Experts, among whom is Human Settlement Officer, Anglophone West Africa and Manager Africa Urban, Omoayena Odunbaku, an urban planner, have have the government to initiate action on spatial planning of human settlements, to forestall distortions as in Abuja, and to ensure sustainable development, peace, security, productivity and increased revenue. Assistant Editor OKWY IROEGBU-CHIKEZIE reports
Abuja is the capital and second most populous city of Nigeria as at 2016, after Lagos. Situated at the centre of the country within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), it is a planned city built mainly in the 1980s based on a master plan by the International Planning Associates (IPA), a consortium of three American planning and architecture firms. Its Central Business District was designed by Japanese architect Kenzo Tange. It replaced Lagos, the country’s most-populous city, as the capital on December 12, 1991. It is known as a purpose-built capital with a well-defined master plan.
Though it started as a well-planned city, over the years, the master plan has gradually been distorted beyond recognition by unregulated developers and developments. Also, many slums have sprung up across the Federal Capital City, ruining its spatial space, planning and aesthetics as many ministers after Nasir el Rufai (1997-2007), failed to enforce adherence to the master plan.
Throughout el Rufai’s eight-year tenure, he religiously adhered to the master plan and enforced it. This led him to incur the wrath of the rich and the poor but he was unfazed in his determination to ensure Abuja remained as planned.
Unfortunately, after he left office, subsequent ministers could not adhere to the master plan, leading to the springing up of unplanned spaces and influx of people into the city. Thus, the planned city of Abuja as we knew is no more. It has become a shadow of its self, overrun by millions as against its population of 776,298 in 2006.
Against this backdrop, experts are canvassing the revisiting of the master plan and initiation of a deliberate action on spatial planning on all levels across the country.
Chief among them is the Human Settlement Officer, Anglophone West Africa and Manager Africa Urban, Omoayena Odunbaku. She said there was a need for the current administration to initiate action on spatial planning to ensure sustainable development, peace, security, and increased revenue
Spatial planning, she said analyses various demands, conflicts and opportunities at a certain level in order to identify concepts, solutions and strategies for planning and design implementation.
Odunbaku further explained that spatial planning deals with the arrangement and development of living, working and environment conditions at all levels. These range from the built environment and residential quarters to the urban district, the city, the region, the state and federal and even the international levels, she said.
She decried the distortion of the Abuja master plan, canvassing the integration of spatial planning into national development. Odunbaku said it would be very strategic to allow an organic restructure of the space.
Given the distortion of Abuja and other master plans across the country, she called on the government to review the Urban and Regional Planning Law of 1992 and follow it up with empowering Local Government Planning Authorities to enable them perform their roles.
“There has to be an aggressive capacity development and capacity building to cater for the deficit of urban planning professionals and also improve on the quality of built environment professionals to be able to identify potentials and integrate the nexus of urban centres,” she stated.
On how the National Urban Development Policy can be harnessed, Odunbaku said it was tantamount to harnessing urban dividends. She said the policy was prepared under the umbrella of multiple crises and shocks that have unfolded since 2016, and would likely continue throughout its duration.
Her words: “All the crises demand their own solutions; but they are all inextricably linked to urbanisation in one way or another. Understanding these linkages will contribute to their solutions.”
She said from her experience as a human settlements officer at the UN-Habitat, she would recommend fostering strong partnerships with local stakeholders, governments, and international organisations. Strengthening linkages and information flow between UN-Habitat and local partners in Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and the Gambia was a key aspect of my work.
Odunbaku stressed that through collaboration, we could develop national and regional urban forums and formulate effective Habitat Country Program Documents (HCPDs) that address the specific needs of different regions.
On the importance of urbanisation to our economic growth and national development, she said it allows for the concentration of goods and services in a particular area thus, reducing infrastructural development and transaction cost, spurs innovation, attracts investments, provides jobs and livelihood.
She also stated that it also provides a platform for specialisation of purpose, connects markets and is crucial to reducing poverty if planned and sustainable. She lamented that, however, what we have experienced in most developing countries is unplanned urbanisation which is characterised by chaos, squalor, unpleasing optics, crime, delinquency, overstretched infrastructure, traffic congestion, and housing deficit, among others.
She stressed that to harness the potential benefits of urbanisation, Nigeria needed to focus on effective urban planning, infrastructure development, and social programmes to improve the quality of life for its citizens and achieve balanced economic growth across the nation.
Also, urban centres, such as Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt, play critical roles as hubs for commerce, finance, and services. They attract local and foreign investments, driving economic development and contributing to the GDP, she said.
Explaining further, she said Lagos accounted for over half of the contribution to the nation’s GDP and revenue. If spatial planning and sustainable urbanisation are integrated into national development, there will be a deliberate effort to redistribute urban centres and reduce the pressure on selected urban centres in Abuja and Lagos.
