The President of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners Nathaniel Atebije, has urged members of the profession to maintain the code of conduct and ethics to enable Nigerians to give practitioners due respect.
Atebije made this urge at the 48th annual general meeting and anniversary luncheon of the Lagos state chapter of the institute, noting that professionalism would take practitioners beyond their imaginations.
He said, “If one sinks, all of us would sink because any organisation is as strong as its weakest link. I call on all of us to close ranks to build our institute. The professional body does not belong to any individual. We are the ones to make it blossom and shine. And such attributes can only stand the test of time through good collaboration in integrity.”
The NITP boss also urged members to demonstrate good followership characteristics such as being proactive, reliable, devoted and diligent.
Atebije enjoined the committee members to demonstrate integrity and communicate effectively saying “As leaders, much responsibility is placed on you to be visionary, exemplary, demonstrate integrity, communicate effectively, take some bold decisions, appreciate or seek to empower and motivate other members of the team or the followers,” he added.
The Chapter Chairman, Mr. Omotayo Awomosu, urged colleagues to re-dedicate themselves to the cause of the profession, adding the chapter recently adopted by-laws, made different suggestions to the government on issues of public interest, and made efforts towards improving planning practice in the state.
The mmediate past president, Mr. Toyin Ayinde, had earlier lauded the chairman for revitalizing the chapter, adding that he has performed well just he urged him to do more and take the chapter to a greater height.
Also speaking, the President, Association of Town Planning Consultants of Nigeria, Adebisi Adedire, implored the practitioners to harness experiences towards resolving pressing issues affecting communities in Lagos and prevail on the government to act right in its policies and programmes.
Similarly, NITP Rivers State chapter has attributed the poor state of human settlements to lack of political will and funding by successive governments.
The institute argued that since the creation of the state in 1967, urban planning has had a chequered history, explaining that although various administrations had made frantic effort to advance physical planning activities; such effort could not yield positive effect on the overall wellbeing of its citizens.
While speaking with journalists in Port Harcourt, the state’s NITP chairman, Emmanuel Ikechukwu, admonished the government to implement its Physical Planning and Development Law No. 6 of 2003, as well as review it to come to terms with the prevailing reality of the 21st century urban planning dynamics.
Calling for the declaration of a state of emergency on physical planning, he blamed the failure of successive governments to professionalise the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development on the rise in quackery, stating that such practices have given responsible members of the built environment all sorts of unprintable names.
He said, “What we are most familiar with is the consequences of lack of physical planning, which manifest in the distortions of the siting of projects, chaos in our environment, narrowness of our streets, dysfunctional infrastructure, building collapse, generation of unplanned settlements, avoidable flooding and other factors leading to stressful living and high mortality rate.”
