Introduction
The principles and practice of physical development planning in modern economy of towns and cities have set goal and objectives of achieving functional, economic and aesthetically pleasing built environment with little or no friction of pollution, urban infrastructure, decay and failure, traffic congestion, flood insecurity and health hazard.
This organization is known as the process of comprehensive community planning. It has four basic stages of statement of goals and objectives, basic research into problem identification, plan preparation and plan implementation.
A cursory examination of the case study of mega polis of Lagos and Ogun State suburb development reveals so many things that are left to be desired. Virtually at every stage of planning process. There has been a devastating deviation from the acceptable norm that has helped the developed world deliver optimum built environment.
From the Lagos end of the mega polis, emphasis has been so much on implementation without strict adherence to the Master Plan and Urban Renewal Plan. For instance it's a common place in Lagos, Nigeria to see planning agency granting approval for a redevelopment of an old site with old structure on it- even a family house- in a city centre. Such approval may be granted for a commercial building without any mitigating action on parking, noise refuse and waste disposal. Yet at the office the approval contains fictitious Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) document supporting such development.
From the Ogun end of the mega polis the problem is more acute because it is not only occurring at the implementation stage but abinitio from the first stage of the process. No formal definition of goal and objectives for development at the special arrears such as zone sharing boundary with Lagos metropolis. No basic studies conducted. No Master Plan at least to the public knowledge, and where they exist no public participation or awareness and no urban renewal policy or plan.
Plan View of Zones within Lagos- Ogun Megapolis showing haphazard and poorly planned layout of neighbourhood.
Implications
Considering the flow diagram as shown above, it can still be observed that some efforts were made gearing towards implementation of some plans that must have been made in the past, such instrument is the old western Region " Town and Country Planning Law cap 123 of 1946- a classic example of building and housing codes and Land development Law (Roads) 1948 cap 106- which is a classic example of subdivision regulation. Another land instrument though not a planning implementation tool , but with planning implication is Land Use Decree of 1978, which is a classic example of Land tenure and reform instrument. In a major effort to develop modern uniform implementation tool, the federal Government enacted Urban and regional planning Decree 1992, which later transformed to an act of parliament. Various agencies at different level of government are charged with the responsibility of implementing the provisions of these above laws and instruments.
However, a cursory observation at the physical environment of our case study reveals environmental menace such as flood, traffic congestion, substandard structures, awkward road layout, power supply inadequacy, refuse disposal problems, drainage problems, housing shortage, pollution among many others like dearth of public services like schools, and hospitals.
A case of temporal distribution problem of traffic in Lagos Mainland Nigeria (Peak Period Traffic Congestion)
A case of severe flood in the peak of rainy season in Ogun State Suburb, Nigeria.
The question now is why we are having these problems.
In the first place it cannot be clearly affirmed that the status quo of planning process in Nigeria generally is as comprehensive as expected to be. The present states depict a one on one approach from various government administrations. No planning agency clearly engages in the process of formulating acceptable goal and objectives for future development within their planning jurisdiction.
Basic Studies. This stage of planning has suffered a severe setback, even with the advent of information age. Planning Research Institutions have been suffering from underfunding. The entering into the league of satellite launching country of Nigeria has not rightly made available planning data, policy and laws publicly available on website where such information can be easily accessible by the public. The basic planning data are not easily accessible to even professionals in built environment let alone members of the public. The main problem has been either no study or research has been conducted or the findings of such where they have been conducted are not publicly accessible. Major research parastatals either don't have website or information are not obtainable from their public domain. The concept of data "data bank" is still an ideal rather than a reality in Nigeria after more than two decades into information age. It is not a shocking
revelation to discover that agencies of planning research and planning implementation still run a flat file database system which has not even been digitalized. A simple form of relational database system of MS Access is not popular among many research institute. Even such big institutions like university have not digitalized their exams and record database system.
Plan Preparation: This stage too has suffered major neglect by successive administration in the two state of study. From Lagos end some plans were made as far back as 1946 during the colonial era. Also some urban renewal plans were also developed. The problem here again is that they were not reviewed at the end of their life cycle and new ones were not developed to guide the development of on the fastest growing mega polis in world. Rather Lagos government resulted to scheme development approach- a system of creating a prototype ideal neighborhood development project which is against the system nature of towns and cities. The scheme development approach is supposed to be a make shift solution and not a sustaining, permanent and comprehensive approach to development planning. The scheme development gave birth to various government residential estate such as Lekki, Victorial Garden City, Park View Estate, Magodo , Ogudu Ikeja, Omole, Jakandes and many
others. However, as we can see today, they constitute island of prosperity amidst ocean of poverty scenario across the city. Also the attendant traffic congestion that has resulted from these various schemes lends credence to the failure of this approach. The public infrastructure such as power water and waste disposal system failures are indicators of failures which are prevalent in these housing estate as a result of their inability to connect harmoniously which the rest of the city. Another problem emanate is the negative impact these schemes are having on the rest of the megapolis. Some of them constitute night desert syndrome- a condition of absence of night street activities which is causing security issues for the neighbouring community, some generated a lot of social unrest in matters relating to land acquisition, other are flood and solid and domestic waste polluters of nearby communities.
