1 Dual City Nigeria: A Historic Walk through Nigeria’s Urban Development Trajectory Victor Onifade and Taibat Lawanson Abstract This paper outlined a historical look at urban and regional planning in Nigeria. A desk-based study of the classical and contemporary reflections on the definition and roles of planning was carried out. It traced urbanisation in Nigeria from the precolonial, colonial to postcolonial periods. The paper x-rayed the shift from a traditional settlement approach, through the colonial period that focused on health and environmental sanitation to a more recent emphasis on development control. It established that planning in Nigeria has been instrumental to the development of the contemporary Nigerian city. The paper concluded by stating the urgency of climate change and the reality of a fast urbanising Nigeria which make urban and regional planning an urgent national imperative. Keywords: Urban, Planning, Contemporary, Development, Nigeria 1.1 Introduction Urban and Regional Planning is also called Town and Country Planning, Physical Planning, Spatial Planning, Environmental Planning and City and Regional Planning. The classic definition of 2 Dual City Nigeria: A Historic Walk through Nigeria’s Urban Development Trajectory Urban Planning is that of Keeble (1969) which defines it as the art and science of ordering the use of land and siting of buildings and communication routes so as to secure the maximum practicable degree of economy, convenience and beauty. Another definition is that which describes planning as the art of anticipating change, and arbitrating between the economic, social political and physical forces that determine the location, form and effect of urban development (Ratcliffe, 1980). Planning has also been described by Okonkwo (2008) as a purposeful action, which is, taking decisions or making arrangements beforehand to influence the course of action on a particular need. The major goal of physical planning is the enhancement of efficient functioning of the urban system through effective coordination of various land uses (Adeagbo, 2000). As observed by Agbola (1997), this formed the rationale for the evolvement and or enactment of various land use control laws and regulations designed to safeguard, conserve, disburse and regulate the use of land in the interest of the overall public interest. However, urban planning and redevelopment is aimed at fulfilling social and economic objectives that go beyond the physical form and arrangement of buildings, streets, parks, utilities, and other parts of the urban environment. Planning's mission is to identify the root causes of urban and regional problems; to fashion strategies that deploy policies, plans, resources, and regulatory approaches to create model environments suited to human and ecological needs; and to develop methods for evaluating the human and environmental consequences of urban problems, programs, policies, and plans, hence Blowers and Evans (1997) advance that the particular sphere of concern for town planning is the unified social, economic and physical development of communities and their environs. Victor Onifade & Taibat Lawanson 3 1.2 Urbanization in Nigeria It is asserted in literature that man has dynamic ability to plan especially for the future, which distinguishes man from other animals, and this attribute of man had led to human civilization which is premised on urbanization. In Nigeria, the basic considerations for declaring a settlement ‘urban’ is either population or legal cum administrative. According to Oyesiku (2010), as at 1921, there were 29 cities with population of above 20,000 in Nigeria. During the 1952 National Population Census, 56 cities were identified. By the 1963, this figure had increased to 183 cities and towns (Olujimi 2000). The 1991 National Population Census revealed 359 urban centres (Odeyemi 2002) while Agbola (2005) estimated the number to have grown to as many as 600. With all local government area headquarters being legally or administratively regarded as urban centres (National Urban Development Policy, 2006), coupled with the recognition of 774 local government areas by the 1999 Federal Constitution, there are therefore at least 774 urban centres currently in Nigeria. Table 1.1 revealed the Urbanization trends have grown rapidly from10.2% in 1950, and 52.1% by 2015. Table 1.1: Percentage Urban Population – Nigeria (1950-2050) Year Total pop. (millions) % urban 1950 37,860 10.2 1960 45,926 16.2 1970 57,357 22.7 1980 75,543 28.6 1990 97,552 35.3 2000 123,689 42.4 2010 158,423 49.0 2015 179,791 52.1 2020 203,869 55.0 2030 257,815 60.8 2040 320,341 66.3 2050 389,615 71.3 Source: UN-Habitat (2011) World Urbanization Prospects 4 Dual City Nigeria: A Historic Walk through Nigeria’s Urban Development Trajectory The typical Nigerian urban area as described by Mabogunje (2001) is typified by substandard and inadequate housing, lack of infrastructure, poor transportation, low productivity, crime and juvenile delinquency. The UN-Global Urban Observatory (2010) estimates that approximately 62% of Nigerian urban households live in slum conditions, and are especially vulnerable to the vagaries of climate change. Cities in developing countries are vulnerable to impact of climate change, especially flooding (Parnell et al., 2007). The International Disaster Database (2013) estimated that between 1988 and 2012, more than ten million people have been adversely affected by floods in Nigeria. In 2012, more than seven million people lost assets of over $636 million to floods alone. According to Huq et al (2007), lack of urban planning, compounded by rapid rural to urban migration and the associated expansion of slums, will exacerbate the impacts of climate change on city dwellers. This situation highlights the importance of urban planning for Nigeria’s development and response to climate change, especially since literature establishes that as the population of the world becomes more urbanized and cities grow, urban planning becomes more critical (Hardoy and Satlerwaite (1992). 