PROPERTY TRANSACTION GUIDE

Yacoob Unveils Seven-point Planning Improvement Agenda

Independent, Sunday 7th February 2010

Bothered about the somewhat dwindling prospects for the practice of town planning in the country, urban planner and former National Housing Policy Council secretary, the Lagos-based Yacoob Abiodun, lists a range of items he terms "The Seven-point Agenda." He insists they are crucial to the improvement of the profession.

Curriculum Review

The review of town planning curriculum in Nigerian polytechnics and universities is long overdue. Because of present day realities, the contents of each course need to be updated (where applicable) while the introduction of new courses which are perquisites for contemporary town planning education ought to be added to the existing courses (such as IT, Sustainable City, Graphical Communication, Globalisation, GIS, Environmental Planning and Management (EPM), Green City Process, Zoning) and a gamut of other new courses being taught in otheruniversities abroad, which are applicable and helpful to improving the conditions of our towns and cities in Nigeria.

Specialisation in Planning Studies

During knowledge acquisition and towards graduation, students should be made to choose area of specialisation, for example. Urban Design, Transportation, Housing, Advocacy, Tourism, community Development, Comprehensive Planning, Urban Renewal, policy Analyst and Urban Rejuvenation. The student’s project/thesis should be on his/her area of specialisation. A simple question: How many notable urban design or advocacy planners do we have in Nigeria?

We have too many generalist planners in this country with very few specialists in the aforementioned specialised areas of town planning. The prevailing situation which depicts Jack-of-all-trade planners has not helped our planning practice. Let us being to train specific-purpose planners who will specialise in specific areas of town planning studies and who will use their expertise in finding sustainable solutions to many of our urban problems.

Job Opportunities

There are latent job opportunities for planners in Nigeria; but feeble attempts are being made to device strategies that could open the window of opportunities for planners to get employment from various sources other than public sector. The Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP) should lobby the National Assembly to enact law(s) that would compel state and local governments to have the instrumentality of planning such as master plan, development plan, sector plan, structure plan and strategic plan. Again, every town and city in Nigeria should have a resident town planner or the services of town planning consultant by law. Our towns and cities cannot properly organised without planners to guide their development and to improve their capacities for living, working, wealth creation and recreation. If such laws are enacted, there would be a plethora of jobs available for planners than hitherto.

Information Dissemination

Planning entails information dissemination to and communication with the public. Therefore, all government planning ministries, agencies and authorities should create a publication unit within their departments, which will produce, on a regular basis, information brochure, facts sheet, zoning handbook, FAQs/easy to read pamphlets on relevant planning issues/projects agitating the minds of the public. Hoarding information on the activities of any planning authority is detrimental to both the government and those seeking for such valuable information. The present norm of hoarding information in most planning authorities, ministries and agencies, should be discouraged because it is anti-planning and professionally unethical.

If members of the public do not have adequate planning information, they run the risk of inadvertently flouting the law. It is therefore incumbent on our planning authorities to churn out information that should be helpful to the public and when change occurs, let such information be transmitted with minimal delay. To be user-friendly, planning handbook, pamphlet, brochure should be less verbose, not too technical and unambiguous. It is better to be more graphical and pictorial in order easily capture the mental attention/comprehension of the intended readers.

Resuscitation of NITP Journal

The NITP quarterly journal seems to be moribund. This should not be so if we want to propagate planning education (on technical issues) which could further enhance the professional acumen of practicing and budding planners.

The NITP should also embark on the publication of planning magazine which would be reader-friendly by laymen. The planning magazine will only carry easy-to-digest articles on planning best practices/success stories on community improvement, planning practice/projects (that are meant to solve specific planning problems-traffic congestion, overcrowding, sprawl, blight etc), profiling of individual planner’s achievement, company’s project reports, worthy planning news, review of new planning books, planning law report, etc. "Planning," a monthly magazine published by the American Planning Association (APA) is a classic example and good source of information on planning practice in the United States of America and what makes planning a reputable profession in that country. We can reach the same Olympian height if we regularly document what we do as planners as an individual, company or government and disseminate it through a medium like the APA Planning magazine. If we as

planners do not sing our praise, nobody will do it for us.

Community Participation

Planning, like democracy, should be of the people, by the people and for the people. Public organisations have a responsibility to involve the public in whatever they do. Planning should be fully participatory and consultative, whereby communities have input in the plan meant to improve their environment. People should be carried along in the planning process. Public hearing on planning issues should always be the norm not exception. If a community expresses reservation about any planning overture by government or developers, either for reasons of environment abuse, nuisance, noise etc, it is incumbent that the plan/project be reviewed for the purpose of mitigating the problem(s) identified before the plan is implemented. No plan should be regarded sacrosanct. Some governments and developers have been reckless and openly show indifference to the yearnings/aspirations of the residents of the communities or cities they plan for. Formal complaints to the authorities are seldom addressed. They treat genuine complaint with levity and do not bother to respond to public correspondence.

If we continue to plan for the people and not with them city residents cannot have an imprint in the development of their city. There will be loss of empowerment, erosion of mutual trust and lack of shared vision for the city. Planning practice must imbibe the principles of transparency, accountability and professionalism if we are to have the sustainable and utopian cities of our dream in Nigeria.

Planning Advocacy

As doctors attend to the sick and lawyers promote the rule of law, planners should advocate for orderly development of our towns and cities and protection of our fragile environment. The NITP and State Chapters should lead this crusade through lobbying in the National and State Assemblies for the enactment of laws to achieve the aims and objectives of planning. Where there is an infringement of planning regulations or injustice done to a m corporate body or individual by government authority, the NITP/State Chapter should stoutly come to the defence of the aggrieved. Amicus Curiae advisory services could be provided to the aggrieved when the need arises. Planning Tribunal should be set up by every State to handle public complaint and adjudicate on same speedily.

Planning advocacy is yet to take its rightful place in the scheme of .things in Nigeria. Until it is popularised among planners and the citizenry, it will be difficult to check the excesses of some government planning authorities, which take delight in trampling on the rights of the people, preach one thing and do the exact opposite.