yet based on who they know or who they are, they continue construction and erect their buildings, so he wants to know why town planners do not have that willpower to stand by the right thing and make sure those buildings are not built. TPL Gbolabo Osunsanmi started by pointing out that he did not know about the instance that was given, however since political will is being discussed, he said that political will is not for professionals but for politicians. He further explained that political will is the ability to exercise political power correctly and firmly, so to implement political will is in the hands of politicians but in regards to town planners doing their job or not, he said that it is due to many factors. He said If any developer takes government to court, he’s likely to win because there’s no law as the state is still using Ondo State building and sub division guide of 1984 but there was a new law signed in 1999 which is not being implemented. Talking about implementation of plans and enforcement is a function of so many things.
He added that no city in Ondo State has a master plan except Okitipupa. The federal government through the federal ministry of works and housing has a program called Assisted program to states and there they prepared the master plan of Okitipupa and dated 2019/20.
When asked why we have demolitions plans, an instance where a person buys a land meets with a town planner or surveyor and he constructs his building but years later he’s being told that they are going to demolish the building, where this person takes this case to court that they have no right to demolish his building since the state had no master plan and he was told it’s okay to construct his building there, TPL Gbolabo Osunsanmi said that’s the chaos he was talking about and the city shouldn’t give itself to this kind of chaos, adding that a master plan is a kind of policy document that provides guidance for current issues, so the city has to prepare a master plan where there are designated areas for residential buildings, commercial buildings, industrial buildings and the citizens already know what type of buildings is allowed in these areas. He said that if it becomes too expensive as preparing a master plan will cost billions there’s an option of producing land use plans, these are small plans to guide Akure, Owo differently. That kind of policy can still assist in avoiding the chaos no master plan ensues, and it will especially avoid these cases of going to court, he’s aware there are so many court cases but it can be stopped.
TPL Ogunseyi Ayodele Joseph asked if the government does not have a good adviser or they prefer to ignore all they need to know since it will not fetch them immediate money. The guest answered that a city with a master plan will make things easy, there will be an ease in conducting business, it will encourage investors, it has a lot of advantages. He said that “Great places do not just occur, they were made” and to make great cities there must be plans. He mentioned that he heard the state government is doing a lot of things and that he heard that they want to build a flyover that will run from Onyearugbulem to Shagari. He said they have been suggesting this to them for years, but he suggests that the government cannot be doing things like these haphazardly bring them together and make it into a solid plan so it can occur in a sequence that has been planned and they will see optimum results.
In his closing remarks, TPL Ogunseyi Ayodele Joseph disagreed with the statement that the government is doing their best. He pointed out that the citizens had a lot to gain from the Mimiko regime compared to this present government and everything has gone down the drain now.
