By Sherifudeen Adewale Tella
Everyone, every organisation and/or every institution requires to have a plan to guide its activities in the course of existence. That is why the euphemism ‘he who fails to plan, plans to fail. At the individual level therefore, we must have plans on where we wish to be in the short, medium and long terms. The same for organisation and more importantly for nations which harbour all forms of natural resources requiring coordination to derive maximum benefits for the citizens. Planning remains the only option for meaningful socio-economic and political growth and development of economies globally. Actually, it is not only fashionable but desirable in developing countries where market mechanisms work imperfectly (Jhingan, 1975).
What comes to mind when planning is mentioned in national discourse is economic planning. This is because, more often than not, national development plan is used interchangeably with economic plan. However, it is assumed that the outcome of a national development plan would be more than economic matters. A national development plan is all encompassing, containing economic plan, physical plan, industrial plan, technology plan, et cetera.
The same confusion trails the use of plan and planning. The latter is a process leading to an outcome while the former can be regarded as the outcome of that process. In this context, national planning is the process of setting goals, developing strategies, and outlining tasks and schedules to accomplish national goals (Yaakup Ahis, Foziah Johar, Mohd Anuar Maidin and Ezrein Faizal Ahmad, 2015). Olaniyan (1997) writes that national development planning is the process of setting goals and targets for economic and social development, formulating policies, programmes and projects for the attainment of such goals, and mobilizing and deploying resources for their effective implementation. The national plan, on the other hand, presents the goals and the timeline to achieve those goals.
Physical plan remains an integral part of a national plan, though it can be a standalone document. It has to do with spatial resource identification and utilization. However comprehensive the physical plan is made, it remains a subset of a national development plan, deriving its strength from the major role given to land and land resources as a component of a country’s natural resources or factor of production. In Nigeria, there is the National Physical Development Plan (NPDP) which is being promoted by the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing. The Physical Plan is seen as a vital tool for balancing economic, physical, environmental and social aspects of national development. Absence of physical plans, no doubt, has resulted in many disorganized cities and slums found in many developing countries including Nigeria,
The kernel of this lecture is to facilitate the understanding that a national development plan without adequate attention to the physical plan is an incomplete document and an integration of the two is the route to economic development. The problem is that, in most cases today, as in recent past, in developing counties, the national development plans concentrate on identifying and utilizing natural resources within and above the land without adequate provision for the land space itself. In this connection, the methodology is to juxtapose the two plans as mutually inclusive or reinforcing exercise.
The rest of the lecture is divided into four. Following this introduction is a literature review and Section 3 contains a review of Nigeria’s national plans while Section 4 discusses the Imperatives of National Physical Planning in National Development Plans. The last section contains summary and conclusion.
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Conceptual Literature
Conceptually, national development plan is omnibus, an ex-ante record or futuristic medium and long-term document. It is a document which provides guidelines for a nation’s general development and for assessment process. Of course, reference to development plan takes different categories of forms depending on the purpose for which it is made. Hence, we have strategic, tactical, contingency and operational planning. But these are business organizations terminologies. A national development plan refers to a document highlighting economic and social development prepared by the government and approved by a resolution of the National Assembly (www.lawinsider.com).
Relying on the position of O’Hara (2020 )The national development plan is often said to be based on a model of five pillars namely health; education; environmental quality and recreation; social and cultural development; and, information & transportation access. These pillars can be said to be linked to the basic or essential objectives of producing development plans viz: making people to live long and healthy lives; to acquire knowledge; and to have access to resources needed for decent standard of living.
Physical development plan, as a subset of the national development plan should be a vital component of the national plan. Physical planning is the process of organizing the physical activities and land uses in order to ensure orderly and effective siting and coordination of land use. It has elements of deliberate determination of spatial plans with the intent to achieving optimum level of land utilization sustainably (Geodev, 2023). As can be deduced, a physical plan has to do with the issue of land use, land scaping or land management generally.
According to Obadan (2003), a good or standard national development plan should have at least, the following features: i. comprehensiveness in nature in the sense that the central government, parastatals, and agencies of government, as well as the private sector are included:
ii. a review of past performance of the economy and identification of most serious current problems; iii. the desired economic objectives and targets as well as priorities;
iv. strategies for achieving the stated objectives and translation of the strategies to policy specifics;
v. programmes of capital spending for the plan period with specified projects; and vi. a full range of projections or forecasts about the behaviour of the economy over the planned period and beyond.
