In many developing countries, effective and efficient land use planning and management is not
well established. The most patent manifestation of this is the chaotic state of land use activities
in the cities. The physical, economic and social conditions of the African city has been well
documented (UNHABITAT, 2008). Rapid rates of urbanization have resulted in unplanned and
unregulated growth. Millions of Africa’s urban dwellers live in poverty in sub – standard housing
and degraded environments. Much has been written highlighting the underlying factors to which
this state of affairs can be attributed (Nwaka, 2005; Oyesiku 2009, Mabogunje, 2002). In almost
all African countries have a history of land use planning processes dating back to the respective
periods of colonial rule.
Land use or physical planning has been described as a process aimed at achieving orderly
physical development with the overall aim of evolving a functional and liveable environment
where individual and common goals can be achieved. In urban centres, the essence of land use
planning is to ensure that urban activities are organized and developed in physical space with
due consideration for the protection of the public interest which include health, safety,
convenience, efficiency, energy conservation, environmental quality, social equity, social choice
and amenity (Adeagbo, 1998; Nnah et al, 2007). These are also features of sustainable
development. The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (1992)
included sustainable land use planning as are of the eight programme areas of Agenda 21. The
objective of the programme area is to provide for the land requirements of human settlement
development through environmentally sound physical planning and land use so as to ensure
access to land to all households. Oyesiku (2009) argued that planning practice in Nigeria was
not creating spatially sustainable new settlement and cites because planning is like preventative
medicine whereas professional planners in the country have spent the last generation focusing
on curative medicine.
Ogu and Adeniji (1998) observe that the extent to which human communities both urban and
rural, but particularly the urban, are sustainable may well depend on the management of such
settlements. Land use planning is a key component of urban management. Urban sustainability
is directly influenced by land use controls which ensure efficient use is made of urban land.
Significantly, the acquisition and development of land is the basis of physical growth. The
development control process is subject to plans, regulations and laws. The manifest
ineffectiveness of the control processes in Nigerian cities derives to a large extent from the
planning, the regulatory and administrative frameworks within which physical development takes
place. However, a principal underlying problem for effectively administering land use is the land
itself. Planned city expansion in Port Harcourt and other cities across the country is
encountering problems. At the centre of this problematic are the questions of who has access to
land, how such land is acquired, and what laws exist for regulating land use. For all cities in
Nigeria, there is the land question; arguably the most fundamental to be resolved if planning is
to have any solid foundation. Not even the Federal government has been able to resolve these.
Owei, Obinna & Ede, The Challenges of Sustainable Land Use Planning in Nigerian Cities: the Case of
Port Harcourt. 46th ISOCARP Congress 2010