Town planners seek to reposition profession
Human settlement experts under the aegis of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners have commenced moves to reposition the profession for excellence.
Some concerned town planners last week in Lagos organised a colloquium where stakeholders identified better ways of making the profession more visible to the benefit of all.
Planners in both the public and private sectors identified some of the challenges inhibiting the growth of the profession and suggested ways to overcome them.
The Chairman of the organising committee and a former President of the NITP, Alhaji Waheed Kadiri, said that one of the greatest challenges confronting the profession was low appreciation of urban and regional planning by the government.
He said, “When decisions are taken, budgets are proposed and locational decisions are taken without considering the urban and regional planning implications. Planning is remembered when there is a need to blame someone or a group.
“There is also the problem of political interference rather than intervention in the planning process to the detriment of the resulting planning actions, and a perverted perception of what planning is all about.”
A former Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Lagos State, Mr. Toyin Ayinde, stated that the desperation to make money at all cost by throwing caution to the wind and lack of discipline among professionals were major issues.
He tasked planners in the public service to always fast-track approval of plans submitted to them by their colleagues in private practice provided that the requisite documents were submitted and laid down rules were followed.
Through this effort, he said the profession would be visible to all and people would appreciate the work of town planners.
Ayinde noted, “Communal success is the only thing that is sustainable. You must assist your colleagues to make them succeed and make the planning profession successful.
“There is a need to embrace communal success. Practitioners in the public service should seek synergy with those in the private service for the good success of the profession.”
A senior town planner in the service of the Lagos State Government, Mr. Tunji Badejo, identified loss of societal values, lack of understanding, paucity of correct information and lack of empirical data for planning purposes, bandwagon effect and lackadaisical attitude as challenges affecting the prospects of the profession.
On how to brand the profession, a media trainer, Prof. Lai Oso, said that the institute must be pro-active to react to public issues, adding that it must articulate and communicate the values of town planning to the public and that the practitioners needed to up their game in order to compete favourably with other professions in the built environment.
The immediate past President, Association of Town Planners Consultant of Nigeria, Mr. Moses Ogunleye, noted that inconsistency in policies, training of town planners, running down fellow professionals and negative f image of town planners by the public had affected the profession.
On branding strategies require to lift the profession, Ogunleye urged the NITP, ATOPCON and the Town Planners Registration Council of Nigeria to rework and fine-tune town planning training in the country.