2.2. Theoretical and Empirical Literature Review Gunder (2015) echoing Yiftachel, 1989) explained that planning theory can be grouped into a triplet of label, namely rational, communicative and critical which correspond to addressing three normative issues: What is the purpose of planning? What constitutes good planning process? And what constitutes good planning. Banugire (1977) reviewing the work of Andreas Faludi, opined that planning analysis can be divided into two separate compartments viz: procedural theory of planning and substantive theory of planning.
The procedural theories are the rational comprehensive approach; the incremental approach; the transactive approach; the communicative approach; the advocacy approach, the equity approach; the radical approach; and the humanist approach. The procedural theories provide varying and different logical steps in planning processes. For instance, the rational comprehensive approach defines a problem, set goals, evaluates alternatives to achieving the goals and recommends policy options. Thus, the approach lays out a logical and deliberate framework for planning practice ((Hudson, 1979). The substantive theory on the other hand, is a theory of ‘area of concern’ of planning activities by economists, sociologist and political scientists,
The planning theories, particularly those relating to physical development plans can be seen as tools that provide insights into how cities and regions work, how planning should be conducted and what is just. In this connection, there are a number approaches in planning strategy viz classical planning, adaptive experimentation; visionary imagination; shaping collaboration and renewal pragmatism (www. Evolutionizer.com). The classical or rational planning suggests that strategy is formed through a formal and rational decision-making process.
We are actually concerned here about the planning relating to evolution of modern cities and can therefore talk about the urban theory which describes the economic, political and social processes affecting the formation and development of cities. The discourse on physical development of cities always have elements of economic determinism and cultural determinism and lately scientific or technological determinism from different schools of thought. Regardless of the deterministic stance however, the issue of globalization cannot be ignored and within that context, there is a mandate to mold the city to complement the global economic structure such that urbanomics gain ascendancy (see Marx, 1976: Weber, 1905; Wikipedia, 2009).
Studies show that in the 1960s and 1970s, urban space was dominated by the interest of corporations and capitalism. Private places such as shopping malls and office buildings were more dominant in land allocation over public space; and it could be seen that wealthy areas were allocated more facilities than downtown where the poor lived (Thorpe, et. al. 2015).
The national development plans, particularly in developing countries in that period. did not in most cases concern themselves with physical planning within the context of land use and utilisation. They were more concerned about the availability and uses of natural resources in and above the land. Physical planning were regarded more as concerns of the sub-national governments. Of course, many national development plans today remain more of political economy than showing concern for integrated planning that include land space allocation and development. Let us look at the content of some of the Nigeria national development plans.
NIGERIA’S DEVELOPMENT PLANS
Nigeria has five solid national development plans from the colonial era to the military government under General Ibrahim Babangida and when the country adopted the World Bank/IMF sponsored Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) in 1986. The first National Development Plan (1962-1968) was an outcome of a directive by the colonial government to their colonies to evolve a national development plan. Of course, the country produced three more Development Plans viz 1971-1975, 1976- 1980 and 1981-1985 before changing to rolling plans and later Vision 2010 and Vision 20:2020 which were hardly implemented (Uche, 2019).
3.1.
The Colonial Economic Development Plan
On the first Plan, the Colonial Development and Welfare Act of 1940 marked a major shift in colonial development plan in Nigeria. This came in the heat of decolonization at the end of the Second World War when colonized states were agitating and calling for self rule and again expecting significant change in governance. For that reason, the Secretary of the State called on all the British colonies to formulate plans for economic and social development of their territories for a ten-year period (Edward, 1988).
In Nigeria the colonial masters came up with their plan tagged ‘Welfare Act’ and the British government placed importance on tackling the problem of colonial poverty. A total amount of the colonial plan for the ten-year period was 55 million pounds, with 46 million coming from the colonial development plan budget. Of the approved budget, the colonial office released 23 million pounds, while 16 million to 17 million pounds was to be raised by loan, and the remainder from Nigeria revenue (Bekch 2015).
The main emphasis of the plan was on transport and communication system with more or less little provision for industrial development (Edward, 1988). The British economic policies actually discouraged indigenous industrialization, rather promoting cash crop farming, and mineral extraction and production to feed the British factories (Adeyeri and Adejuwon, 2012). The colonial economy depended on three major export crops- cocoa from Western Region, palm produce from Eastern Region and groundnut from Northern Region of Nigeria – all these serve 70 percent of the total export (Ahazuema and Falola, 1987).
