The Dilemmas of Rural Planning and Planners in Oyo State, Nigeria

The focus on urban planning continues to flood the global literature. However, there is continued silence and neglect with regard to rural planning. The study examined the state of rural planning in Oyo State, Nigeria. Primary data was sourced using structured questionnaires and in-depth interviews. Questionnaires were administered to two hundred and fifty (250) rural households in six (6) rural local government areas (LGAs) of Oyo State. It was revealed that rural areas remain neglected and behind in planning activities. A majority of respondents believe that no planning takes place in the rural communities in which they reside. The study concludes that improved communication on planning issues between the tiers of the bureau of physical planning and urban development offices remains the route to effective planning. Improved capacity building (expertise) and training are suggested for rural planners. It is also suggested that understanding the local culture is important in contributing towards effective and responsive rural planning

Community Consultation in Risk Management

Disaster and risk experience remain a global pandemic. The community as a vast plate of numerous stakeholders is an embodiment of the team that is capable of managing the global risk exposures. The argument is that, the immediate community plays a vital role in risk management. The study methodology used in exploring community consultations in risk management was through the triangulation of researchers’ experience and a sectoral approach which entail the convergent parallel mixed-method of community consultations. Secondary data was obtained from some selected case study community consultation programmes in risk management organised by selected risk management agencies in South-Eastern and Northern region of Nigeria. The Youth Transformational Leadership Collaborative Initiative within the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), National Youth Service Corps and the NEMA-Military Joint Task Force and the Borno State residents programme reports iterates that communities are frontline stakeholders in risk management. Case study of community disaster risk management in some Africa countries was also documented. Extensive consultations with key stakeholders coupled with a healthy sustained collaboration among the stakeholders led to improved coordination in the fight against insurgency in the communities in Borno state. It was identified that coordinated information dissemination between communities to the Task Force was an effective mechanism for community policing and risk reductions. It was identified that low level of public awareness of disaster risk, unavailability of relevant data, weak capacity and inadequate personnel, lack of political will amongst others were the challenges to community consultation in risk management in Nigeria. The study proposed community-based disaster risk management approach, which entails intensive and extensive consultation to build people’s capacity of coping with disaster risks towards creating safer and resilient communities

Rural Energy Conditions in Oyo State: Present and Future Perspectives on the Untapped Resources

Over 60% of the Nigeria population still resides within the rural spaces. These rural spaces are zones of isolation with yet high electricity and energy demand for enhanced livelihood and settlement liveability. Despite the demand for electricity in these rural areas, it still remains under-serviced as far as accessibility to stable electricity supply is concerned; likewise connection history to conventional electricity grid is many rural areas remains a mirage. With rural energy resource potentials untapped, this study made use of both qualitative and qualitative data gathered across 472 rural households in 9 randomly selected rural local government areas (LGAs) to provide a narrative into the rural household energy experiences. The study brings to light the abundance of the unutilized renewable resources that can be utilized towards providing electricity for rural households. Limitation identified includes weak political will, limited profit orientation of electricity investors and limited energy choice information to households. Keywords: Electricity; Renewable energy; Rural households JEL Classifications: O18, Q42, Q43 DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/ijeep.755

