Dr. Daniel Adamu is an urban planner and management specialist in the Department of Urban Development Planning in Nasarawa State University, Keffi. In an interview with Viewpoint Housing News, he says urban planning in Nigeria is faulty because it is largely government oriented instead of multi-actor. He maintains that apart from government, the private sector, the community associations and non-governmental organizations should play their roles in town planning. He called for review of government organizations to identify their challenges and accordingly tackle them for better performance.
Viewpoint: As an urban developer, do you think that the Nigeria government is doing enough in land planning?
Adamu: You know, planning from a wider perspective is futuristic, interventionist, particularly when you are looking at the government perspective. I think we will look at these two cores: one, futuristic in a sense that a planner or government as a planner is able to look into the future, establishing first of all the existing conditions on ground and preparing ahead such that we are able to order the development of cities in ordering land use such that you are able to meet both the economic and social needs of the people both for the present and the future.
But now, connecting back to Nigeria context, there have been skeletal approaches by Nigeria government in planning. I will put it that way. Panning is largely government oriented but it could be multi-actor based. When I mean multi-actor, the government has a role, private sector has a role, the community association and non-governmental organization also have a role.
I think that is the most sustainable kind of planning. But what we have seen in Nigeria overtime is largely the government-oriented planning perspective. So planning again is organized in terms of hierarchies.
It is expected that we have what we call the National Fiscal Development Plan. The Nigeria Urban Regional Development Plan Law of 1992 which was adopted into our constitution also made such provision for National Fiscal Development Plan.
The aim is that national investment will be organized in such a way that we are feeding an overall system towards a goal that is agreed by the nation such that the national fiscal development plan has the regional subsets, like the Nigerian six geo-political regions, the Northeast fiscal development plan, the Northwest fiscal development plan, the Northcentral fiscal development plan, the Southwest fiscal development plan, the Southsouth fiscal development plan and Southeast fiscal development plan and these will overall feed the national fiscal development plan.
It’s expected that each state keys into their sub-regional development plans. These are policies and laws or guidelines that have been established supposedly to guide planning in Nigeria. And in each of these layers, there are organizations with responsibilities for these plans.
But assessing implementation of these plans, there is a complete failure by the Nigeria government in implementing this law which was to be the anchor law in Nigeria.
Viewpoint: Now, going forward, what would you advise Nigeria to do? Because we have had issues here and there. Bakassi land was ceded to the Cameroon and several others.
Adamu: That is a way beyond planning because the territorial integrity of the country itself is under threat, but we understood that was as a result of a judgment by the International Court of Justice. If war were to break out between Nigeria and Cameroon, the casualty rate would have been high. So, looking at this from a multi-vested dimension, the consequence of disagreeing with the judgment and not ceding could create a regional crisis.
Nigeria is the population centre of Africa with the highest population accounting for close to a third in Africa population. So, any crisis that could destabilize this population will destabilize the sub-Sahara region completely. So, somehow there is a trade-off between the consequence of war and consequence of peace. That may not necessarily be within the confines of planning itself because the land first of all has to be secured.
The National Boundary Commission was established to help in resolving conflicts and I know they have been doing such jobs already. Conflicts between states like where resources are — I remember the boundary community in Anambra and Kogi states, they had issues because this community was identified as oil producing…and there is a similar issue between the government of Cross River and Akwa Ibom; they also had a boundary issue because of oil well. You know, these are resource oriented crises that are quite difficult.
From the planning perspective, there is what we call the Urban and Regional Planning Tribunal which was supposed to be there as abbitter between communities on issues like this. And we have another commission, I think it is Boundary Community Development Commission of Nigeria.
So I would advise the government to ensure that communities get what is necessary for them. It is expected that the National Urban and Regional Planning Law is provided so that at the local level, there should be what we call Land Allocation and Advisory Committee. This advisory committee helps in allocating land for different kinds of uses, for residential, for commercial; resolving land disputes within the community and between the communities, and also advising essential government agencies on better ways to approach issues. Unfortunately, only few states have established this.
Viewpoint: Are you calling for the review of Nigerian Urban and Regional Planning Law of 192?
Adamu: Well, first of all we already have a lot of commissions in the country, but most of these commissions are not even fulfilling a quarter of their responsibilities. So I will suggest that we do an overall organizational assessments. First of all, establish the capacity of these organizations looking at it from two dimensions, internal and external, with a view to evaluating their performance. If we discover that they are not fulfilling their mandates, then there is need for a holistic review of the system.
I am calling for organizations review to establish their status and once that is done, we will be able to know where the problem is and you can send your solution directly to where the problem is. If it is the human resource capacity that is lacking, you can tackle it. If it is the financing angle that is a problem, you can tackle it. If it is the autonomy issue in terms of the control, regulation, approval and forth, you know exactly where to tackle it. Then you see that you remove the clog from the wheel and the wheel starts turning properly.
