Town planners, others tasked on creating sustainable urban spaces

By Stanley Onyekwere

The National President of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP) Tpl. Nathaniel Atebije, has enjoined members of the institute and other stakeholders in the building industry to always remain committed to the ongoing efforts to create sustainable, well-planned, and resilient urban spaces.
Atebije gave this charge at the 2023 Town Planners Day, themed: “Strategies for Implementation of Physical Development Plans In the FCT”, organised by the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP), FCT Chapter, recently in Abuja.
He advised members of the institute to make the best out of the meeting beyond mere annual ritual to seeing it as a platform for deep professional interaction and conversations on matters which are not only contemporary but bankable in concept and content.
According to him : “Policies, programmes and plans are reduced to ordinary story books when they are not implemented. Implementation becomes an uphill task when they are not strategic. This has been the bane of planning and implementation in Nigeria.
“In some cases, plans seem to have utopian ideals, hence they do not respond to the immediate circumstances of their target beneficiaries. At other times, our strategies do not consider our strength of technology, nor funding possibilities, political will, manpower requirements and other critical factors.
“As professionals, we forget that times have gone by when we planned for the people; and the current direction is to plan with the people thereby encouraging inclusiveness.
“As beneficiaries buy into our plans from the period of conception and they participate in the process through detailing, they would naturally contribute in the realization of the plan.”