Urban planning is a technical process that guides development while also considering public welfare and the environment. However, politics can interfere with planning when politicians pursue personal or party interests over strategic goals. This leads to issues like poor planning and decision making, poor project implementation, wasted resources, bias in planning, and unnecessary delays. To achieve effective development, political interference in the planning process must be reduced so that urban planners can do their jobs.

1. Issues And Concerns Because of
Interference of Politics in
Planning Process
Presented by
Abubakar Shehu Rufai

2. INTRODUCTION
Urban planning is a technical and political process
concerned with the development and use of land protection and use
of the environment, public welfare, and the design of the urban
environment, including air, water, and the infrastructure passing into
and out of urban areas such as transportation, communications and
distribution network.
Urban planning guides orderly development in urban, suburban and
rural areas. Although predominantly concerned with the planning of
settlements and communities, urban planning is also responsible for
the planning and development of water use and resources, rural and
agricultural land, parks and conserving areas of natural environmental
significance

3. Politics is the process of making decision by applying to all members of
a group.
Politics refers to achieving and exercising position of governance in an
organized control over human community, particularly a state.
Political system is a framework which defines acceptable political
methods within a given society

4. Urban Planners VS Politicians
Practitioners of urban planning are concerned with
research and analysis, strategic thinking, architecture,
urban design, public consultation, policy
recommendations, implementation and management.
Politicians are people/group of people that contest for public
administrative seats in order to help the community they live
in with good policies, inauguration of developmental projects
and decisions that will burst the local economy

5. Urban planners and politicians work with the cognate fields of
architecture, landscape, civil engineers and public administrators to
achieve strategic policy and sustainable goals.

6. Political interference in Urban Planning
Political Interference in Urban planning occurs when the
administrative arm of government uses its power and influence to
disturb or hinder the process of urban planning that prevents the
natural flow or the desired outcome.
Political interference in Urban planning have its root from the fact that
politicians formulate decisions that affects the activities of their urban
area and administer those decisions through governmental agencies
and bureaucrats.

7. ISSUES OF POLITICAL INTERFERENCE IN
PLANNING
Poor planning and decision making
Poor implementation of projects
Lost of resources
Biasness in planning
Unnecessary prolong of planning process

8. Poor planning and decision making
When politics intervene in urban planning process the plans that will
be generated by the planners will lose their vision due to the frequent
changes that the politicians will require in order to achieve their
personal objective or their constituencies/parties interest.
For example: a politician may push the urban planner to propose an
activity in his area of interest even when that activity is not
compatible at that particular location but because the planner needs
their approval before sanctioning the project they will have to follow
their demand and in the process spoil the integrity of the plan.

9. Poor implementation of projects
When a political parties interest does not tally with that of the
previous administration, they tend to stop any developmental
programs that are in place and propose their new concept and
approach which in turn disturb the ongoing project. Or government
may propose new policies that will be in contrast to the current
practice.
For example, in Nigeria a government starts dredging of River Niger to
allow ships to reach Northern part of the country, but when the
government changes, the same fund was transferred to Develop Niger
Delta, which is completely in contrast to the previous project.

10. Lost of resources
Planning is all about optimal use of resource, but with the interference
of politics in planning process, there is tendency of resource waste. For
example when a project that is suppose to be completed in three years
took seven years before its completion, the project cost will increase
due to market inflation.
Another example is when government decided to start a project that is
not needed by the masses, then the fund spent on that project will be
spent in vain. For example, BRTs in Amritsar is a failure because the
people are not in need of such project.

11. Biasness in planning
Every government have its set of goals on which they base their
manifesto on. Political administrators always makes certain promises to
their constituency during campaign period without actually knowing
how those promises can be fulfilled, therefore they insert pressure to
urban planners in order to achieve those promises even when they are
not feasible.
for example, political administrator may tend to make a site close to
his a commercial area or industrial in order to hike the price of the
adjoining land so he can have high profit without considering the
compatibility of that land use with the surrounding land use.

12. Unnecessary prolong of planning process
For any plan to be approved and sanctioned, the planner needs the
political administrators to approve the plan before it become a binding
document. Political administrators tend to be complicating the
planning process by demanding certain thing in the plan that may not
be possible or may not comply with the concept of the plan. In such
case, the planning process tends to take unfortunate longer period of
time.
After the successful approval of the plan, those political administrators
are the ones that will sanction the projects on the ground and when
the willingness is not their, the implementation of the plan takes a long
period of time.

13. CONCLUSION
Political interference in urban planning comes with an adverse effect on
the development of any urban area as it completely disturbs the flow
of planning work and renders the urban planning profession’s relevance
insignificance.
To achieve steady and effective urban development through optimal
allocation and distribution of resources, political interference in urban
planning most stop so that urban planners will have the full capacity of
exercising their duty.