1.3 Urban Planning in Nigeria Urban settlements as well as city planning in Nigeria predate the colonial era. However, the cities and urban management systems that exist today were defined in that era. As such, urban planning in Nigeria will be discussed under the following classification: pre‐ colonial period (before 1854), colonial period (1854–1960) and post‐ colonial period (1960 till date). Victor Onifade & Taibat Lawanson 5 1.3.1 Pre‐colonial Period (before 1854) By the mid-1800s, traditional settlements with more than 20,000 people existed across Nigeria, with established land management practices, centred on the monarchical structure. Examples are the Sokoto Caliphate and the Oyo Kingdom where land use administration was vested in natural rulers or community heads who held legal status of trustee beneficiaries of the land and exercised powers in allocating, re-allocating and supervising land use. According to Obialo (1999) and Sanni (2006), the coordination of physical growth and development of these settlements were effectively done and due consideration was given to compatibility of land uses. Omole (1999) observed that pre‐colonial Yoruba town plans were communal, with the plans resembling a wheel. The Oba’s palace was the hub, the town walls were the circumference and the roads and footpaths linking the town to the palace were the spokes. The Igbo communities were generally characterised by a series of autonomous villages, highly individualistic designs but with a public square of open space at the centre of each village, while northern cities were designed with a strong Islamic influence, promoting domestic privacy in the predominantly courtyard housing type. 1.3.2 The Colonial Period (1854–1960) The colonial administration ushered in a different style of planning and land administration. Much of this activity took place in Lagos, because of the prominence of this city during the period of colonial rule in Nigeria. The promulgation in Lagos in 1863 of the Town Improvement Ordinance to control development and urban sanitation obscured the traditional land use administration system, especially in urban areas. Legal segregation of the European from the African residential areas also emerged during this period, with different planning and land use standards that favoured the 6 Dual City Nigeria: A Historic Walk through Nigeria’s Urban Development Trajectory Europeans. An overview of the planning legislation of this period is discussed in the following paragraphs. The Town Improvement Ordinance of 1863 represents the first urban planning legislation in Nigeria. Its objective was to control development and sanitation in Lagos. Enforcement of the ordinance rested with the Health Department of the defunct Lagos City Council. In 1873, the acting Colonial Surveyor gazetted that householders and owners of unoccupied lands throughout the town are requested to keep the streets clean and around their premises. The Inspector of Nuisance Regulations of 1877 dwelt mainly on garbage collection and street sweeping. The Swamp improvement act was also enacted in 1877. In order to guide against fire disaster, the Fire Service and development control regulation was established. This prohibited the discharge of firearms or letting off of fireworks in the precinct of the town. The law stated that all houses roofed with thatch must be separated by at least seven feet from the roofs of other buildings. In 1899, the Sanitary Board of Health was established by Governor Macgregor to advice the Governor on township improvement schemes, water supply, prevention of malaria and other diseases. The Sanitary Board of Health was established by Governor Macgregor to advice the Governor on township improvement schemes, water supply, prevention of malaria and other diseases. The Cantonment Proclamation of 1904 ushered in segregating of expatriates as it empowered the Governor to declare European Reservation Areas, segregated from native areas, in 1908; the Public Health Ordinance was promulgated under the Lagos Municipal Board of Health in order to improve on the health condition of the environment. Ordinance No 9 of 1914 allowed for the compulsory acquisition of land by government for public use. Victor Onifade & Taibat Lawanson 7 The Township Ordinance No. 29 of 1917 served as the legal basis of development of towns for most part of the colonial administration. It introduced zoning and subdivision regulation into planning practice. The ordinance laid firm guidelines for the physical layout of towns and established broad municipal responsibilities, graduated according to the importance of the community. Under the ordinance all settlements in Nigeria were categorized into either townships or native areas. Categorization was based on the relative presence of Europeans in each town and the presence of transportation termini. Only Lagos belonged to the first class category and was governed from the City Council. The second-class towns such as Aba, Jos, Port Harcourt and Minna were major transport hubs, while the third class townships were administered by District Officers. The impact of the ordinance is that reservation areas were adequately planned for, while the native areas remained largely unserved. This pattern subsists in many Nigerian cities today. Furtherance to urgent attention, Lagos Town Planning Ordinance Cap 95 of 1928 was enacted in response to the post-World War 1 influenza epidemic and bubonic plague of 1924 – 1930. The ordinance led to the creation of the Lagos Executive Development Board (LEDB) with a mandate to undertake