The Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP) has decried the poor awareness of urban planning regulations in the country.
National President of NITP, Mr Toyin Ayinde, on Friday, March 11, 2022, in Bauchi, said that many Nigerians didn’t know what urban planning was all about.
Ayinde, who led a team of the institute on an advocacy visit to the Rector, Federal Polytechnic, Bauchi, Mr Sunusi Gumau, said that the essence of the visit was to engage and enlighten stakeholders of the need for proper town planning.
“In fact, what many people think is town planning is exactly what is not town planning.
“Our administration decided we needed to embark on an advocacy visit going from state to state trying to enlighten governors, and chief executives of corporations, among others.
“We are hoping, if God permits, to say this same thing to the president of the federation because planning is meant to start from the general to the specific,” he said.
Ayinde said that Bauchi State was the 23rd state the institute was holding its advocacy and explained that town planning was not obtaining building plan approval.
According to him, building plan approval is a downstream pedestrian product of town planning.
“So, if you have not had that high level, there is no need talking about town planning,” said the NITP president.
Welcoming his visitors, the Rector, Mr Sunusi Gumau, said that planning was critical to any successful endeavour, stressing “whoever fails to plan is planning for his failure’’.
Gumau said that the “status quo” of town planning in Nigeria must change.
He tasked the NITP to effectively sensitise the development boards in the states, so that they would make a massive impact towards improvement of urban planning in the country.
By Olaide Ayinde