The fund from the colonial budget was used to build roads and railways to link towns and cities. Albeit, their interest was more on commerce for the industries abroad, to be able to get raw materials easily. To the extent that transport infrastructure in form of rail was of major concern, it can be argued that physical development was an integral part of the Plan. But it was not deliberately so, rather, it was incidental to their needs.
3.2. Post-Independence Plan
i. Civilian Era: First National Development Plan (1962-1968)
Nigeria attained independence on October 1, 1960. To political and economic analysts, the country had enormous mineral wealth and human resources for development. Nigeria introduced the first National Development Plan with a total proposed investment put at 2,132 million naira in which transport, electricity, production, trade and education dominated the greater aspect of the budget (Edward, 1988). Ekundare (1971) opinion on the first national development plan of 1962-68 was that “the basic objective of planning in Nigeria is not merely to accelerate the rate of economic growth and the rate at which the level of the population can be raised; it is also to give her an increasing measure of control over her own destiny”.
The Plan recognized explicitly the use of planning as a deliberate weapon of social change by correcting defects in various spheres of production, distribution and exchange. In that connection, the Plan took cognizance of economic and physical sphere in development and thus placed some emphasis on how to mobilise and utilize natural resources as well as transport infrastructure that include ports, airports, rail tracks, roads and all their complementary facilities meant to provide links to places of great activities. The civil war truncated the Plan. The links between areas of production and markets could not be completed as expected at that time due to the war, though some projects were completed.
ii. Military Era: Second National Development Plan 1970-1974 The Plan was launched shortly after the civil war, and with the massive destruction of the war in mind. There was need for reconstruction, rehabilitation and reconciliation for the purpose of unity of the country to promote economic and social development. That formed the main theme of the Plan. The objectives of the Plan as enunciated in the document were to build:
L
ii.
a united, strong and self-reliant nation;
a great and dynamic economy; a just and egalitarian society:
a land of bright and full opportunities for all citizens; and
a free and democratic society (Ejumudo (2013).
Emphasis was on reconstruction of infrastructural facilities which were defense,
agriculture and social services. Ekundare affirmed that the Second National Development Plan was aimed at transformation of the whole country. The Plan was quite desirable and ambitious but just coming from the civil war, the funds were not there to meet up with the ambition. Fortunately, the first major oil boom came towards the end of the Plan period (1974/1975) and the preparation of the Third National Development Plan.
Third National Development Plan, 1975-80
The Third National Development Plan 1975-1980 objectives were taken from the
Second National Development Plan as can be gleaned from its objectives. The total
amount for that plan is N30 billion and later increased to N43.3 billion (Edward,
1988). The objectives of the Plan were:
i.
ii.
iv.
V.
increase in per capital income:
even distribution of income; reduction in employment rate;
increase in the supply of high level of manpower, diversification of the economy.
balanced development; and
vi. vii. indigenization of economic activities (Edward 1988; Ejumudo, 2013).
The development plan was meant to position Nigeria among the developed countries in addition to executing post-war projects. The quadrupling of oil prices in 1974 and resulting oil boom provided conducive environment for the ambitious Plan. Although the objectives did not depict physical development explicitly, a number of physical projects were implemented. These include development of river basin authorities, irrigation projects and development of the new federal capital-Abuja, which was not directly part of the Plan but can be regarded as a supplementary project.
Fourth National Development Plan 1981-1985 The emphasis on the Fourth National Development Plan was placed on key sectors like agriculture (particularly food production), manufacturing, education, and manpower development, infrastructural facilities and social services. The total amount for the Plan was N82 billion and the specific objectives were:
increased real estate of the average citizen;
even distribution of income among individuals: reduction in the level of unemployment and underemployment;
iv. V. vi.
increase in the supply of skilled workers: balanced development; and
development of technology (Edward, 1988).
The Plan was developed as an extension of the remarkable achievement of the Third Plan. However, as soon as the Plan was launched, the international oil market price crashed and a global recession ensued resulting in a review of the Plan in 1984 to refocus the central theme on agricultural production and industry. The fourth Plan was eventually truncated in 1988 with the adoption of the World Bank/IMF sponsored Structural Adjustment Programme. The performance of the 4 Plan was very poor as many projects which had been slated for execution during that plan period suffered from under funding.
