From Akilani Abdullah, Lagos
Ondo state governor, Olusegun Mimiko has tasked stakeholders in the urban planning sectors on the urgent need to redefine the sector in the area of planning and housing development in Nigeria.
Speaking during a book launch in Lagos, titled: “Affordable Housing and Urban Planning in Nigeria: Advocacy for Change” at the weekend, Mimiko said that without real planning, the Nigerian environment cannot become what we aims it to be.
Mimiko, who was represented by Oyewunmi Olajuyi, said “African countries are growing, and Nigeria is not exempted. We need to revisit and redefine the planning standards. We need to re- examines the contents of the program in the urban sector.
On his part, Lagos state governor, Babatunde Fashola, who was represented by Mr. Jimoh Ajao, said that the state housing programme have commenced with tax-payers money to develop 1, 140 housing units, while some are to be completed by the middle of the year, saying to enable legislation and environment development in the state, the citizens must abide by the law, which will bring about positive development in the state.
While speaking, the author of the book, a retired town planning officer, Mr. Yacoob Abiodun while stressing on the need for affordable housing in Nigeria made it known that even with the stupendous financial resources at government disposals, it was so disturbing that the Nigeria government cannot provide or create an enabling environment conducive for the provision of affordable housing for its teeming population.
“It is unthinkable why the provision of affordable housing should be a daunting task for us as a nation, when less-endowed country such as Sri Lanka was able to provide housing to majority of her citizenry under her United Nations’ award-winning One Million Housing Programme”, he said.
The author, while proffering solutions to the menace in the sector, said that the government and the governed must have the collective will to play by the rules.
