Effective Urban Land Use Planning in Nigeria: Issues and Constraints

This paper is basically an overview of the problems of urban land use planning in Nigeria. Crucial to tackling growing land use problems being experienced in areas with rapid urban sprawl such as Nigerian cities is an effective urban land use planning, the purpose of which is to achieve sustainable city development and satisfy the diverse needs of society. This paper, therefore examines urban and regional planning laws in Nigeria with a view to identifying the lapses and the major problems confronting urban land use planning. Unwillingness of the people to comply with all the planning ordinances and government deficiencies in implementing and enforcing the laws constitute a major problem in effective planning. Government therefore has a duty to strictly enforce all its planning laws. It was further suggested that people whose lives were directly affected should be actively involved in the planning process.