LAGOS STATE LAND USE PLANNING AND ANALYSIS REPORT (LUPAR) MATTER ARISING: DOES ATOPCON HAVE ANY STATUTORY INTERVENTION POWER?

This write-up comes as a sequel to my line of presentation (September 8, 2021) on the Yabatech Radio Show on LUPAR strategies and implementation and the gatekeeping role in the urban and regional planning profession in Lagos State and Nigeria.

“The report should bear the signature and seal of a Town Planning Consultant

Registered with ATOPCON”

(Extract from Technical Paper One at LUPAR workshop)

“A Practice Policy rather than Scale of Fees for offering LUPAR Service in the State should be developed by NITP, Lagos State and ATOPCON, Lagos State Branch.”

(Extract from Technical Paper Two at LUPAR workshop)

“A special TOPREC Professional Stamp has been approved for LUPAR.”

(Extract from Technical Paper Four at LUPAR workshop)

It ought to be noted that LUPAR is a strategic and welcome development in the quest to enhance the availability of detailed information on the project environment, ensure a speedy planning permit approval process, expanding the frontiers of the planning profession and overall enhance the physical development of Lagos Metropolis. Accolades should be given to ATOPCON and NITP of both Lagos State chapters, these associations pushed and achieved this laudable project.

However, the intervention and seemly attempt of the ATOPCON Lagos State chapter to oversee the process of the LUPAR report needs further interrogation and clarification.  In this regard, it is pertinent to ask: does the association has the power to dictates the direction of the report preparation and implementation, one of the technical papers at the workshop noted that “the report [LUPAR] should bear the signature and seal of a Town Planning Consultant Registered with ATOPCON”, does ATOPCON have the power to this? Does this not amount to an overbearing tendency? Based on the provisions of Section 1, subsection 2 a-f of TOPREC Act, CAP T7 LFN, 2004 only TOPREC is statutorily charged with the function of a gatekeeper for the profession. Similarly, Schedule 5 of the Lagos State Physical Planning Permit Regulations, 2019 identified registered urban planners as the set of professionals that could prepare the report and to determine who is a registered urban planner is the function of TOPREC, not any other body.

In addition, TOPREC Code of Conduct & Practice Regulations Article 5 Regulation 7(17) states thus “there shall be full enforcement on the sale and usage of professional stamps. The appropriate professional stamps shall be affixed on plans, reports, seeking planning approval in Nigeria” and the categories of stamps were also listed. Hence as to the extent of this and the provision of the TOPREC regulations, it becomes unacceptable for any association to envisage where it would demand its seal on a planning report anywhere in Nigeria, to further push for such could be taken to be an unethical professional practice. It is worthy of note that one of the technical papers presented at the workshop noted that “a special TOPREC Professional Stamp has been approved for LUPAR.”, does this then transfer the powers of TOPREC to ATOPCON? Statutorily not possible, even the handing over of such stamp and making ATOPCON sole sales points requires further interrogation,

It was also suggested in one of the technical papers that “A Practice Policy rather than Scale of Fees for offering LUPAR Service in the State should be developed by NITP, Lagos State and ATOPCON, Lagos State Branch.” It should be noted that this ABSOLUTELY contradicts the TOPREC Professional Scale of Fees provisions which state in the preface stated thus “it should be noted that the schedule on the scale of fees supplement Article 4 on Professional Obligation and Remuneration of the Code of Professional Conduct and Practice in the Town Planning Profession as published in the Federal Republic of Nigeria Official Gazette No, 54 Vol 86, Government Notice No. 121 and thereby should be adhered at all times”. Thus, the professional scale of fee is the prerogative of TOPREC, not any other bodies or associations. Hence, it is unacceptable to suggest that a PRACTICE POLICY rather than Scale of Fees for offering LUPAR Service in the State should be developed. To say the least, this also borders on unethical professional practice.

As Urban Planners in the State and probably other parts of Nigeria awaits the full implementation of the provisions of the Lagos State Physical Planning Regulation of 2019 with regards to LUPAR, it would be fascinating to see how the suggestions on ATOPCON interventions would be implemented without contradicting the statutory provisions of the profession. It should also be noted that if the association goes ahead to demand that LUPAR report should bear the signature and seal of a town planning consultant registered with ATOPCON or demand for a form to be filled to indicate affiliation with the association to enable a planner prepares the report this could be a matter for TOPREC disciplinary action as identified in the provisions of section 13 of the TOPREC act. In addition, any concerned registered urban planner could also decide to seek legal recourse all a court of competent jurisdiction to determine the statutory power or otherwise of ATOPCON in order to protect the sanctity of the professional practice.  

One hope that the attempt by ATOPCON Lagos State to interweave itself in the process of LUPAR report preparation is just a matter of suggestions, that the association would not take the route of some of the suggestions in the workshop technical papers. This is based on the fact that ATOPCON has no statutory control and neither the statutory capacity to determine the dictate and direction of the practice of the profession and in the same vein the preparation of a planning report (i.e., LUPAR). However, the association could serve a welfarist agenda to those that subscribe to its tenets as being a member which in the first instance should be voluntary. In any State in Nigeria, all that is required for practice in the field of urban planning is TOPREC recognition and not membership or seal of any other associations (i.e., ATOPCON). The Association of Town Planning Consultants of Nigeria (ATOPCON) could be described as a collection of like minds for the advancement of a course the is strategic to their interest. I am of a strong view that this association lack any statutory power to intervene in urban planning matters in Lagos State and Nigeria beyond offering suggestions and been a pressure group. 

Conclusively, I note these: LUPAR is an innovative idea of senior colleagues in the profession with foresight, these urban planners must be commended, similarly Lagos NITP and Lagos ATOPCON must be commended for all they have done to birth this idea in Lagos State. However, the quest to own this novel idea, to restrict eligibility of preparer to a member of a certain association, to exclude non-member of this association is the shortcoming in the process that should never be allowed to stand.

The only body recognised by the law to regulate the urban planning profession in Nigeria is TOPREC, any other body doing or intend to do the regulating function is largely engaging in an interloping act. Allowing urban planning private sector to thrive and younger generation of urban planners to productively engage in the profession in Lagos State and across other States in Nigeria is a task that must be put on the front burner, this dictates that the field should be open to all, without any undue interference by a collection of people or association. This is a concern that all well-meaning urban planners in Lagos State and Nigeria should be agitated about.