These are not the best of times for town planning practice as most of the state governments have relegated the issues of cities and towns master planning to the background and abused physical developments.

The Nigerian Urban and Regional Planning (NURP) Law of 1992 stipulated that every State should embark on preparation of physical development plans at regional, urban and local scales to guide the efficient growth of its settlements. But the reverse is the case as most of them have ignored it, leading to rapid manifestation of slum conditions.

The Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP) stated that some states have domesticated and operating the NURP law; while others have follow suit, but in breaches. “Those that have not domesticated the law, even if they are still working at it; are said to be awaiting governor’s assent, or at the houses of assembly,” according to its president, Mr. Toyin Ayinde.

He said that Kwara and Imo are in the category of those states, who have turned the process upside down, muddled up the whole system, mistaking Geographical Information System (GIS) for physical planning.

“Some of these state just need to be helped. They think they know, whereas they are very ignorant; I don’t know who bewitched these governments to embark on this path of destruction.

“There are also those that see urban and regional planning as a revenue generating tool; there are quite a lot doing this, making money out of confusion and then turning around to say the planners aren’t working,” he said.

Ayinde spoke to the media after visiting stakeholders to ascertain the state of the urban and regional planning law in each of the states and advise on steps necessary to ensure ordered development.

He said: “The visit was also an advocacy to raise awareness about physical planning and to emphasise that the sequence between planning and development must of necessity be like the sequence between thinking and speaking. It recognised the lack of sufficient knowledge of the profession of urban and regional planning, generally known as town planning.

“The focus of the administration was to engage with various stakeholders including government, to enlighten the ignorant and make the public aware of the profession and its benefits to the development of the geographical space of the nation.”

Apart from domestication of NURP, another worrisome issue is the lack of investment in preparation of physical development plans in states. Without these plans, Ayinde said, building plan approvals (development permit) are baseless and illegal. “Governors/politicians should first invest in planning before seeking to develop. Doing otherwise is subscribing to foolishness.

“But planning truly answers to visionary leadership. Unless governments are run through well thought out policies, planning is difficult to locate. What planning does is to take you from your point of location to a destination you already determined. Many governments seem to have no destination, which is why they probably need no plans and are thus satisfied with the mess they find themselves in.

“In the absence of policies that deliver good governance, the people resort to self help and no approach to development is more dangerous than this – when everyone takes their destiny in their own hands,” he added.