… Oyowah Charges Town Planners.
By: Akamba Jude, CRS-MOI Officer reporting from Min of Urban Renewal & Dev.
The Commissioner for Urban Renewal and Development, Hon Emmanuel Edward Oyowah has charged Town Planners to avoid unethical practices in order to win Government’s trust for their full involvement in the Governor Ben Ayade’s developmental programmes of the State.
Hon Oyowah gave this charge during the ground opening of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP) Conference tagged ‘Eastern Zonal Assembly’ held in Calabar, to discuss issues affecting Town Planning as a profession as well as deleberate on better approaches to addressing key challenges that have jeopardized the practice in the region and Nigeria at large.
The Commissioner, while declaring the event open, maintained that a city without infrastructural development is at best a waste, adding that, the present administration has made a quantum leap in the area of infrastructure which has in no small measures given Cross River State a tremendous value.
Hon Oyowah further stressed that, the NITP Conference will expand the frontiers of Town Planning as a great profession as well as boost the practical knowledge of the nine component that make up the zone.
The Commissioner, who had before the conference debunked the notion by some persons in the State that the present administration created a Task Force as a deliberate move to cripple the activities of Planners in the State, restated that, the Governor’s intention is not to infringe on the profession, but to watch the infrastructural activities in the State due to some unethical practices by some Town Planners which have created leakages in the revenue generation of the State.
“Many Town Planners have suffered so much while practicing the profession, but some, in the course of striving to stay in the circle, compromise the system,” Hon Oyowah admonished.
The Commissioner reassured the members of NITP of the Governor’s intention to work with Planners because of his developmental visions for the State, but Planners must shun unethical practices so as to win back the Governor’s trust, stressing that, nothing starts without a plan because without appropriate planning, the structural developmental goals of a society will be in total jeopardy.
In his Paper Presentation at the conference tittled ‘Infrastructural Provision: A Panacea To Sustainable Land Value in Calabar-Calabar Metropolis’, TPL. Dr. Simon K. Ajom, of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Calabar, gave lights on the key determinants of national development.
TPL. Dr. Ajom explained that, one of the key determinants of a nation’s level of development is the availability of critical infrastructure, stressing that functional infrastructures are the engines required to drive a nation’s economy towards development and this can not be achieved without the expertise of Town Planners.
TPL. High Chief Archibong Omon, in his remarks, maintained that, for Planners to find their ways into the government circle, they must make deliberate efforts to develope cordial relationship with the government by doing the right things.
“Please, let His Excellency get us involved because we already have the masterplans to support him in his developmental strides, we are ready to work with him”. High Chief Omon appealed.
The Former/First National Vice President of NITP, also a former Commissioner for Urban Renewal and Development-Lagos State, TPL. Toyin Ayinde, in his remarks, affirmed that, Infrastructural development cannot come to fruition without a plan, enumerating further that, Town Planning relates to all spheres of development, be it in Lands or Urban Renewal and for any of these Ministries to thrive, there must be land use plan because, Land is a resource that must be accounted for and accountability starts from Planning.
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