The Minister of State for Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Dr (Mrs) Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu extolled the efforts of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration towards making Nigeria a Twenty First Century state with great priority on physical planning and urban cities regeneration.
Aliyu who is also a town planner and a member of the institute stated this on Monday while declaring open the 50th Edition of National Conference and Annual General Meeting of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP) in Ibadan, the state capital.
She also condemned the rate at which urban population live in slum without adequate facilities in Africa and other continents.
“We are trying to institutionalize planning as everywhere must be organised, because without organization there will not be a beauty development. FCT is taking center stage, Lagos is also taken shape. Under President Muhammadu Buhari Adminstration, the rowdy areas that are prone to gridlock are now free. Planning and organization has come to stay under this government.
“It is worthy of note that nearly half of the Worlds’ people are now city dwellers and more than one billion of the worlds’ city residents live in inadequate or deficient housing; because of rapid urbanization. The problem is more felt in Africa, Asia and Latin America where half of the population are either homeless or living in houses which are dangerous to health and an affront to human dignity.
“A very high proportion of the urban population live in slums and squatter settlements without adequate water, lighting, sanitation and waste disposal. In Nigeria, Many towns in urban centers also need regeneration.” she said.
Aliyu who is the first female town planner to be appointed a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria reiterated the needs to implement proper planning and organization to have a focus infrastructural development.
She said “Developing countries today face greater urbanization challenges than developed countries. Developed countries urbanized at a comparatively leisurely pace.
“It is worthy of note that nearly half of the Worlds’ people are now city dwellers and more than one billion of the worlds’ city residents live in inadequate or deficient housing; because of rapid urbanization.”
She mentioned that the government is trying as much as possible to compensate masses affected by the touch of the urban renewal, so as to have other means of shelter to relocate too. She promised to inculcate her personal experience in the town planning industry to boost Nigeria’s aesthetic value no matter the influx of urbanization.
She also resoluted to the fact that with the synergized effort of the trio of the Architecture, Town Planning and Quantity Surveying, good planning will take the centre stage in Nigeria’s environment.