comprehensive land-use planning and development in the then Federal Territory of Lagos including housing, slum clearance and resettlement. This ordinance was in place for eighteen years and served as the basis for the framework of 1946 planning laws. The Nigerian Town and Country Planning Law - Ordinance No 4 of 1946 was the most significant planning legislation in the first half of the 20th century in Nigeria as it covered the entire country. It made provision for the planning, improvement and development of different parts of Nigeria through the use of planning schemes. The 8 Dual City Nigeria: A Historic Walk through Nigeria’s Urban Development Trajectory ordinance was based on the 1932 British Town and Country Planning Act and remained the most comprehensive planning law for more than two decades after independence. The Nigeria Town and Country Ordinance of 1946 introduced comprehensive town planning in Nigeria as it made provision for the replanning, improvement and development of different parts of Nigeria through the use of planning schemes and also provided for the appointment of planning authorities. Following the introduction of the federal structure in Nigeria, the ordinance became regional laws - Town and Country Planning Law, Chapter 123 of the laws of Western Nigeria 1959, Chapter 130 of the Northern Nigeria and Chapter 155 of the laws of Eastern Nigeria. It was in force for almost fifty years. Although the 1946 Ordinance had very comprehensive provisions, it had to be supported by various legislations to make its provisions far- reaching. Such supporting legislations included the Mineral Act (1945) which related to drainage and environmental pollution; Building Line Regulation of 1948 which provided for the positioning of building vis a vis road, the Public Health Law of 1957, the Public Health Law (1957) to control overcrowding and urban squalor and the Local Government Reform Law of 1976. Apart from these legislations, other activities related to urban and regional planning include the national development plans of 1946 – 1956 and 1956-1962 which focused on national economic and social development, to the exclusion of spatial planning. 1.3.3 Post-Colonial Period (1960 till date) The post-colonial period has been an active one for urban planning in Nigeria. The 1946 Ordinance was operative after Nigeria gained independence and was the major planning legislation until 1992. Based on the 1946 law, professional town planners were employed by various regional governments to man the newly established town Victor Onifade & Taibat Lawanson 9 planning units of the respective ministries of lands and survey. The Nigerian Institute of Town Planners was established in 1966, while the Town Planners Registration Council was inaugurated in 1988 to oversee the standard of planning education and practice in Nigeria. This enhanced adequate training of urban planning professionals. The post-independence period also saw the introduction and implementation of various developments plans which similar to those of the colonial era, focused on economic drivers of development and ignored spatial considerations, hence the result was a chaotic pattern of urban development across the country (NITP, 1991). The third national development plan (1975 - 1980) recognized the importance of planning, attempted to articulate a national urban development strategy and created a Federal ministry to coordinate urban development issues and parastatals such as the establishment of Federal Housing Authority, Federal Mortgage Bank and River Basin Development Authorities. The plan inspired the development of new towns at Onne, Abuja, Satelite Town and Festac Town respectively. The Fourth National Development Policy (1981 - 1985) was not implemented due to the political tension in the country. However, it recognized the role of physical planning as an important tool for achieving national development. Also, this period witnessed the establishment of a new federal capital at Abuja in 1976. This was a great achievement for urban planning as the major reason espoused for the establishment of the new Federal Capital Territory was the need to have a capital that will help in galvanizing a new sense of national unity, promote national integration and trigger even and balanced development through opening up apparently under developed parts of the country (Kalgo and Ayileka, 2001). All these being principles advanced in urban planning growth theories. In spite of obvious challenges, Abuja 10 Dual City Nigeria: A Historic Walk through Nigeria’s Urban Development Trajectory remains a successful planning principle experiment and a well- planned and aesthetically pleasing Nigerian city. The Land Use Decree of 1978 was promulgated by the Federal Government also promulgated to curb land speculation, ease the process of land acquisition by government, coordinate and formulate tenurial modernization. However, the act has largely been counterproductive as it has encumbered the land acquisition process, did not emphasize the need for layout plans for designated urban centres and did not provide for town planners on the Land Use and Allocation Committee. The review of the 1946 Town and Country Planning Ordinance was done in 1991 and this report of the committee resulted in the promulgation of the Nigerian Urban and Regional Planning Law, Decree 88 of 1992, amended in 1999, which is operative today. This law clearly defines the roles of the different cadres of government in the preparation and implementation of plans. It also outlined the scope of services for professional planners encompassing social, economic and physical development. As noted by Agbola (2001), on the adoption of planning legislations in Nigeria, this has led to the existence of two cities within a city (the traditional and the