The Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP) has warned that Nigeria may be negatively impacted if proper planning is not put in place for its growing population.

Toyin Ayinde, the Institute’s President said this in Ogun State during a courtesy visit to Moshood Abiola Polytechnic (MAPOLY), Abeokuta, on Monday.

Ayinde, who was received by the Acting Rector of MAPOLY, Dr Adeoye Odedeji, said “Nigerians don’t understand what urban and regional planning is,” adding that they don’t even understand what planning is all about.”

“If a man doesn’t plan his life, he turns out to be anything. You might be existing physically but because you are not fulfilling destiny, you have perished.

“Without planning, Nigeria will see chaos. Anytime there is chaos, it’s just a matter of time, destruction will come. We either plan or we perish.

“Try it all over the world, other places that are making progress, it is because they planned,” Ayinde stated.

The NITP President explained that the increase in the nation’s population and the struggle to acquire land by all individuals had led to clashes among people who used to live peacefully with one another in the past.

According to him, the fact that land could not be increased or extended was one major reason why the government should see planning as a serious business.

He added, “Nigeria’s population is growing and anytime your population is growing, you look at the resources available. You plan how the resources would go round the population. It is like a family man, if a man doesn’t know the difference between having five children and 50 children on the same resources, he will soon end in chaos.”

Asked to advise the government on ways to save Nigeria from perishing, Ayinde said, “the first solution is to plan, the second is to plan and the third is to plan. It is the duty of government to plan, it is the knowledge of town planners to help the government put the plan into a blueprint that can be worked out.”

The Town Planner said national physical planning would take cognisance of all components like housing system, industry system, employment system, the educational system and others.

He said the nation would be able to identify where raw materials are located, the industries that need them and the market.

This, he said, would determine the transportation system and others, stressing that, “If we don’t plan, we are just joking as a nation.”

Speaking on the purpose of his visit, the NITP President explained that he was in MAPOLY to rub minds with the Rector on how to ensure students of Town and Regional Planning Department are trained to become problem solvers through their final year dissertations and to bring about interdisciplinary collaboration between them and others in other departments.

Reacting, the Acting Rector appreciated Ayinde and his team for the visit, saying it would help in strengthening the polytechnic’s Department of Town and Regional Planning, especially as it awaits another accreditation soon.

Odedeji mentioned that MAPOLY as an institution had succeeded in surmounting many of its recent challenges through proper planning.

He revealed that outstanding salaries of lecturers had been paid last week, adding that a N100m loan taken from a bank had also been offset.

All these, he maintained, were made possible because the management of the polytechnic planned its activities and blocked all leakages.