THE Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP) has appealed to states to domesticate the 1992 Urban and Regional Planning Law, which guides development at national, state, and local planning levels.

The institute noted that without domesticating the law, the operation of urban development in states will continue to be classified as illegal and exist in a vacuum, while issues of flooding and slums will continue.

President of NITP, Dr. Chime Ogbonna, said this while addressing journalists at the weekend ahead of the institute’s international conference/annual general meeting scheduled for October 26 to 30th in Lagos. The 1992 law mandates that all states must have a State Urban and Regional Planning Board and that local councils must have a Local Planning Authority, but the majority of states haven’t created them.

The development has triggered low attention to preparation, approval, and enforcement of master plans even as states face the continuous flooding, demolitions and other environmental challenges.

He explained that the 1992 law is the only comprehensive law that creates legal power for master plans, disallows lawlessness in cities and solves issues relating to land and planning conflicts.

“Only Lagos has effectively domesticated the law. But no meaningful development can take place in an area, unless it is based on the context of urban and regional planning as a base for economic development to take place,” he said.

Ogbonna said the forum themed: “Shaping the future of regional development through physical planning” aligned with the move by the Federal government to establish the ministry of regional development, which he said, would foster greater socio-economic development at the regional levels.

He said: This is a new development in the country. At the beginning of Nigeria, there was the idea of regional government. We had the Western government of Nigeria, the Northern regional government of Nigeria, the Eastern regional government of Nigeria, and at that time, Nigeria was better than now because every region was allowed to develop at its own pace. It’s not like now, where every state or each administration waits for the month to end, so that the federal allocation will be shared.”

From the formation of the institute in 1966, before the first National Conference, to now, it’s 60 years. And it has great implications, which are six decades of the practice of urban and regional planning in the country. That again informs why we are in Lagos, because we felt the best way to honour the profession and the state, is to move the 60th anniversary conference back to Lagos, from where we started. One of the major programmes of the institute is training for new fellows. We want to use the opportunity of the conference to educate Nigerians, especially our governors, on what they should do and what they should not do to ensure that physical plans grow and city chaos is tackled.”

For him, regional development enables every regional government to prepare their own master plan, as well as regional development plan, create jobs, industries and speed up development.

Ogbonna disclosed that the forum would be attended by the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu, and other international speakers from Canada and others.

The NITP President further urged leaders to engage the services of professional town planning consultants to specifically tackle issues relating to the crisis in the built environment, especially planning, waste management, housing, and flooding for lasting solutions.

He advised the Lagos State Government to come up with fresh initiatives that could end flooding in Lekki and other places, as it was done in Eko Atlantic City.