Fifth National Development Plan 1986-1989
The world economic recession in 1984 which gravely affected the execution of the Fourth National Plan and its eventual discontinuation paved way for the fifth National Development Plan. The Federal Ministry of National Planning and Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research organized a conference in November 25-29 1984 on a new Plan. The Conference recommendations resulted in the strategic plan for the Fifth Plan. The Plan objectives are:
diversification of the nation’s economy away from mono-cultural one which it had been pushed by the fortune of oil sector, revitalization of the agricultural sector with a view to achieving self- sufficiency in food production. This was expected to be achieved through integrated rural development programme; ii.
domestic production of raw material for the local industries in order to reduce
the import contents of locally manufactured goods; and
promotion of employment opportunities in order to arrest the deteriorating
mass unemployment” (Edward, 1988)
iv.
The plan was couched within the context of the SAP doctrine of focusing on economic deregulation, promotion of price mechanism in economic interrelationships and the subjugation of the State in favour of the market. It was also the period when five-year plan was substituted with three-year rolling plans. Thus, other plans in Nigeria are Three Rolling Plans- 1990-1992, 1993-1995, 1996-1998.
Ejumudo (2013) opined:
the economic crisis that faced the nation in the wake of the 1980’s had revealed that fixed five-year plans were not best suited to cope with attendant problems of economic management and adjustment under conditions characterized by numerous uncertainties as well as pressing issues that called for urgent solutions. The introduction by the government of the 3-year rolling plan can therefore be said to have been necessitated by the need for an indicative rather than a comprehensive and rigidly direct plan. By implication, there existed orderly rolling of one plan into another to be consummated at the end of the perspective plan (time) period. Essentially, the 1992-94 rolling plan is the third in the series of the medium term plans that was put in place by the Nigerian government since the adoption of the rolling plan strategy in 1990. The 1992-94 rolling plan could therefore be regarded as the 7 plan period…
Of course, these other plans are National Economic Empowerment Development Strategy (NEEDS), 2003-2007 including Vision for Nigeria, Vision 2010; Vision 20:2020, Transformation agenda 2011-2015, and Economic Recovery Plan 2017- 2020.
4. IMPERATIVES OF NATIONAL PHYSICAL PLANNING IN NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLANS
4.1. National Physical Development Plan and Ministry of Works and Housing Physical planning, as already pointed out, is concerned with the design, growth and management of the physical environment in an area and in accordance with a predestined guide and policies. So, the objective is to make provision for the coordination of all forms of development activities at all levels of governance, A National Physical Development Plan is thus a form of planning with a spatial or geographical component in which the general objective is to provide a special structure of activities.
It is therefore important to note that a national physical development plan should reveal the:
delineation of development regions, location of settlements; demographic and gender elements or composition of the national human resources; and infrastructural needs to meet specific functional and demographic needs.
The link between physical planning and town planning is quite apparent since the former is a design exercise that uses the land use plan as a framework in the provision of optimal physical infrastructure for a settlement. Such infrastructure will be for both public and private services like office, transport, economic activities, recreation and environmental protection.
In the discussion of foregoing national development plans, it is clear that the earlier national plans, particularly first to the fourth plans, physical development plans were integrated partly into them while the latter plans, the rolling plans, were more or less concerned about economic and social issues. This should be of serious concern for different categories of planners in the country. In Nigeria, there is an agency concerned with national physical planning scheme: the National Physical Development Plan (NPDP) which is said to be anchored by Messrs Development Planning and Management Consultants (DPMC) being supported by the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing. The scheme is regarded as a vital tool for balancing economic, physical, environmental and social aspects of the national development.
Uwaegbulam (2020) reported in The Guardian newspaper that the federal government plans a 20-year national physical development blueprint. The Ministry of Works and Housing believes that developing a national physical development planning strategy offers the hope to translate the country onto the path of tangible and sustainable development. The envisaged result of the Plan by the Ministry is that it will be “holistic, inclusive and participatory as well as lay a solid foundation for federal, state and local governments to formulate development plans and strategies, plus identify development projects in a more realistic, focused and cooperative manner. According to the Principal consultant on the project, the final document would be a territorially based physical development strategy for a period of 2021 to 2041.
