Issues in regional planning and development in Nigeria

Abstract

Till date,Nigeriacan not boast of a specific, well-formulated, clear regional development policy framework despite several urban planning, development and governance initiatives including passage of regulations at both federal and state government levels that have been undertaken since independence by successive post- colonial governments. Most of the country's claims of regional development are products of other policies, and intentions, which do not have any bearing on, deliberate regional planning policies. Policy and decision-making on development planning often do not incorporate the implications of the ways in which we use land and the consequences for different places (economic planning). The neglect of place, in particular, the way that different policies combine to affect places in different ways (regional planning), has contributed to a range of negative economic, social and environmental outcomes. This paper relies mainly on the secondary data and literature exploration to demonstrate that the little role accorded to spatial planning, especially, regional planning, in the development efforts is largely responsible for the underdevelopment, imbalance, and inequalities in the country, as well as poverty of the citizens. The conclusion of the paper is that regional planning should be an integral part and complementary to economic planning in the national development planning of the country. For regional planning to aid in the development of the country and promote the well-being of the citizens, appropriate recommendations have been included in the paper.