PROPERTY ARTICLES

Are African cities living up to the current global challenges? In the light of the much-vaunted concept of globalisation, how are they responding to emerging socio-economic and ideological circumstances?

These are among several knotty issues that a gathering of settlement development practitioners attempted to untie when urban centres came under scrutiny recently in Lagos at a weeklong forum to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning of the University of Lagos, Akoka.

Perceived to be grossly deficient in key development indicator areas, cities in Africa in particular and the Third World in general are, according to observers, usually unable to parade acceptable identities that could qualify them for favourable ranking.

But, while seeking a way out of the dilemma, participants explored issues related to the urban sustainability, land use, development control, housing, environmental management, infrastructure/services, urban governance/management, Geographic Information System (GIS) and the Lagos Mega City.

Erstwhile President of the Nigeria Institute of Town Planners (NITP), Waheed Kadiri, in a lead presentation opined that, apart from infrastructure, environmental and security issues should be of paramount concern to African city managers.

Management of cities, he added, should be done by professional managers. He noted that though the role of politicians cannot be avoided, the technocrats should start seeing themselves as being guided by the ethics of their profession instead of the whims and caprices of political leaders.

He said, "Of essence in achieving all these is due regard being given to human capital. With outsourcing as the main stay of most economy a nation that cannot boast of the requisite manpower may not find a place in the global village. Efforts should be made to reverse the brain drain from African countries through provision of enabling environment for talents to thrive and potentials to be realised. It should be appreciated that it is difficult for any modern economy to thrive without being able to attract the new globally mobile talent to its cities."

In a paper titled: "Emerging global cities: The African challenge," Kadiri stressed that, for African cities to move up the ladder of the emerging city tag due to their limited interactions with the global economy, they needed to overcome certain hurdles such as inadequate infrastructure, high dependence on informal economic sector, inequality, environmental degradation, and ineffective governance.

"Because cities are not just engines of economic growth but also of social development, African countries must seek for the betterment of their inhabitants by functioning in a more proactive way. Consequently, planning should become a tool for good governance through an open planning process. Planners must also take up opportunities thrown up by globalisation," the urban planner declared.

Special Adviser to the Governor of Lagos State on Central Business Districts (CBDs), Oyinlomo Danmole, stated that urbanisation in Lagos was spurred largely by rural/urban migration (especially by energetic and ambitious youths in search of survival, better life and individual prosperity), hence government’s decision to address the challenge by creating employment opportunities.

He added that government’s overall policy thrust was tailored towards Poverty Alleviation and Sustainable Economic Growth.

"In furtherance of this, the state adopted a 10-Point Agenda, which has served as the broad policy guideline on key sectoral programmes being implemented in the state," Danmole declared, listing core elements of the agenda to include employment and job creation, power and water supply, transportation, education, health, environment/physical planning, food security, revenue enhancement, shelter and critical success factor.

According to him, such initiatives have further helped the Lagos Mega City to maintain its status as the economic emporium of West Africa.

"The deliberate engagement of the business community through programmes such as the Lagos State Economic Summit Group (Ehingbeti); N50 billion Micro-finance Scheme; Lagos State Security Trust Fund; The Safe City Project; The Lagos State Energy City; The Central Business District Development; The Eko Atlantic City Project; The Lagos Free Trade Zone Programme; and The BRT Scheme have yielded very sustainable and lofty dividends with related potentials for providing an enabling infrastructure and commercial environment that has the capacity to induce viable local and foreign investment, steady economic growth and sustainable development."

The Lagos Government officialemphasised that the multilateral, participatory and people-centered strategies of economic planning, policy initiation and implementation that has been the governance approach adopted by the authorities in the last decade, has manifested as an added advantage in tackling the megacity challenges even in the midst of the recent global economic realities.

Attempting an overview of the Lagos Megacity from the town planner’s perspective, Mrs. Catherine George noted that the implementation of plans devised over the years by government and other stakeholders to redress inherent flaws need to be adequately funded, monitored, and continuously reviewed. The administrative machinery should be continuously upgraded to achieve a sustainable environment, she added.

She called for adequate institutional framework and finance to back existing legal empowerment for town planners to protect Nigerian cities from developing into slums and shanties.

Discussing from the perspectives of Lagos in Nigeria, Cairo in Egypt, and Johannesburg in South Africa, the duo of Osariemen Aigbe and Rotimi Aliu lamented that the contemporary African city was one in dire developmental needs. They stressed that, for over two decades, most African cities had nearly stagnated in their developmental drives and fresh ideas and resolve needed to make headway in the new global economic realities.

"The challenges facing African cities today are more complex and seething than what were known a few decades ago. These challenges are in the domains of social, economic, environmental and political context," the city planners pointed out, adding that, as daunting as the challenges are, the capacity of the continent to resolve them are bright, due basically to the enormous human and natural resources within the disposal of the countries in the region.

They predicted that, consequent upon the emergence of adept and efficient policy frameworks, sustainable urbanisation will subsist in Africa. "However, the rate of this transformation will depend on how urban stakeholders handle developmental issues such as population growth by migration, corruption, good governance and accountability, judicious utilisation of resources, urban economy and institutional development," added Aigbe and Aliu.

Another duo, Nnezi Uduma-Olugu and Jerry Obiefuna, who addressed the urban beautification approach, emphasised that landscape design was crucial in meeting the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of building ecologically sustainable cities in Nigeria through urban beautification. Landscape elements, they opined, act as carbon sink helping to clean up the air and recycle water, both of which are basic life support for urban and rural dwellers.

