Plan Growth or Become Lagos’ dumping ground, Varsity Don Warns Ogun

A Professor of Estate Management at the University of Lagos, Timothy Gbenga Nubi, has warned that Ogun State risks becoming a dumping ground and dormitory for Lagos if its proximity to Nigeria’s commercial capital is not properly managed through effective urban planning.

Nubi gave the warning at the 40th anniversary of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP), Ogun State chapter, held at the June 12 Cultural Centre, Abeokuta.

At the event, which had as its theme, “Honouring the Past: Designing the Future”, Nubi submitted that, “proximity does not create prosperity; it has to be planned.”

Delivering his keynote address, titled, “Repositioning Physical Planning for Ogun State’s Next Forty Years,” Nubi said Ogun occupies a strategically important position within the Lagos metropolitan region but has failed to translate its geographical advantage into a well-planned metropolitan development opportunity.

According to him, rapid urbanisation along the Lagos-Ogun border has created serious planning challenges, particularly along the Isheri-Ibafo-Mowe-Sagamu Interchange corridor.

He noted that although planners in the state had recognised Lagos’ expansion and attempted to respond through the Ogun State Regional Development Plan 2005–2025 and its Development Pressure Area framework, including the Gateway City concept, developments around Mowe, Ibafo, Ofada and neighbouring settlements reveal a persistent gap between planning vision and implementation.

“Rather than allowing the state to function predominantly as a residential extension and dormitory of Lagos, Ogun should pursue a complementary metropolitan development strategy based on a hierarchy of cities, growth centres, transport corridors, affordable housing locations, and protected ecological and agricultural areas,” he said.

Nubi argued that contemporary master plans, subject to regular review, were needed for Abeokuta, Sagamu, Ijebu-Ode, Ilaro and other strategic urban centres, supported by a state-wide spatial development framework.

To change the state’s development trajectory, he identified several priorities for the next 40 years, including renewed spatial planning, coordination between Lagos and Ogun, updated city master plans, strategic growth centres, integrated transport and land-use planning, affordable housing, informal settlement upgrading, environmental resilience, digital planning, and stronger institutions and financing mechanisms for implementation.

In her remarks, the state’s Deputy Governor, Noimot Salako-Oyedele, described the anniversary theme as appropriate and timely. She stressed that town planning was not merely about drawing layouts, approving developments or determining land use, but also about creating communities where people could live, work, move safely and enjoy a good quality of life.

She warned that development decisions made today must not become tomorrow’s problems.

Salako-Oyedele said the services of town planners were more critical than ever, noting that major investments by the Governor Dapo Abiodun administration had attracted an influx of people from Lagos into Ogun State.

Without proactive planning, she warned, the state risked worsening traffic congestion, flooding, environmental degradation and the proliferation of unplanned settlements.

The deputy governor assured participants that concerns raised at the event, including those relating to the Sango-Ota road, had been noted and would be addressed.

Speaking at the event, the National President of the NITP, Tpl Chime Ogbonna, represented by the chairman of the institute’s Lagos State chapter, Tpl David Olawale, said Ogun, as one of Nigeria’s major industrial hubs, occupied a central position in the future of town planning in the South-West.

He noted that the way major towns and emerging development corridors were planned today would determine the region’s liveability over the next 40 years.

Ogbonna said the anniversary theme challenged planners to reimagine the profession in the face of rapid urbanisation, climate change and the housing crisis. He also commended the Ogun chapter for its role in implementing the state’s Urban and Regional Planning Law, advocating inclusive housing and mentoring young planners.

Earlier, the chairman of the NITP Ogun State chapter, Tpl Olusola Odukoya, said the institute’s 40-year journey could not be measured by time alone, but also by the lives it had touched, the barriers it had overcome and the legacy it had passed from one generation to another.

He said the anniversary theme called for gratitude to the founders who had kept the institute’s vision alive.

Odukoya acknowledged that the journey had not always been easy, but said each challenge had revealed the institute’s resilience. He stressed that the future would not simply unfold on its own but would require fresh imagination, bold leadership and a firm commitment to the next generation.