…as Soludo pledges continued synergy with Town Planners.
Nigerian Instutue of Town Planners (NITP) has called on Anambra state government to recruit and train more town planners in preparation for any land associated crisis in the state, The iNews Times reports.
National President, Dr Ogbonna Chime made the revelation in Awka, Anambra state at the 26th Mandatory Continuing Professional Development Program (MCPDP), themed, “Developing New Frontiers for Improved Physical Planning Practice in Nigeria”.
He regretted that Anambra remained one of the states with few employed town planners despite its dare need for such services.
Chime also called for full implementation of 1992 Nigerian Urban and Regional Planning Law in the state, describing the law as panacea for appropriate urban development.
He said, “From what’s happening in Lagos, every state should be prepared so as not to be taken unawares which can result to slump take over.
“Lagos, the first state to domesticate the 1992 law as soon as it was promulgated has been exploiting the benefits associated with domestication of the law in managing the urban population.
“Without employment of enough town planners, and encouraging them to carry out their duties the way they should, Lagos would have turned to slump. You’ll hardly find any slump in the state because of early preparations.
“Anambra is gradually turning to Lagos. It’s difficult to identify boundaries from one community or the other. Everything appears fused together.
“The landmass of the state remain the same from creation while the population keep increasing. To arrest the situation, we advice the state to focus on training town planners ahead of time
“The state should also begin to prepare a physical development and master plan for major urban areas. People of the state should go into studying of Urban and Regional Planning because of the anticipated future crisis which requires services of several town planners.
“If we don’t begin to send our children to school to study Urban and Regional Planning, when the time comes, we may not have the space to contain the crisis.
“There’s also need for collaboration between government and traditional institutions to forestall crisis we’re anticipating.”
Declaring the event open, Governor Chukwuma Soludo pledged continued synergy with Town Planners, described them as essential to development of any city or county.
Soludo, represented by Commissioner for Lands, Anambra State, Prof. Offornze Amucheazi also assured engagement of more town planners in his administration.
“Since we came on board, the government, through the ministry of lands has always collaborated with town planners in the state to ensure right things are done.
“They play important role in the concept, design, implementation and execution of these projects.
“We’ve embarked on massive urban regeneration which the town planners are part of. The two brand new cities coming up next year in Awka & Onitsha will not be successful without town planners. Without them, you’ll end up with a slump.
“Over the years, we failed to enforce the plan for those cities. That’s why we’ve embarked on urban regeneration and strict enforcement of master plan to ensure all cities are liveable to avoid slumps.
“Though there’s embargo on employment currently, but I know when the embargo is lifted, we’ll engage more town planners.
“Anambra takes your job seriously. We’ve been synergizing to ensure we have the best town planners. We also need traditional institutions to ensure order and master plan is not distorted,” he stated.
Traditional ruler of Awka, Obi Gibson Nwosu, while playing host to members of the institute in his palace, assured he would encourage youths in his community to study Urban and Regional Planning to ensure enough professionals capable of profering solution to environmental devastation.