The pair went on, "Landscape elements are key in this pursuit. The greens act as carbon sink " taking up carbon dioxide as part of basic life support for urban dwellers. Towards the development of sustainable cities, it is important that we produce air we breathe through natural processes. For Lagos in particular, where water abounds, it is possible to tap into its resources as water is also a carbon sink. The issue of maintenance needs to be addressed as it forms a major part of an urban beautification scheme. If the urban beautification cannot be sustained over time, then it cannot be considered effective.

"We need to review the way our environment functions in line with global trends. In this light, beautification needs to move beyond mere aesthetics to incorporating the ecological approach and reviving the ecosystems which ensure sustainability."

On the implication of deregulation to planning, Ola Aluko submitted that the arguments for deregulation and privatisation of the Nigerian economy such as better maintenance of the basic infrastructure and the struggle against poverty usually turned out unrealised.

He said, "The abject poverty is too high for people to grapple with, more so as there are no social welfare packages to cushion the effects of economic rents. One of the problems of deregulation in Nigeria is that while more profits are made from the different sectors, the gains are not felt by the people. There is more corruption in the corridors of power. The rich continues to enjoy the affluence of life while the poor become poorer."

To achieve a sustainable city via urban design principles, Olaniyi Okedele and Paul Obi called for the restructuring of the existing ministries that are related to the built environment to form a new Ministry of Built Environment which, they suggested, would house Building Control Authority (BCA) and Planning Regulation Authority (PRA) and other authorities.

To conform with the existing planning laws and the national building code, the planning regulation authority, added the pair, will take control of all planning laws and the national building code, the planning regulation authority will control the "Pre-Design Issues" and provide planning permit while the building control authority will control the "Design" "Construction" and "Post-Construction Issues" by monitoring and providing approvals at the end of each stage.

"The Physical Planning Permit will be issued by the planning regulation authority (PRA), this permit will form part of the document to be submitted along with the building design document when applying for Building Approval at the Building Control Authority," they stated, adding that drawings that are submitted for approval by designers should be checked and approved by trained designers.

Using the Festival Town as a case in study in an overview of development control challenges in Lagos, Olakunle Ogundele canvassed the preparation of an up-to-date land use plan, as well as strategic plans for various utilities and facilities. This, he added, would effectively guide the growth and development of the estate in a sustainable manner, hence ensuring realistic development control measures.

He likewise called for proper and adequate funding of the Town Planning Unit, provision of vehicles and enactment of standing rule to ensure easy access to the law enforcement agencies whenever there is need to quickly respond against any development in defiance of planning regulations.

"For effectiveness and efficiency of development unit of the Federal Housing Authority (FHA), there is the need for appointment/employment of adequate professionally qualified urban and regional planners to man the various technical aspects of the unit as recommended in the Decree 88 and 18 of 1992 and 1999 respectively. There is also the need to empower the planning unit of the FHA by making it a department."

Ogundele further called for adequate provision of socio-physical infrastructural facilities and equitable distribution of such to all parts of the town, suggesting that this could be done through sustainable development approach.

He went on, "This, if done, will reduce concentration of development towards a particular direction of the settlement " a practice which always poses development control problems. However, such shall be carried out by preparing strategic/sectoral plans for the distribution of such facilities over space.

"More so, there is need to conceptualise an effective and sustainable public enlightenment programmes to sensitise the residents, developers and other stakeholders in the building industry on the need for development control, as this would implicitly and explicitly involve the public in the monitoring of the built environment in order to create a conducive and harmonious environment for living working and recreating."

Devising urban development strategies towards a more secured Lagos, Taibat Lawanson and Taofik Salau underlined the need to create a culture of prevention and a safe environment for all urban inhabitants by helping local authorities, the criminal justice system, the private sector and civil society partners address urban safety and reduce insecurity.

"Making cities secure depends on how one deals with the threats facing them, which in turn depends on the capacity of the planning, design and policy models employed to cope with the forces that are shaping the cities and causing the threats," noted the planning teachers, pointing out that a secure urban environment involves direct combat against crime and violence as well as aspects of land use planning and urban design, infrastructure development, good governance and partnership management, social and community building, education, knowledge management and economic development.

They described public security as a key planning and management objective, as well as a central aspect of the quality of life and of economic and social development strategy. The pair alluded to social well-being being promoted by all institutions and the public at large.

In other to fully comprehend the linkages between climate change and land use, Ademola Adeniji stressed the need for a framework for understanding the linkages between climate change, land tenure and its policy implications. Within this framework, the major land related impacts of climate change should be considered along with its adaptive challenges, he opined in a presentation that explored territorial implications of climatic change and land use planning in Lagos.

He said, "It is worthy to note that for any proposed land policy strategies aimed at mitigating the effects of climate change to be effective, it must take cognisance of the development needs of the vulnerable groups such as the urban poor who represent the highest population of those directly affected by the impacts of climate change variability."

In a treatise on Lagos attaining a global city status via shelter development strategy, the threesome of Anthony Iweka, Anthony Adebayo and Joseph Igwe are of the view that though not currently recognised as a major command point in the global economy, the rapidly growing city of Lagos can find a space in the hierarchical ranking of emerging (or peripheral) global cities. A major route to attaining this enviable position, they added, is to reduce the risk of shelter deprivation, resulting from the multiplicity of precarious slum and informal settlements.

"Lessons from case study of Singapore, Taipei and Hong Kong reveal that the prevalence of slums can be substantially reduced through developmentalist approach that utilises the real estate strategy. In adopting the strategy, it is recommended that Lagos should address policy issues that focus on critical aspects of underdevelopment and shelter deprivation, such as overcrowding, land-use, and massive development of New towns for low-cost housing, with private sector collaboration," they said.