‘Physical planning matters should be on concurrent list’

Dr Chime Ogbonna is the President of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners. In this interview, he spoke to CHINEDUM UWAEGBULAM on the increasing operational costs of professional activities, the usurpation of town planning jobs by foreigners, and the need to review national town planning laws.

Why are there inadequate regulatory and institutional instruments to support town planning practice in the country?
What Nigeria needs to operate a functional town planning is contained in the un-operational Nigeria Urban and Regional Planning Law of 1992, now an Act of the National Assembly (Cap138LGN, 2004).

The institutions as provided in the quoted law include the National Urban and Regional Planning Commission to be established at the National level, National Urban and Regional Planning Tribunal, State Urban and Regional Planning Boards – 37 of them including Abuja, and State Urban and Regional Tribunals – 37 of them.

The law also provided for town planning authorities at the 774 local councils and Town planning Authority Tribunals in 774 councils. The establishment of the listed institutions was meant to strengthen the practice of the profession at all levels of government but a good number of them are not there, especially at the Federal level where none has been established to the worry of all the stakeholders in the built environment.

At the state level, only very few states have established boards, town planning authorities and tribunals under the provisions of the law under discussion. There is no way the profession can be successfully practised in the absence of vital institutions. In some states where the principal law had been domesticated, the follow-up institutions were not set up, making it difficult for full implementation of the law. The principal law allows states to add their peculiarities to the law, which was also supported by the Supreme Court ruling of 2003, yet some states established boards without members.

One state established a one-man board. Some have town planning authorities without a board at the state level. Some appointed non-town planners to head some of the institutions. These wrong approaches to the physical development of the country do not guarantee sustainable development of the country, especially when we know that land, on which physical development is based, is limited in supply.

It is not like the failure of our policymakers to pursue purposeful physical planning is affecting only town planners; the negative impacts are on all citizens. Our worry, however, is that we have from time to time proffered solutions that have not been put into use.

Most settlements do not have physical development plans to guide their growth and where available, their life periods have expired. What is the solution?
That many settlements in Nigeria do not have physical development plans has become part of us. It is longer news. To many government officials, “it does not matter much”. Preparation of development plans, especially master plans is expensive, and they tend to agree without a cost-benefit analysis of their decision.

In the 19th century, Europe tried it, though in ignorance, during the Industrial Revolution and the result was a high-level slum accompanied by a high level of epidemics whose negative impacts eventually paved the way for today’s modern planned settlements. There is no part of Nigeria without urban squalor. Even the federal capital, Abuja is not spared, as relatively new as it is.

Migration to urban centres outpaces urban facilities/utilities because of in balances in our regional development efforts. We saw it happen in Lagos in the early 1950s to 80s, yet we guided its repeat in Abuja. One fact that is always true is that every small settlement today is a potential urban area. This idea should be a guide to the need for the preparation of urban and regional plans for every part of Nigeria. This should not be politicised. It is a need.

The Nigerian Urban and Regional Planning Law (1992) now an Act of the National Assembly, has enough provisions that should guide our physical development. For example, it provides for the design of a National Physical Development Plan for the whole nation. Unfortunately, from 1992 to date, that provision of the law has not attracted the attention of any of our leaders at the national level.

The weak defence has always been that town planning is under residual matters in the Nigerian constitution. As important as this matter is, why don’t we bring town planning to concurrent matters through a constitutional amendment(s)? The Federal Government is coming close to the need for the physical environment through the creation of the Federal Ministry of Regional Development as a growth pole. However, the idea is not the same as preparing a National Physical Development plan for the country. Appointments in the Regional Development Ministry are more political than professional – making it the opposite of the provision in the Nigeria Urban and Regional Planning Law where relevant professionals should be in charge.

For record purposes, the National Urban and Regional Planning Commission proposed in the 1992 Nigeria Urban and Regional Planning Law (NURPL) shall be constituted by professionals in the built industry who are trained experts. It is important to also note how strange it is to talk about reviewing a master plan or any other development plan anywhere in Nigeria because the law that provides for it is not in place (URP Law-Cap 138LFN,2003).

Apart from Lagos and Bauchi State governments that proposed a review of some existing master plans, it is not a common exercise in Nigeria. Rather, reports from various parts of the country point to civil servants being compelled to vary approved development plans in their offices as against official review, using consultant town planners.

