The Minister of Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, has inaugurated a 12-man body for the Town Planners Registration Council of Nigeria (TOPREC), charging them to uphold professional ethics.
Inaugurating the council on Monday in Abuja, Fashola told the members to raise the bar, to ensure ethical practices in urban planning and development in the country.
He said the essence of constituting the council was to ensure that the country had a professional body that would in turn ensure that professional town planners were registered as members of the council.
The minister said that the 12 council members were representatives of various states, noting that as additional members were appointed from other states, they would join the council in accordance with the law.
In a speech, the Permanent Secretary in the works ministry, Mr Bashir Alkali, described TOPREC as a critical government agency under the supervision of the ministry of works with statutory mandate to regulate and control the practice of physical planning.
According to him, the mandate includes determining who are town planners, the knowledge as well as the skills required for registration of persons seeking to become members of the profession of town planning.
“The council is also responsible for securing the establishment and maintenance of a register of persons entitled to practice as town planners in Nigeria.
“It is, therefore, important to state unequivocally that having well-disciplined and adequately regulated professionals in the built environment will in no small measure improve the quality of output of these professionals.
Alkali said that given the qualities and experiences of the new members of the council and management of TOPREC, the country was assured of efficient delivery of town planning in Nigeria.
Also speaking, the President of TOPREC, Mr Isyaku Kura, commended Fahiola for taking personal interest in the inauguration of the council.
“It has been the practice of replacing council members by state governors sending new nominees at various times for the minister’s approval in line with Section 1 sub-section 3(a) of the law establishing TOPREC (CAP 17 LFN 2004).
“At the completion of this process, the new nominees replace the former council members from such states, thus the council keeps renewing its membership.
“I say welcome and congratulations to you all that have been inaugurated as council members, representing your various states.
Kura, however, appealed for subvention from the ministry, saying that funds generated by the council was no longer enough to take care of its statutory functions.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the 12 members inaugurated include Dr Simon Ajom, representing Cross River, Mr Danbaba Idris, representing Niger and Mr Liman Gana, representing Borno.
Others are Mr Adesoga Ogunlewe, Lagos State, Mr Aniekan Akpan Cross River, Mr Davies Joseph, Rivers; Mr Aliyu Mohammad, Jigawa and Mr Filzgerald Ogbugo, representing Delta. (NAN)