The Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Arc. Ahmed Musa Dangiwa, has expressed concern over Nigeria’s failure to implement the Urban and Regional Planning Law of 1992, more than three decades after it was enacted.
Speaking at a national conference on sustainable city planning, Dangiwa decried the absence of institutional structures such as the National Urban and Regional Planning Commission, Development Control Boards, and Appeal Tribunals — key agencies provided for in the law.
The minister said this neglect has led to the proliferation of unregulated housing estates, traffic congestion, and flooding in major cities due to poor land-use management. He noted that without effective spatial planning, Nigeria risks uncontrolled urban sprawl, infrastructure collapse, and declining liveability.
Dangiwa emphasised that the new administration is determined to correct the failures of the past by strengthening physical planning frameworks across all states. “The law was visionary, but the will to implement it was missing. We cannot talk about smart cities while ignoring the foundational instruments for orderly growth,” he stated.
Experts at the event urged the federal government to create a coordinating agency to harmonise national and state planning policies, while also updating the 1992 Act to reflect modern realities such as climate change, disaster risk management, and digital mapping.
