Dr. Ramatu Aliyu, the Federal Capital Territory’s Minister of State, has issued a warning against actions that might cause the master plan of the territory to be deviated from.
On Tuesday evening in Abuja, Mrs. Aliyu announced this at the investiture ceremony for Mrs. Lami Ayuba, the 14th chairperson of the FCT chapter of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners.
Speaking on behalf of the minister, Mr. Nasir Sulaiman, acting director of FCTA’s Resettlement and Compensation Department, emphasized the necessity of maintaining the FCT Masterplan and noted that town planners have a crucial role to play.
Nathaniel Atebije, the national president of NITP, urged planners to be brave and to follow Mrs. Ayuba’s example.
The newly-inaugurated chairperson, Mrs. Ayuba said, “The FCT is among the well planned cities in Nigeria. From inception, the Abuja masterplan provided a blueprint for the development of the FCT. It is very easy to identify the application of planning standards in Abuja some of which include: the separation of different land use zones; separation of building heights and densities; application of building lines and setbacks; location of neighborhood facilities among others.”
Ayuba identified some of the planning problems in FCT such as land grabbing especially within the regional areas, double allocations, fake layouts, overlapping layouts, unapproved developments which later result in eviction or demolition, cloning of land documents, multiple allocations for a single park resulting into various court cases, land use conversations putting pressure on existing facilities and infrastructure and absence of bus stops and lay-bys along intracity road networks, thus creating unnecessary traffic and delays.
She also stated that her vision is to advance the town planning profession and advocate for policies and actions that would address the planning problems in the FCT to make Abuja a liveable and inclusive city.
Discussion about this post