NAN-H-64
Renewal
By Emmanuella Anokam
Abuja, Sept. 23, 2016 (NAN) The Nigeria Institute of Town Planners (NITP) says its partnership with the Institute Francaise du Nigeria is to ensure urban renewal and proper management of Nigerian cities.
The Acting National President of NITP, Mr Lucas Achi, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Friday.
Achi, a former Director of Administration in the Parks and Recreation Department of the Federal Capital Development Authority, said that the partnership was necessary and timely.
According to him, the partnership with the French institute calls for assessment of new towns, their concepts and how they have performed since inception as well as the reasons for their progress.
He also said that it would focus on housing sanitation, urban transportation, mixed land uses and compact neighbourhoods.
“We are trying to see how the environment in Abuja will not just be a good place to live in, but also a land of opportunities for young ones to obtain jobs,’’ he said.
He stated that NITP is trying to forecast the outlook of Abuja in the next 30 years, in view of the daily influx of people, which is over-stretching its infrastructure.
He further said that there might not be sufficient infrastructure to service residents in the nearest future if Abuja continued to expand without planning.
Achi said that it was in an attempt to prevent such development that NITP in partnership with the French institute was considering turning away people’s attention from Abuja to FCT satellite towns.
He said that government would have succeeded in averting the kind of crisis usually associated with the mass influx of people to major cities if FCT satellite towns were to be properly developed.
The NITP chief said that developing FCT satellite towns would help create employment opportunities, ensure good environmental standards and promote standard service delivery.
Achi, therefore, called on professional town planners in the civil service to always offer good advice to political appointees on technical issues involving urban regeneration.
The Institute Français du Nigéria, formerly known as French Cultural Centre, was created in 1999 and charged with the responsibility of promoting the French language and culture in Nigeria. (NAN)
ELLA/EEM/YEE
Edited by Emmanuel Mogbede/Emmanuel Yashim
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