By Ayobami Ife, Abeokuta
Worried by the seemingly proliferation of slums, informal settlements, congestion and other nuisances in the nation’s built industry, professional town planners and estate developers converged in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital for a two – Day workshop, to deliberate and chart a path to equitable and sustainable town, urban and regional development.
Gathering on the theme: ‘The impact of emerging technologies on urban and regional planning: challenges and opportunities,’ at the event, organised by the Association of Town Planning Consultants of Nigeria (ATOPCON), the discussants, largely from the Town Planning profession and notable players in the built – industry, including the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Pelican Valley Nigeria Limited, Ambassador (Dr) Babatunde Adeyemo, were in agreement that government is central to planning, enforcement of building guidelines and provisions essential services, particularly infrastructure to ignite development and liveable human settlements.
They expressed the concern that places like Allen Avenue,Ikeja, Adeniran Ogunsanya, Lagos were in the 60s and 70s marked as residential areas until shops and clubs started creeping in, forcing many of the residents to leave for somewhere else as their once residential settings steadily lost its grip and sanity to surging commercial activities.
They equally pointed out Admiralty Way in Lekki and dozens of other places in Lagos that have lost their original design as residential settings, and regrettably giving way inexorably to commercial and social activities as well as other nuisances because the government or its relevant agencies were not there to enforce the physical planning and building regulations.
In Ogun State, Mowe and Ibafo corridors of the state and some other places came into sharp focus.It was noted that there were calls decades ago for proper planning of the area to ensure sanity and sustainable development in the environment but the calls remain largely unheeded while the axis morphed into a mega slum
However, they pushed for a reversal of the ugly trends in the two States. They sought planning regulations that are supportive, mutually beneficial and not one that hinders or discourage growth and development.
Tpl. Bisi Adedire, President of ATOPCON, in his intervention, identified multiple taxations/levies on land across the Ministry and agencies of government as issues affecting private sector operators in the build industry.
While acknowledging that the levies are necessary to enhance the capacity of the government to provide essential services to drive development, Adedire said the burden hurts property developers, especially when they’re compelled to pay everything upfront while construction had not started on their plots of land.
He urged the government to look into it and adopt a system that would be beneficial to all stakeholders.
He recognised planning regulations as something beneficial to everyone but lamented that citizens, including individuals in government sometimes latch on the weak end of government to cut corners and contravene the planning regulations..
He said, “There is a case now even in Ogun State just like a Cof O has been granted to a gentleman. They issued a CofO to one person for about 4.5heactares of land at Otta. Before you know it, those we say are government officials at Land went ahead and cut part of it simply because of the fact that the land has been lying fallow for a good number of years. They believe it may be the person is dead. They cut about half of the land 2.2hectares and issued another Cof O. The case is still on the ground. We wrote a letter to the ministry that this CofO has been issued for the past 15 years by the government and it is the same government that has issued another one that cuts across that portion of the land.
“So, the fact that people know that I’m working on that site, they have to call my attention to it that somebody has started constructing a fence around that place. We have submitted our letter to the government, the Governor, Lands, Commissioner and every other agency. Up till today, nothing has come out of it and the guy(encroacher) is still developing that site. So, at times, the government can be a problem to society.”
For the CEO of Pelican Valley, Babatunde Adeyemo, Nigeria has no problem or difficulty formulating brilliant policies. The top – notch real estate entrepreneur said the problem lies with implementation.
He advised the government to be more practical and realistic with land acquisition by always following due process as well as provide basic services or infrastructure necessary to ignite development in the acquired areas, warning that development would remain elusive in the estate until the right things are put in place.
He said, “The rules are there I think what we need to do is strategic orientation. There should be proper orientation and enforcement for people to follow laid down rules and regulations because they are coined by people, the intellectuals and the regulations didn’t fall from the sky and once we are able to enforce that I believe we will be able to better the lives of people and the government.
