Consult Experts Before Building – Town Planners Urge Ogun Residents

Raymond Osho
The Ogun State chapter of the Nigeria Institute of Town Planning (NITP) has issued an advisory, cautioning residents against embarking on building projects without consulting experts in the built industry.
This warning comes as a measure to prevent haphazard development and promote sustainable growth in the state.
According to the institute, building without proper consultation undermines the state’s development, leading to potential environmental and structural hazards.
The NITP Chairman, Adefelala Sogbesan gave the advice during the NITP’s 2024 Annual General Meeting in Abeokuta, the state capital, where key state executives, in a panel discussion pointed out the importance of streamlined efforts to drive sustainable development initiatives in the state.
The theme of this years AGM is “Cross Sector Collaboration in The Production And Implementation of Development Plans: Imperative Of Synergy Among MDAS”
The institute also stressed the need for cohesive collaboration among Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAS) operating in the state to ensure comprehensive physical development.
His words ” I want to advise residents to consult professionals. In this part of the world, we are not consulting professionals. For example,.you want to buy land to build a school. Instead of just buying the land where that scheme is meant for residential, after doing all the necessary things you now realise that you are building at the wrong place because you didn’t consult professionals.
“We choose this topic from the observations of some of our members so we thought there is need to bring some of the departments and agencies, especially those that have direct access to the built industry and that is why we invited the heads of the ministries, department and agencies with the hope that we will be able to relate together and see how we can move forward.
The Commissioner for Housing, Jamiu Omoniyi while speaking with Journalists at the event disclosed that all government ministries, agencies and departments have been working in synergy to ensure development across the state.
He stressed that through the current administration, is facing the challenge of implementation of the developmental plan of Ogun state because it was not followed by the other administration, the governor Abiodun’s government has been working hard in correcting the deficiency.
“Some build a whole estate without any form of communication with all the different arms of government that make up the controls in terms of building, in terms of planning. So all these things create different challenges for us as different bureaus and most times we are fire fighting and this is where we have problems.
Also, Commissioner for Commissioner for Urban and Physical Planning, Tunji Odunlami warned that building without following would endanger the development of the state.
Odunlami noted that his ministry will continue to work with other ministries and agencies for the implementation of the state developmental plan.