URBAN THINKERS CAMPUS: Governor Ikpeazu harps on the need for urban physical planning

Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State has used the occasion of a meeting with stakeholders to harp on the need for good urban planning and responsible implementation of such plans if city residents intend to enjoy the benefits of metropolitan dwelling.

Speaking at a three-day interactive workshop of the United Nations –Habitat tagged “Urban Thinkers Campus” organized by Vicar Hope Foundation in collaboration with some line MDAs, Governor Ikpeazu said that the meeting was most timely because of the way people abuse their environment.

“I believe if you don’t take care of your environment, your environment will kill you….We need to care for our environment for the sake of the future generation”, the governor said.

He revealed that the cities of Aba, Ohafia and Umuahia had no master-plan and wondered how previous administrations carried out physical development.

He charged the Urban Thinkers Campus to think about how to achieve better, affordable housing in the cities and cleaner, safer environment.

In her speech, the wife of the Governor, Mrs. Nkechi Ikpeazu, urged the participants to evolve ideas and realizable action plans that would help turn around the conditions of the cities and make the cities better, cleaner, safer, functional and more profitable to dwellers and visitors.

She described The City We need as “beautiful, habitable, and runs the entire gamut from affordable and qualitative housing, to functional sanitation, infrastructure, security and emergency services”.

Mrs. Ikpeazu who is the founder of Vicar Hope Foundation, thanked the UN Habitat, the World Urban Campaign, the International Women Communication Centre and the Huairou Commission for collaborating to host the Urban Thinkers Campus in Abia.

UN-HABITAT Programme Manager in Nigeria, Mr. Kabir Yari, said the essence of the event was to promote sustainable urbanization.

Yari was represented by Dr. Steve Onu, a member of the UN Steering Committee on making cities resilient.

He expressed the hope that the meeting would come out with a road-map on how to tackle the challenges posed by rapid population growth in the urban centres.

In her speech, the Executive Director, International Women Communication Centre, Dr. Limota Goroso Giwa, said that the meeting provided an opportunity for the cross-fertilisation of ideas on how to achieve the UN objective for the new urban agenda.

Giwa commended the governor’s wife for her passion and commitment toward achieving sustainable urbanization in Abia. She said that her initiative had given Abia visibility on the global map.

The chairman of the meeting, Mr. Osita Igbe said Abia State is aspiring to have one its cities as part of the 74 cities that would enjoy intervention and support from the United Nations Human Settlements Programme – UN Habitat, and buttressed the need for a report that is in congruence with the desires of the habitants.

The event featured lectures from renowned urban planners Dr. Chibuzo Odimuko and Dr. Lekwa Ezuta who discussed City resilience, and the role sections of society can play in realizing The City We Need project.

Amongst stakeholders that attended the meeting were community development associations, Civil Society Organizations, members of the state legislature, clergy, security administrators, grass-root groups, women, youth, labour Unions, workers in the mass transit sector, Farmers, pensioners, Media, Persons with Disabilities, professionals in the built environment such as town planners, civil engineers and architects, and others including lawyers, doctors.

The Urban Thinkers Campus also visited sites of slum dwellers and locals in efforts to get a rounded report for submission to the World Urban Campaign steering committee.