Dr. Chime Ogbonna, the president of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP), in this interview with DAYO AYEYEMI, speaks on the importance of planning to human settlements, blaming reoccurring floods, illegal developments and environmental challenges in Nigerian cities and rural areas to non-implementation of the Urban and Regional Planning Law 1992.

What is urban and regional planning all about?

The profession of urban and regional planning is the only profession that prepares the environment for development, we prepare all settlements. We want it to be called livable settlements, sustainable settlements. When it is not done by the appropriate person, by the appropriate professional, that is where the society gets into trouble.

How do we get this done?

The first point is that there has to be a long ground that will guide the preparation of these plans, that will prepare the minds of people towards accepting the plan, because these days, town planners prepare their plans with the people and not for the people. The essence of doing it this way is to ensure that at the end of the preparation, by the time of implementation, you see that everybody joins the town planners in implementation because they were partners from the outset.

But when the law is not there, it becomes difficult to even prepare the plans, because the law lays down the procedure for preparation of the plans.

What plans are you talking about?

We are talking about the plans that will make our environment livable, the plans that will make our settlements livable and sustainable. In Nigeria as a country, by 1946, we had a law that was applicable to all regions of the federation. Remember as at that time, we had the eastern region, we had the northern region, we have the western region. The law was prepared at the center for every region to grow and domesticate in accordance with the clarities of those regions. And it’s essentially the same thing that is supposed to be happening now.

But, the difference between what was prepared in 1946 and what we’re talking about today is that those who prepared the 1946 Town and Country Planning Law were not Nigerians. They were our colonial masters. So, expectantly, because every plan has a purpose, every law has a purpose, the law they prepared was something that would suit their purpose. And what was the purpose then? Let me not be hard, I won’t say exploitation, but they ensured that the law guaranteed easy evacuation of raw materials from Nigeria to the other side, and of course it served their purpose.

That law also talked about segregation, and that was where the area of GRAs and the unplanned areas originated from. Our masters prepared the GRAs for themselves. Every GRA in Nigeria then had all facilities that made life livable as at that point. But outside the GRA, what happened to other settlements within the same city?

That was why by 1992, the Nigerian government in its own wisdom said enough of this foreign and exploitative laws. The government came up with what we call today the 1992 Nigerian Urban and Regional Planning Law. That law became the first indigenous town planning law in Nigeria. And unlike the previous one, or let me even inform you that by the time that law came into effect in 1992, it repealed all previous laws in Nigeria that had to do with urban and regional planning, including the then famous or infamous 1946 Town and Country Planning Law. The new law took into consideration our peculiarities as a people. It took into consideration our culture as a people.

What has changed since 1992 the new law was promulgated?

As we speak, that law is not being implemented, especially at the federal level. Indeed, it was the Federal Government that promulgated the law, but it’s not being implemented.

The repercussion is not strange to anybody to hear that a whole village or a whole neighborhood was washed away by flood, even there at Abuja. That is one of the implications of not getting this law implemented.

If you look at even the wider implication, like I told you, by 1992, that law repealed every other Urban and Regional Planning Law in Nigeria that ever existed.

So if we are not implementing the law today, what it boils down to is that Nigeria has been operating under a legal vacuum as far as urban and regional planning is concerned. Because the previous laws were repealed, a new one came, the new one is not being implemented, then the question is from where do we get the powers in all the urban and regional activities at the federal level and many states of the federation that has not domesticated the law?

From where are we drawing our power when that particular law is not been implemented?

This is where the fear comes. If it were the time of Gani Fawehinmi of late, he would have taken the federal government to court. He would have taken the various state governments that have not started implementing the law to court. But today, everybody is watching and the country is drifting environment-wise. It is at this point that I must bring an exceptional state as far as that law is concerned. That exceptional state is Lagos State. From the time the law was promulgated by the federal government, Lagos was the first to domesticate and started implementation almost immediately.

What has the implementation of the law done in Lagos State?

Lagos has the smallest land area of all the states of the federation, yet it has the largest population concentrated in this small area and there has not been cases of epidemics in Lagos.

Do you know why? It was because Lagos builds on the benefits of this law. States that are yet to implement the law do not know what they are losing. This is a law that takes care of everybody. It doesn’t matter who you are, it has provisions for everybody. It provides for preparation of master plans, regional development plans, and if we understand what these plans stand for, Lagos has been benefiting from it. The law is yielding money to the state, and the state uses the money to do some other things that increase the welfare of the people.

If Lagos had not started implementing this law, I tell you, we wouldn’t be here by now, because there would have been casts everywhere.

Lagos has discovered its peculiar situation, that if this law is not implemented, Lagos would have been wiped off. Like I said, there would have been epidemics here and there. So the same Lagos State government has continued to do what others are not doing, and that is to review the activities of the Ministry in charge of Urban and Regional Planning in Lagos State biennially. If anybody wants to succeed, if any country wants to succeed, if any state wants to succeed, if any local government wants to succeed, that federal government, that state government must have urban and regional planning as the root of its plan to grow. From 1992 till now, I want to tell you that the only state that has done that is Lagos State.

Are you saying that other states look away?

Some other states of the federation actually domesticated the law, but it’s a different ball game to domesticate a law from implementing the law. Let me mention my neighboring state, Ogun State. Just a year ago, Ogun State domesticated the Nigerian Urban and Regional Planning Law of 1992, so that it became effective in Ogun State. But from the time of the domestication till today, nothing has been done to ensure that this law is put into effective use.

The Urban and Regional Planning Board that is supposed to be established at the state level is not there, it hasn’t been established. The town planning authorities as provided in the law have not been established. We’ve not even trained enough manpower to man all these positions.

Abuja was the first to domesticate the law, but as we speak, Abuja is yet to begin effective implementation of that law.

So what are you canvassing?

We are asking our federal and states to begin the domestication and implementation of the law simultaneously, so that the jungle we find ourselves in today will cease to exist.

We’ve always told the world that every small settlement today is a potential urban area in time to come. So for us to ensure that such small settlements develop into planned and livable settlements, a master plan must be prepared instantly.

Most communities are increasingly exposed to flooding and other environmental hazards because established planning frameworks are not adequately implemented. States must strengthen their planning institutions and ensure that development activities complied with relevant regulations. (Nigerian Tribune)