President Muhammadu Buhari has called on African nations to stand up in unison and speak with one voice in global issues.
He also wants Africa to change the story of cities and settlement from one of chaos and slum to one of positive planning, tranquillity and environmental sustainability.
The President who spoke today at the opening ceremony of the Africa Regional Meeting on Habitat III, at the International Conference Centre in Abuja through Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, said that Nigeria is happy with a common African position on urbanisation.
He said that such position took into account the joint efforts of the countries involved over the last decade.
President Buhari observed that the African Regional Meeting with the theme: ‘African Priorities For The New Urban Agenda’ and organised by the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III) is timely for Africa to pursue a new urban agenda which addresses some of its peculiar challenges.
He said that the kind of urbanisation which Africa should have must accordingly take place in a manner that simultaneously promotes growth and social inclusion, adding that despite having the fastest rate of urbanisation in the world at over 4.5 per cent a year, Africa is yet to be on a sustainable path to achieving these twin objectives of economic growth and social inclusion.
The President took a look at the root causes of current urbanisation challenges in Africa, and said: “Africa is one of the continents with some of the high rates of inequalities in the world, fuelled by high population growth, unequal access to healthcare, education, opportunities for income and decent life.”
According to him, the increasing number of slums in Africa is a depressing manifestation of these inequalities, saying: “these challenges are related to poor planning, policy gaps and policy inadequacies, budgetary inadequacies. Poor planning of urban areas that can be attributable to limited capacities, insufficient resources and outdated data.”
Buhari said that the prevailing dehumanising state of Africa’s urban settlements has led to migration at a time of resource constraints which has resulted in population explosion and shortage of houses that has pushed people living in cities to build houses in places which make them vulnerable to natural disasters; causing significant economic and social risks.
The President noted that forced migration caused by terrorists’ attacks has led to secondary towns, especially in the Sahel zone being pressured to accommodate citizens who flee their villages and homesteads and has also caused loss of lives, destruction of properties and even insecurity and poverty.
He said that Nigeria, faced with its own challenges in this area, “is deploying substantial human and material resources to address the situation, while appreciating the support of partners at home and abroad that are collaborating with the Federal Government.”
President Buhari counselled that despite the constraints of resources, “we should not expect that our core resources to propel our development should come from our development partners, no matter how benign.”
He urged other African countries to emulate Nigeria and Ghana that have committed resources to support the Urban Agenda under the UN HabitatAgenda towards accelerating the process of the continent’s urbanisation drive.
Earlier in his remarks, the Secretary-General, UN Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, Dr. Joan Clos said that the primary objective of the regional meeting is to provide Africa the opportunity to address challenges it’s facing in the urban centres.
This was even as the Nigeria Minister of Power, Works and Housing who is also the Chairperson of the Africa Regional Meeting, Babatunde Raji Fashola praised the renaissance of African delegates’ response to the challenges of urbanisation.
He asked them to utilize the commonality of purpose to identify the peculiarities of human settlement across the continent.
The Minister further advised the delegates to develop common strategies on how to manage the challenge of urbanisation and to explore the opportunities latent in the global challenges.
Other speakers at the opening session include the minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Malam Muhammad Musa Bello; Commissioner for Political Affairs, African Union Commission, Dr. Aisha L. Abdullahi; Chadian Minister of Lands, Urbanism and Habitat, Mbogo Ngabo Seli and the Senegalese Minister of Urban Renewal Housing and Living Conditions, Diene Farba Sarr. [myad]
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