The Nigerian Institute of Town Planners has blamed the alarming increase in the incidence of building collapse, in the nation on the Federal Government’s poor planning.
President of the Institute, Olutoyin Ayinde made the lamentation on Thursday, during the inauguration ceremony of the Ogun State branch of Association of Town Planning Consultants of Nigeria, in Abeokuta.
Ayinde said the Nigerian government lacked an understanding of what town planning was all about.
Ayinde, an urban planner, said the federal government must fund planning and its implementation if there would be a reasonable physical development in Nigeria.
Expressing concern about the nation’s underdeveloped state, he equally argued that the country’s development would continue to be a mirage until the government begins to take the issue of planning seriously.
He said “Nigerian governments don’t even understand what planning is and until they do that they cannot commit resources. The truth is that there’s nothing we can really achieve without planning so, we must be joking as a nation if we are not funding planning because alternative to planning is chaos which is what we live in.
“We might be seeing a few GRAs and you think you are seeing the real thing, go to the real city and see how we are experiencing congestion and floodings it is a sign that we are not doing anything about planning.
“Nigerian government must Wake up, those who want to become president must plan, until we plan, we are heading nowhere.
The ATOPCON President, Muyiwa Adelu, said the association was inaugurated to train members who would assist the government in achieving its developmental goals in the environment.
He said, “Our goal is to spread the consultive arm of our precession and to also make sure that members are organised and able to assist the government in its various projects.
“Our idea is to train members to be able to lias with government and private people to help them achieve their developmental goals in the environment so as town planners, our duty is to ensure that our members are engaged and make sure that the environment that we live in is beautiful enough to better the lives of Nigerians”, he added.