From Ogun State end the plan preparation activity seems to be in non- existence. Industrial scheme development was an impulsive response to the industrial need trend and spill over from Lagos State. The absence of plan preparation of the neglect of the state thereof are evident with spill over growth being experience along Lagos-Ibadan express way and Akute-Ijoko axis which has now come under rehabilitation and reconstruction.
Urban Renewal:
This is a comprehensive action plan directed at improving and rehabilitating decayed and obsolete district of a city. From Lagos end, urban renewal efforts have majorly dependent on successive administration. Various disjointed sections of the city depending on political will of the government of the day have been attracting investment towards city renewal. However, in the last six years of the present Lagos State administration, wide spread efforts that were devoid of selective approach were deployed to overhaul the infrastructure of the city. Road expansion projects, rehabilitation and improvement were embarked upon. Ikorodu axis, Lagos Badagry, Oshodi road terminal are examples. Massive Landscape improvement along major highways are noticeable. Major decentralization of major land uses such as markets . A remarkable feature of this effort is that it cuts across every section of the state irrespective of the importance or social status. However, it
brought so much hardship on the city population because it lacked a long term approach injected into it. Its implementation was hurriedly conceived without adequate formulation of goals and objectives, hence its social cost was enormous on the city dwellers especially the less privileged ones.
From, the Ogun State end, there was a devastating and reckless "do nothing" approach in the aspect of urban renewal even in the state capital- Abeokuta. The previous administration for more than a decade, allowed the infrastructures in the state to decay without any effort to improve especially in the areas sharing boundary with Lagos State, obviously for political and other selfish reasons. The areas were allowed to grow without proper development control because they were under grossly incompetent and ill-equipped local planning authorities jurisdiction e.g Ifo, Wawa, Agbado, etc. Encroachments on major acquisitions of both federal and state government are common place in these areas. Neighbourhood plots are majorly allocated by land speculators without any professionally prepared or approved layout plans. The scenario has got to the extent that even state government locates educational institutions on highway reservation and sites liable to
flood. Traffic within neighborhood can last as long as three hours in some cases e.g. Alagbole-Akute road.
However, there seems to be emerging some relieve with the advent of the present Ogun State administration in aspect of urban renewal. Major highway expansion projects are now being undertaking to the satisfaction of independent reasonable observers.
Plan Implementation. From Lagos end, the first culprits is lack of political will to implement plan provisions. This particular situation has resulted to activities of land speculators popularly known as 'omo oniles". These particular interest groups of the society are the native family title holder who has constituted themselves to local illegitimate authorities in land use and land title allocation. This menace cuts across the nation, but assumes an horrible dimension in Lagos and Ogun State. The origin of this mischievous dimension can be trace to Lagos, when after the federal capital territory status was move to Abuja, the family title holder who had lost their land to federal government acquisition approached the state government for their release. The state government granted such release with government gazette and some families even obtained legitimacy for their land by registering them to obtained Certificate of Occupancy in a company name.
These families no longer have recourse to obtain an approval or register their subdivision or layout plan before they begin to sell. As a result land development became haphazard and without any relationship with the overall development plan of the community. Standard practice of T-Junction, cul-de-sac, pedestrian walkway, sloip, setback, radial plots, lay-bys among many other standard subdivision practice that can yield functional and aesthetic neighborhood became things of the past. So many common sense land layout have produced awkward shape, narrow road close, drainage trap T- junction among many other ugly feature.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Government needs to be reassured that planning function remains one of its major responsibities to the public. Government should not just see planning duties from revenue generation point of view only but from angle of social responsibility.. Hence, government needs to be alive to its responsibility.
Government needs to adopt a comprehensive development process approach to environment issues.
The four basic states of development planning process should be fully funded and practiced. The shortcut unscientific, one-to-one approach has not yielded dividend in the past and will not in the nearest future. We have the model of emerging economies such as Singapore, Malasia, South Korea among others to follow. Human settlement is just like human body, it must be formed first before we can put cloth on it for decoration. Decoration alone doesn't make a lady a beauty queen. Lagos and Ogun should know that construction is just a form decoration; development planning is what forms the body a town.
Activities of land speculators should be checked. No interest group should be above the law and the public interest.
Regional development policy to correct the imbalance growth across the nation should be given a pride of place. This is necessary to check the rural urban drift and overcrowding at the city centers.
The public need to be educated in matters related to real estate investment. There is need to understand prospects and constraints, when it comes to development potentials of land vis-à-vis returns in such investment. Some huge investment being made by members of the public in real estate are not as feasible as they are perceived. Such bullish trend on land and landed property attracts sharp reaction from supply end and results in sharp practices on the part of government and land speculator