“The problem in Nigeria is not about policy formulation. It is all about implementation. When formulating the policies, I always believe that people in authority – President, Governors and Ministers have Advisers before they go into acquisition..Let me talk about Muhammad Buhari Estate area Kobape, the problem wasn’t all about acquisition, I believe it is the wrong implementation of acquisition.
“When you observe village excision it is a win – win thing to planning and development If you have 24 villages, you clear all the villages and acquire thousands of hectares of land you have forgotten about how you intend to ignite development in that arena ?
Does the government have financial muscle to build infrastructure and thousands of houses that will make people develop confidence to start living in that area?
“Government will not put all the funds meant to be shared with the other sectors on housing alone.That is why some of the public institutions foot drags despite being in vantage positions.
“So, we need to be more practical and strategic when we are doing land acquisitions. You don’t just go to clear villages when you don’t have the capacity to put infrastructure in place to ignite the development. Who is going to be the first person to go live in there ?”
Also contributing, Tpl (Prof) Muyiwa Agunbiade, was blunt in his submission. He attributed the tension over land matters to government’s actions and inactions, saying a situation where even the government is also involved in grabbing land from citizens under the guise of acquisition is not the best for development.
Tpl. Agunbiade, who is of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Lagos, advocated for digital solutions to planning, lamenting that despite the world going digital on all fronts, government operatives are unwilling or reluctant to embrace it because they are profiting from the analogue system to the disadvantage of the rest of the citizens.
“The fact remains that government owns no land. And they are forcibly taking land from people and that is what is creating tension. It is the government that is the land grabber, they are the ones grabbing land.
“Where do we have digital plans in Ogun State? We said years ago that this Mowe – Ibafo corridor that they should plan it because it would become a slum, Now it is a mega slum and it will take trillions of naira and World Bank loans to fix Mowe – Ibafo. We said this thing 20 years ago.
“The only solution to solving this problem is to go digital and the government is not doing anything about it. Neither the government nor practitioners in government are doing anything about it. In fact it is the government officials that are not willing to go digital because they are the ones benefiting from it(the analogue system). Let’s go digital.”
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For the Estate Surveyor and Valuer, Odunayo Ojo, who is the Managing Director&Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of UPDC, a property development company, “Government is central to everything, if people are not happy with what is happening in government, they have the power to take action. The administration of land decree of 1978 puts land in the hand of the Governor.
“No society can move forward without law and order. The private sector thrives in the building industry when rules are followed, the key to unlocking this relationship between the governments and the private sector is implementation of building guidelines and regulations.”
Responding, Tpl. Abiodun Adewolu, the Senior Special Adviser to Ogun State Governor on Urban & Regional Planning, identified government challenges regarding physical planning and development.
Adewole said despite the regulations in place to serve public interest, problems of infrastructure deficiency, road network, water supply, and the problem of informal settlement which has grown up to become slums as well as the problem of congestion in all ramifications – social and physical congestion, abound to make government efforts at finding solutions a daunting task.
He urged citizens to follow physical planning regulations and development laws as they are of public interest and a product of lawmakers, who are representatives of the same people.
Adewolu said, “Planning is a response to situations that affect society negatively, it is to create an environment that is liveable, where we can live, a settlement where you can live comfortably devoid of any risk. All these should be catalogued the interest of the people and injected into development plan, be it town, urban, district or regional plan It spelt out where school should be, where market or commercial activities should be so that there will be no room for informal settlement that grows into slums.
“So, in the end, everyone will live a good life but unfortunately, it is structured in a public sector led process that may entail what people , govt abridge the interest of people. Revenue generation not public interest.Town planning is not meant to be revenue generation, it should be a total public interest, but the situation has changed and that is why we are having this dilemma to a large extent.”
Similarly, Oluwole Sotire, an engineer and permanent secretary, ministry of physical planning and urban development, Lagos State, said government has a responsibility to render service to the people – citizens, it serves but also noted that citizens too are expected to pay land taxes/levies.
“We must first of all understand that citizens have to pay tax or levies to government. Whether it is equitable is another question. However, efforts should be made to involve proper stakeholders and the rest of the citizens to ensure beneficial planning and good governance,” he said.