Editorial

Two decades into the current millennium, there are still questions about the status and situatedness of Africa in the global community. One central question about Africa is the historical footprint and arrangements of the colonial occupiers. From this standpoint, additional questions center on the lived experiences of Africans, especially in terms of the colonial impact on settlement arrangements and planning models. Several policy initiatives aim to empower and improve the African condition from the global to the continental levels. From the global context, the United Nations-inspired Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) (2000 to 2015) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (2015 to 2030) are instructive. While the former goals focused on the Global South, which included the African subregion, the latter set of goals focused on both the Global North and Global South (Hanson, Puplampu and Shaw, 2018). The SDGs, especially SDG 9 (industry, innovation, and infrastructure), SDG 11 (sustainable cities and communities), SDG 16 (peace, justice, and strong institutions), and SDG (partnership for the goals) are essential in addressing the nexus of the environment, human settlements, and global partnership. At the continental level is the African Union Agenda 2063 and its inspiring undertones of creating an Africa that Africans want based on sustainability (Africa Union et al., 2016). The important point is that both the global and continental policy initiatives have significant implications for any discussions on coloniality, autonomy, identity, and spatial justice, the issues at the heart of this special issue of the Journal of Inclusive Cities and Built Environment. It is thus an opportune time through this special issue to unpack how well contemporary policy and research on the continent have come to grips with the interplay between (de)coloniality, autonomy, identity, and spatial justice. The special issue aims to contribute in durable ways to the possibilities of reimagining space and place in the built environment from a decolonial lens. The reflections in this issue arise from engagement with questions of spatial difference, autonomy, identity, and change in Africa, aspects of which have become more apparent through the current debates on decolonization. These experiences form the basis of reflection stimulated in this issue to reflect on what confronts and motivates built environment knowledge holders in deepening the critique of past colonial injustices. The question of what the built environment (i.e., planning, urban planning, architecture, housing, social geography, and spatial planning) can do to contribute to the decolonial debate. Colonialism connotes a power relationship between the colonizer and the colonized, often expressed in a superior-inferior binary in state-to-state relations (Young, 2018; Whyte, 2018; Hechter, 2020). The legacies of colonialism are visible in a post-colonial society (MaldonadoTorres, 2017; Bonilla, 2020; Enns and Bersaglio, 2020, Patrick et al., 2022) and the pattern of power relations in such society (Ricaurte, 2019). While many may trace Africa’s colonial realities back to the conquest and subjugation of Africa in the slave trade era (Wabah and N-ue, 2020; Masaka, 2021), one can argue invariably that the official colonialization of Africa was formalized in the Berlin conference of 1884/85, chaired by Otto van Bismark (Idejiora-Kalu, 2019; Babatunde, 2020). The implications of this event for any conceptualization of African identity in the historical contemporary contexts cannot be overemphasized. Identity, it needs to be stressed, is about a sense of self and how others recognize and response to that sense of self. Indeed, is there an African identity currently in an era of neoliberal globalization

Urban Forced Eviction: Experiences in the Metropolitan City of Lagos, Nigeria

Urban poverty coupled with housing shortages have contributed to the proliferation of informal settlements and slums. This is one of the complex problems arising out of urbanization and which is piling pressure on urban authorities to use unorthodox methods (such as forced evictions) to ameliorate the situation. This paper revisits the use of forced migration in Badia East Community of Lagos city. Using the human security concept as a framework for analysis, the paper chronicles how urban forced migration is used as a tool to relocate the vulnerable urban poor by urban authorities in their bid to achieve sustainable development. Critical insight into the nature of these migrations was achieved by gathering data using the mixed approach. Finding from the study revealed rampant human abuse through the use of force during the eviction process. The paper concludes by recommending that the government should use best practices, (such as adequate government-assistance) during relocations and rehousing option explored.

The Dilemmas of Rural Planning and Planners in Oyo State, Nigeria

The focus on urban planning continues to flood the global literature. However, there is continued silence and neglect with regard to rural planning. The study examined the state of rural planning in Oyo State, Nigeria. Primary data was sourced using structured questionnaires and in-depth interviews. Questionnaires were administered to two hundred and fifty (250) rural households in six (6) rural local government areas (LGAs) of Oyo State. It was revealed that rural areas remain neglected and behind in planning activities. A majority of respondents believe that no planning takes place in the rural communities in which they reside. The study concludes that improved communication on planning issues between the tiers of the bureau of physical planning and urban development offices remains the route to effective planning. Improved capacity building (expertise) and training are suggested for rural planners. It is also suggested that understanding the local culture is important in contributing towards effective and responsive rural planning

City densification and temporal dynamics of traditional inner core of Ibadan, Nigeria

The conversion of vegetation land cover contributes to the retention of solar radiation in the environment, resulting in the formation of the urban heat island. This study analyses the distribution pattern of urban heat island in the traditional core of Ibadan amidst the rapid urbanization experienced. The remote sensing tool was used to analyse the trend of land surface temperature, normalized difference built-up index, and normalized difference vegetation index for the traditional Ibadan's core between the year 2000 and the year 2020. This reveals that increasing built-up areas will continue to strengthen the effects of urban heat island in the traditional core of Ibadan, while vegetated land covers will weaken the effects of urban heat island. This is because anthropogenic activities resulting from rapid urbanisation has adversely altered the natural landscape in the traditional core of Ibadan. This alteration manifests in converting vegetation land covers into physical developments and other impervious surfaces by the increasing urban population. Thus, increasing the land surface temperature. The maximum average land surface temperature of 35.34℃, 36.62℃ and 31.86℃ were record for the years 2000, 2013 and 2020 respectively. This study further recommends that urban greening and proper urban planning should be encouraged in the traditional core of Ibadan