Osinbajo advocates well-planned cities for growing population

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has canvassed people-centred solutions to urban planning and development problems so as to meet the essential needs of a growing population.

He made this known on Thursday at the Nigerian Institute of Architects Integrated Infrastructural Research for Development conference titled, “Creating sustainable World Class Cities in Nigeria”.

Prof. Osinbajo disclosed that the country’s population was estimated to be the third highest population by 2050 which would challenge the country’s capacity for urban planning and social urban organisation.

He said, “We are currently the seventh most populous nation in the world, with an estimated population of over 206 million people. Our population is projected to rise to 264 million by 2030 and will cross the 300 million mark by 2036 and it is projected that by 2050, we’ll have the third highest population in the world.

“It is estimated for Lagos, for instance, that Lagos will be the ninth most populous city in the world just by 2030. So, in many respects, we’re dealing with a rate of population growth and urbanisation that is probably unparalleled in history.

“The population of the UK in 1960 was 52 million but in 2022, the UK has a population of only 68 million people.

“However, in Nigeria our population in 1960 was 45 million. But in 2022, we have 260 million people. So, you can see that we are dealing with some of the highest rates of growth anywhere in the world and the majority of this population will live in cities and concurrently increase the size of our towns in an era in ever expanding dimensions of urban sprawl.”

He noted that strategies must be in place against archaic environments in which urban centers were no more than densely-populated and decrepit incubators of destitution and crime.