Fashola identifies rural areas as key to city,urban devt.

From ODIMMEGWA JOHNPETER, Abuja

THE Minister of Power, Works, and Housing Babatunde Raji Fashola, has stated that one of the key solutions to creating sustainable cities and urban areas. “We need to see agriculture and farming as tools for sustainable urbanization essential for cities and towns to evolve properly. After all, it’s the people in rural area that will produce the food that the people in the city will eat. Rural areas need to be supported. Our farmers need to be encouraged and supported to stay and grow food, employ local people, and provide food security for all”. Fashola stated this in his speech at the opening ceremony of the Ministerial segment during the African Regional Conference on 3rd United Nations Conference on Housing and sustainable urban development Habitat III in Abuja.

He also noted that the best investment in public goods, including health, education and infrastructure has traditionally been around the cities and the big towns. “Let’s take a closer look at that, and turn it around”, he added. He also stressed Nigerian Government’s commitment to agriculture which is predicated on not only to diversify the economy but to take the real economy to those who have struggled on the margins of our society and headed for the urban centres. Fashola also maintained that a focus on agriculture can have a direct impact on the flow of people into cities already buckling under the strain of over-squeezed resources.

Fashola further stated, “Beyond this Regional Conference and eventual finalization of the New Urban Agenda at the forthcoming global conference in Ecuador; I will like us all to remain fully focused on the universal set of objectives which we must continue to pursue”.

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According to the minister, the theme of these important deliberations which is “Africa’s priorities for the New Urban Agenda” aims to chart a clear path towards a sustainable urban future for Africa and Africans. “From the onset I want to be clear for all our cities and towns to be places of opportunity and prosperity to be crucibles for change we need to first chart the course ourselves”, he stated.

Fashola also noted that no city can grow properly without robust infrastructure solutions, “Without good roads and bridges, affordable housing and decent schools; without constant electricity, clean water and clever town planning. We must therefore see the utilization of infrastructure as critical tools of containment on one hand, and management on the other hand as we deal with the realities of decades of urbanization and its challenges”, he said.

According to Fashola, Africa need to work towards creating environments that are safe, where opportunities exist for all, stressing that its unsafe environment that breed vulnerability for women and children.

He implores Africans to use the opportunity to work more closely noting that “African cities are our cities; so it’s up to us to lead the way in defining the future for them. Let us seize this moment to share ideas and experiences with ourselves and with our friends from outside the continent. No progress happens in a vacuum so we all need the support of the international community in our quest for development. As Africans we must work together to understand our common challenges so that we can better collaborate with our partners from around the world. As we seek the support of the international community, it seems that there can be no better forum to speak about the need to reinforce, support and increase the capacity of the UN-Habitat as an institution that provides technical support to all of us, to develop in the way we have chosen rather than in the way that is chosen for us”.