By Kingsley Adegboye

Appalled by the lack of uniformity in the growth and development of most Nigerian cities, built environment professionals have called on the Federal and state governments to adopt measures that would make Nigerian cities more liveable.

The built environment stakeholders said they are ready to support governments to make Nigerian cities work like other cities in the world. The experts made the pledge at the just concluded 2011 edition of Lagos Architects’ Forum. The forum, the third in the series, had “Lagos 2.0 – a liveable city Next Level” as the theme.

President of the Association of Professional Bodies of Nigeria, APBN and past president, Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors, NIQS, Mr. Olusegun Ajanlekoko defined his own concept of a liveable.

He lamented the lack of governance in Nigeria and tasked the government must be involved to make our cities liveable.

According to him, “this is the time for President Goodluck Jonathan to make things work in Nigeria by involving technocrats in governance. There is no consistency in our programmes. We need a thorough review of ourselves as a people. There is uniformity in growth and development in liveable cities. But this is not the case Nigeria. Professionals should not pay lip service but come together for what is good for the country”, he said.

The President of the Nigerian Institute of Architects, NIA, Arc. Tunji Bolu said the issue of liveable cities should be a national agenda. According to him, ongoing efforts to make Lagos a liveable city will be fruitless without the support from the centre which should be extended to other aspiring cities in Nigeria.

While charging architects to take the front role in making Lagos State realize its dream of a liveable city, Arc. Bolu also called on Lagos residents to lend their support to the second coming of Governor Babatunde Fashola to enable him succeed in his efforts to transform Lagos State. He equally called on architects to support government policies and programmes as well as the enforcement of the National Building Code.

The first vice president of NIA, Arc. Ibrahim Haruna noted that the choice of Lagos as reflected in the theme was apt considering the status of the sprawling city as the commercial nerve centre of Nigeria.

Governor Fashola who was represented by Arc. Taiwo Adedeji, Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Housing said the theme of the forum was appropriate at this time the state government is trying to develop Lagos into an Africa Model City.

The governor pointed out that the emergence of Lagos as a mega city has thrown up challenges in the areas of infrastructure development, housing, transportation and physical developments. He said his administration is already addressing the challenges and called for the support of the built environment professionals to enable him succeed in this regard.