Members of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners have called for the reestablishment of local planning authorities in Lagos State and the country at large.

A past President of NITP, Dr. Bunmi Ajayi, at the 50th anniversary public lecture organised by the Lagos State Chapter of the institute, noted that managers of urban areas in the country needed to prepare for the imminent population explosion by decentralising planning.

Ajayi, who also represented the Acting President of the NITP, Mr. Luka Achi, at the event, said 50 per cent of the country’s population currently lived in urban centres.

He said, “To decentralise planning, local planning offices were created, but they are direct offshoot of the state town planning office. What we are saying is let them get back to the local governments and make them part of the general planning.

“With this arrangement, all the local planning within a local government will be coordinated by the local government itself. What we have are local planning offices with no local government input.

“The advantage is that each local government will be in charge of making their area liveable. This will help us avoid delays in planning and guide how structures are put up. It will reduce problems for everybody and make planning easy.”

Ajayi added that local governments lacked direction in urban planning, and urged the Lagos State Government to take the lead by empowering local governments across the state to take up their town planning activities.

The guest lecturer and Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa, said that like many other sectors of the economy, corruption was the bane of planning in the state.

“The problem is not with the law but with implementation. We are making the necessary laws, but the implementation rests on the professionals, who encourage illegal developments,” he said.

Obasa, who was represented by the Chairman, House Committee on Physical Planning and Urban Development, Mr. David Setonji, said there was a need to keep emphasising the benefits and values of orderliness and well-planned communities as they would not only affect the health of the citizenry positively, but also boost their economic well-being.

“Nigeria will have improved economy with better opportunities for wealth creation, if aligned properly with attention to physical planning,” he said.

The Chairman, NITP, Lagos State Chapter, Mr. Wasiu Anifowoshe, said members of the institute had through the preparation of several regional plans, master plans, district plans, structure plans and policies helped to create the direction for growth and development of cities and settlements.

“The celebration of the 50th anniversary becomes significant so as to take stock of our efforts and contributions so far, as well as further expand the frontiers of our relevance in the promotion of professionalism, delivery of our services and unwavering commitment to orderly physical planning and development of human settlements,” he said.

PUNCH.