What is lacking in Abuja master-plan –Don

Ortiz who arrived Abuja on Thursday for the 8th Abuja Housing Show said, “Abuja is a city that hasn’t followed the plan so Abuja has developed in a different way that the plan had foreseen. “Why? Because cities are much more complex than what planners think they are. Planners think they can control the city. […]

Ortiz who arrived Abuja on Thursday for the 8th Abuja Housing Show said, “Abuja is a city that hasn’t followed the plan so Abuja has developed in a different way that the plan had foreseen.
“Why? Because cities are much more complex than what planners think they are. Planners think they can control the city. The city belongs to all the citizens not to the planners. It’s together that we build the city.”
Ortiz who is the founder and Director of the Masters program of Town Planning of the University King Juan Carlos of Madrid said, “So rather than make a strict rigid plan, with compulsory rules that might not fit what the economy needs, what the society needs, equity or sustainability, we have to create a system of rules, rules of the game and allow people to take decisions within those rules.”
He said government will face huge challenges in attempt to get the plan to work.
“Now, Abuja, I’ve been briefed is trying to come back to the plan and to enforce policies of what we call in some countries urban discipline, the fact of controling the city.
“Once many things have been built outside the plan, it’s extremely difficult to pull all that down because you’re confronted with maybe not with legal rights but you’re confronted with human rights.
“People have built their houses, they’re living there for a long time. It’s their only asset. If you pull that down, they’ll be homeless. You have to account for all that.”