AKINWALE ABOLUWADE
Professor Bolanle Waheed Wahab of the Urban and Regional Planning, University of Ibadan, has called for the indigenisation of planning and management of human settlements through the use of indigenous personnel and techniques.
The don spoke while delivering the 522nd Inaugural lecture of the University of Ibadan titled, ‘Informal communities and planned slums: The tragedy of environmental planning without indigenous knowledge systems,’ on behalf of the Faculty of Environmental Design and Management.
He posited that these would increase the level of participation of stakeholders who are beneficiaries of the planning policies and products to increase the liveability index of communities and reduce dependency.
Wahab explained that the Nigerian rural and urban communities had enormous resources to be tapped for development purposes if approached in ways that demonstrate mutual respect, transparency and accountability between government agencies and the communities.
The professor lamented the current state of the nation where policy and decision makers ignored community, local and indigenous knowledge systems, which he said was ignorantly equated with retrogressive and old fashioned ideology.
He stated that the traditional inclusive governance systems that sustained the communities for centuries were viewed as slow, time wasting, unscientific and are therefore, jettisoned until when crises and insecurity problems arose, necessitating call for the intervention of traditional rulers and security apparatuses.
Considering the opportunities and challenges that the informal settlements offer the urban and peri- urban populations, the professor urged governments, development agencies, scholars, and professionals to formulate actionable strategies to transform the ailing informal and formal settlements into liveable communities.
According to him, government should improve the quality of the urban environments through community-based and participatory waste management, water supply, road improvement, public sanitation and neighbourhood revitalisation.
He further stated that government should collaborate with both the private and popular sectors to enact appropriate laws and bye-laws for proper planning and management of the living environment.