modern), the consequent adoption and use of two different sets of building/planning legislations and the eventual application of modern legislation to all segments of the city at independence, caused the use of unduly expensive, culturally and climatically unsuitable building materials and techniques. Agbola expressed that the basic health reasons why those laws were evolved in the first instance in their country of origin may be inappropriate for Nigeria. Till date, only Lagos State and Abuja are implementing this law. Victor Onifade & Taibat Lawanson 11 1.4 Contemporary Urban and Regional Planning At present, urban planning is multidisciplinary in nature. The social sciences quantify the size and characteristics of the future population, its needs, occupational structure and income distribution; Architecture, Engineering, Landscape Architecture and Urban Design provide the three dimensional solutions that are the expression of broad development policy decisions; the science of ecology permits an increasingly accurate measurement of the environmental consequences of development and the control of their adverse effects; Law and political science provide the principal legislative and bureaucratic mechanisms that are used to implement planning decisions. In other words, there are many actors involved in planning process with different underlying professional training Olayiwola (2012). As affirmed by Faludi (2001), most of planning activities have four common characteristics: planning is future oriented, planning is concerned with defining and evaluating alternative solutions to problems; planning is political; and planning has a special responsibility to represent underrepresented groups. Olayiwola (2012) explained the planning process to involve the performance of a number of roles. Some planners function primarily as technical analysts or researchers, others as designers or program developers, others as agents of social change, and still others as managers or educators. Some planners will make a career in only one of these roles; most, however, will perform several of them at different stages of their careers. 1.5 Professor Babatunde Agbola’s Research Contribution to Physical Development Planning Physical development Planning is basically concerned with the regulation and control of changes within the physical environment. Adequate planning enhances good development. As cities develop, 12 Dual City Nigeria: A Historic Walk through Nigeria’s Urban Development Trajectory population increases and development activities dominate everywhere which requires adequate control of human activities. Agbola (1985) describes development control or land use control as “a collection of interrelated para-legal and administrative techniques and instruments designed to safeguard, regulate, conserve and disburse land or part thereof in the interest of the overall community”. Agbola (I997) submitted that as cities become the centre piece of contemporary development and as land become more scarce and inaccessible for requisite developmental purposes, the quest to ration supply and control and or regulate its use become more compelling. This is the rationale for the evolvement and or enactment of various land use control laws and regulations designed to safeguard, conserve, disburse and regulate the use of land in the interest of the overall public interest. Such laws include: zoning regulations; building bye- laws; density control, land acquisition laws; effluent discharge laws etc. Watson and Agbola (2013) observed that most urban development in sub-Saharan Africa is occurring in a completely non-planned and non- transparent manner – despite the existence of master plans. Many cities along the West African coast do not even have a master plan. In the absence of a well-resourced and functioning planning system, development fosters deal making among the influential and financially better-off – rather than compliance with accepted and transparent planning processes. They submitted that as Africa’s cities are growing – and changing – rapidly, there should be appropriate planning to guide our cities from becoming chaotic, inefficient and unsustainable. Planning is the single most important tool that governments have at their disposal for managing rapid urban population growth and expansion. Victor Onifade & Taibat Lawanson 13 1.6 Conclusion A historical look at urban planning in Nigeria reveals the shift from a traditional settlement approach, through the colonial period which focused on health and environmental sanitation. The 1946 act was a watershed in planning practice in Nigeria as it was the major legislation through which planning professionalization, training and practice were formalized across the country. A major hallmark of the Act was the establishment of local planning authorities to see to development control. Post-independence era was noted for proliferation of national development plans which precipitated infrastructural and economic development without spatial planning considerations. The era is also associated with development and occupation of new towns, most notable of which is the nation’s new capital city of Abuja, a successful masterpiece implementation of a planning concept. The enactment of the Town Planners Registration Council law as well as the 1992 Urban and Regional Planning Law were also significant achievements of this era, as planning was now seen as an essential professional service at all levels of government. All in all, planning in Nigeria has been instrumental to the development of the contemporary Nigerian city. While successes in infrastructure and general well-being can be attributed to the adherence to overarching planning principles, failures are evident where planning has been ignored. 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