The law under reference has provisions for preparation, approval and development control of all levels of new settlements just like it has for urban regeneration and rehabilitation of existing settlements. Established order must be followed to achieve orderliness. No one person does any of the above duties. It is a group assignment that must be performed in line with prevailing laws for the overall public interest.

The few existing development plans are hardly reviewed as prescribed by law. Implementation of such plans stretches beyond the period of its approved review usually between 10 and 15 years. Once the time allowed for the review, of any development plan elapses, it becomes difficult to accommodate recent innovations into the plan.

Unfortunately, as observed earlier, our few development plans are not subjected to reviews in line with the provisions of the only national town planning laws- the Nigerian Urban and Regional Planning Law (Cap N138LFN, 2004).

Instead, civil servants are compelled to perform the duties of consultants and the procedure is truncated to the danger of private interests. Sometimes, when ministers or commissioners are appointed into ministries that are outside their professional callings, some of these procedures are breached innocently.

This brings to the fore, the need to appoint relevant professionals to relevant ministries. The built environment is not for all comers. At all times, it needs experts to handle it. The other solution is the full implementation of the Nigerian Urban & Regional Planning Law (Cap 138 LFN, 2004) which makes framing of schemes (development plans) and their review mandatory.

The economy has not been friendly with built environment professionals, as a large percentage of your members struggle to earn a living. Can we blame this on the usurpation of your jobs by foreigners?
Yes, the Nigerian economy has not been friendly with many professionals including those of us in the built environment. The challenge is, however, multifaceted and cannot be attributed to a single factor as your question suggested competition from foreign firms.

Though it is significant, other critical factors contribute to the bad situation. Some of them include:
One, many Nigerians, including government functionaries, perceive the foreign consultants as being superior to the local ones- this agrees with the tone of your question. Because of the preference, these jobs are awarded to them at higher costs than would have been paid to those of us from within.

When similar jobs are given to local professionals at the usual low cost, we are falsely expected to come up with the same level of delivery. This is not achievable. Experience is built on the number of jobs done. The local professionals as a matter of fairness should be given equal opportunities with the foreign ones by being paid the same amount for the same type of jobs as the outsiders.

Two, Nigerian consultants hardly get jobs because many government agencies do not understand or pretend not to know what jobs should be given out and when. There is not enough local content in our laws of contract. Take the Nigerian Urban and Regional Planning Law (Cap138, LFN 2004) as an example. The law is yet to be implemented at the federal level and in many states of the federation. The URP Law as quoted above repealed every other town planning law in the country on its promulgation in 1992. We are to move from local jobs to bigger jobs and grow from there.

Three, the various regulatory bodies in the built industry have to determine who is qualified to handle which job in Nigeria. A foreign firm does not just come into professional practice without undergoing some level of scrutiny with a relevant regulatory body.

In the course of the scrutiny, we should be able to know how many relevant Nigerians are in the management team of the foreign firm. To me, that is a good way of reducing the overbearing influence of foreign professionals in our built industry.

To address the challenges, we must work towards enforcement of local content policies by our regulatory bodies, collaboration among our local firms – sometimes forming consortia to challenge outsiders and strengthening advocacy for implementation of our local laws from where we can gain ground for jobs using local content initiatives.

With the inflation in the country, do you subscribe to the review of the present scale of fees for professionals in the built environment? How do you intend to remedy the situation?
Scales of professional charges are by their nature reviewed from time to time taking into consideration the time value of money.

In the present circumstances, we find ourselves, I support an upward review of the cost of our services. On a general note, however, the major concern of every Nigerian is how to correct the general economic downturn of our country. If every professional group embarks on an upward review of the scale of professional charges, what we achieve is sustained galloping inflation.

This is because, for the upward review to work, it must be carried out every day going by the breaking-neck inflation rate in our dear country. There are, no doubt, enough factors that support the upward review of fees. They include inflation pressures in the country. By this, I mean rising costs of essential goods and services these make the current professional charges inadequate because the inflation rate has reduced earnings thereby threatening the sustainability of the practice.

Also, increasing operational costs of professional activities, professionals incur increasing expenses for staff training, transportation and staff emoluments.

Accordingly, there is a need for an upward review of the scale of professional charges if standards and qualities must be maintained.