On how her office has been driving this cause across West Africa, particularly Nigeria, she said: “We have facilitated the process of national urban Policies in all anglophone West African countries except the Gambia. There are ongoing projects to design and implement the Aba and Ado Ekiti spatial plans. Previously, UN-Habitat had engaged in several spatial pans in Kogi, Osun and Anambra. Specifically, there is a deliberate departure from previous practices with regards to the collaboration between UN-Habitat and the Federal Government of Nigeria; UN-Habitat has adopted an enhanced focus on project development and implementation, which would offer greater opportunities for achieving the agency’s mandate and the government’s objectives through demonstration of its normative and programming best practices and tools.
“Currently, we are supporting the implementation of spatial development strategy for the Sahel (SDSS), a proactive approach to security, facilitation of the endorsement of the NUDP and capacity building/development of relevant staff of the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, amongst others”.
On what can militate against the success of urbanisation in Nigeria, if the right plans are not put in place at the national and state level, Odunbaku said urbanisation is a trend.
Her words: “Urbanisation in Nigeria has been very organic; hence, the skewed development across the six geo-political zones, the government must assume a unique role of the enabler. The national interstate and inter-region transportation and spatial plans need to be based on an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the states and regions. Food baskets, industrial hubs, knowledge zones, etc have to be linked deliberately at the national level while the state and local government deal with intricacies.”
The urban planner pushed for the revisiting the Abuja master plan to restore the city to its former glory. She advocated the enforcement of spatial planning across the continent, particularly Nigeria, stressing that if spatial planning was maintained in Abuja, it would have been one of the best capital city on the continent
Recently, the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP) through its President, Luka Bulu Achi, said the implementation of the Abuja master plan had been a major challenge as past administrations allowed it to be distorted.
According to him: “The barracks are not supposed to be where they are. Those areas were supposed to be buffer zones. Even the dam that should supply water to the city has been blocked. They have changed the entire concept.
“The area you call Asokoro is not supposed to be there. Everybody wants to live in Maitama or Asokoro. These are the changes that past leaders kept introducing without the review of the master plan. In the 90s, a workshop was held to review what has happened. We did a lot and that was where it ended. Subsequently, El-Rufai came and said look, we need to reverse what has happened, it created another crisis.”
Achi, who called for the review of the Abuja master plan, pointed out that the FCT was designed to accommodate about 3.5 million people but that the city now has over 6.5 million inhabitants.
Many of the experts maintained that Abuja was at its best when El rufai was the minister as he dared the high and mighty and demolished their houses; the poor too suffered the same fate for building in unapproved places as people surged into the Federal Capital Territory for jobs and living.
It is generally believed that after el Rufai, distortion of the city continued. But it seems city officials have learnt their and are trying to reverse the trend by starting from where el Rufai stopped.
A few weeks ago, the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) reclaimed over 500 plots in Gishiri in the Katampe District from people claiming to be owners.
This was made known by the Deputy Director, Monitoring and Inspection, FCT Department of Development Control, Hassan Ogbole, during the ongoing clean-up operation in Gishiri.
He claimed that in order to restore normalcy, unlawful buildings and shanties in the region had to be demolished since they distorted affecting the Abuja master plan.
His words: “This is our third time coming to Gishiri in continuation of the city clean-up exercise to restore the Abuja master plan. Gishiri is a traditional name but the area is Katampe District. We have recovered over 500 plots of land from individuals.
“We are concerned with recovering plots taken over illegally by some persons for different purposes, to restore the Abuja master plan”
“The genuine owners of the plots are to commence work immediately to stop the return of illegal structures. Individuals that are allottees of the plots should take them over immediately to avoid new illegal developments, let the owners come in and start developing”, he added.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Director, Monitoring and Enforcement (AEPB) Mr. Kaka Bello, said the board was supporting the demolition to sustain mopping up of unauthorised activities,
“Anything that is contrary to the standard would not be allowed. We will keep the fight against environmental nuisances till the right thing is done”.
However, the Secretary, Command And Control, FCTA Department of Security, Mr. Peter Olumuji, said the administrationwais concerned with having a secure environment for the residents, and would not allow illegal structures to thrive.
“Allowing illegal structures to remain, will continue to provide ground for criminals to exist, we can’t leave such structures that will become safe haven for bad eggs. We had such an experience in Gishiri in the past.
“Removing the illegal structures will make criminals not have a place to hide and carry out their evil activities, especially at night,” Olumiji said.
The distortion of cities and town is not only in Abuja but in other major cities such as Lagos, Port Harcourt, and Kano, among others.
The experts all agreed that to ensure the sanctity of master plans spatial planning was inevitable.