4.2. National Planning Commission in Nigeria
The National Planning Commission, established by Decree No 12 of 1992 and later amended in 1993 as an Act (http//.nationalplanning gov.ng). The Commission has the mandate to advise Government of the Federation on matters relating to National Development Plan and overall management of the national economy. The detailed objectives, functions, powers and structure of the Commission are outlined under sections 2, 3 and 5 of the Act that established it. The functions of the Commission are to:
provide policy advice to the President in particular and Nigeria in general on all spheres of national life;
set national priorities and goals and engender consensus among Government agencies, as may be contained in guidelines issued by the Commission from
time to time; undertake periodic review and appraisal of the human and material resources capabilities of Nigeria with a view to advancing their development, efficiency
and effective utilization. formulate and prepare long-term, medium-term and short-term national development plans and to co-ordinate such plans at the Federal, State and
Local government levels. monitor projects and progress relating to plan implementation.
advise on changes and adjustments in institutions and management
techniques as well as attitudes necessary for the alignment of actions with
plan targets and goals, conduct research into various aspects of national interest and public policy
and ensure that the implications and results of the findings in such research are geared towards the enhancement of national, economic, social, technological defence and security capabilities and management; mobilize popular group and institutional consensus in support of Government
viii.
ix.
policies and programmes; manage multilateral and bilateral economic co-operation, including
development aid and technical assistance.
vi.
vii.
X. deal with matters relating to regional economic co-operation, including the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) the African Common Market (ACM), the United Nations Economic commission for African and the South-south co-operation; and
xi.
carry out such other duties as are necessary or expedient for the full discharge
of all or any of the functions conferred on the Commission under the Act.
(cited in http://www.npc.gov.ng)
The Commission is housed under the Ministry of Budget and Planning but within the control of the Minister of Finance, Budget and Planning. The most important aspect of the assignment of the Commission is the development of a national development plan and it seems to be carrying out this task without consultation or reference to Ministry of Works and Housing that warehouses the physical planning project. While the Act establishing the Commission recognized the need for it to have relationships with regional and continental economic communities (item x), it did not give such recognition to national agencies and departments with some functional relationship beyond mobilizing them for support of government policies. The absence of such interaction, with particular reference to the NPDP or Ministry of Works and Housing must have been responsible for recent national plans that are devoid of physical plans for the country. This is a grave error requiring urgent and deliberate consideration.
5. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION The focal point of this lecture is to bring to the fore, the fact that a national development plan without adequate attention to the physical plan is an incomplete document and requires desirable amendment. The problem is that, in most cases today, as in recent past in developing countries, the national development plans concentrate on identifying and utilizing natural resources within and above the land without adequate provision for the land space itself. In this connection, the methodology is to juxtapose the two plans as mutually inclusive or reinforcing exercise.
We review existing Nigeria’s national development plans and came to the conclusion that most earlier plans have physical plans integrated into them but since the adoption of rolling plans in the 1990s, the national development plans have tended to ignore the integration of physical planning into the art of planning for the nation. However, an attempt to have a standalone national physical plan was being made by the Ministry of Works and Housing through the establishment of National Physical Development Plan (NPDP). Such arrangements may not engender cooperation between the Ministry of Works and Housing and the Ministry of Finance, Budget and Planning that house the National Planning Commission (NPC) in charge of national economic planning. More appropriately, the NPC ought to have a town planner or allied discipline in its employment for an integrated or comprehensive national development plan.
A former President of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP) TPL. Olutoyin Ayinde, at a stakeholders’ meeting on the preparation of the NPDP in Abuja in 2020 showed happiness at the commencement of the preparation but was also concerned about the source of funding that would make the vision realizable (Uwaegbulam, 2020). The interrelationship between the Ministry of Budget and Planning or the Planning Commission therein with the Ministry of Works and Housing or the Physical Planning project unit under it to produce a comprehensive national development plan that has the desired component of economic, social, political, technological and physical plans will invariably solve some problems of funding as this would have been part of the cost of implementing the Plan ab initio.
The well-organized urban and rural centres found in many emerging and developing countries are outcomes of integrated or comprehensive national development plans executed in the past in those countries. It is important to reiterate, as we have proposed elsewhere, the need for Nigeria, like other developing countries to strengthen its institutions, develop a home-based development agenda based on existing local human and material resources rather than relying on experts from outside to develop national economic blueprint for growth and development (Tella and Adekunle, 2022). No one knows your environment better than you do.
