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Indian Journal of Science and Technology, Vol 9(46), DOI: 10.17485/ijst/2016/v9i46/107117, December 2016 ISSN (Print) : 0974-6846 ISSN (Online) : 0974-5645 Challenges Impeding Public Participation for the Development of Urban Communities in Nigeria Jiman Chado1*, Foziah Bte Johar2 and Muhammad Zayyanu1 1 Faculty of Built Environment, Urban and Regional Planning Department, Universiti Teknologi, Johor, Malaysia; jimanchado@yahoo.com, danillelamz@yahoo.com 2 Centre for Innovative Planning and Development, Faculty of Built Environment, Universiti Teknologi, Johor, Malaysia; b-foziah@utm.my Abstract Objectives: To identify the fundamental challenges by examine individual-based factors affecting public participation programme initiated by government for the development of urban economy in traditional cities of developing countries. Methods/Statistical Analysis: In this study, 344 questionnaires were administered using systematic random sampling to select the participants which comprises of planning officers, traditional leaders, youth leaders and, household heads. Descriptive statistics technique is adopted in data analysis to examine the factors militating against public participation initiated by government for the development of Bida traditional city in Nigeria. Findings: Findings reveal that, socio-economic barriers are the most conspicuous and significant impediments affecting citizens to participate in government-based initiative programmes for the development of human communities. Evidences from this study shows that, it is very imperative for enlightening residents of traditional cities about the significance of the programme and their role to guarantee required and expected development in urban economy. This enlightenment could also alleviate the impact of socio-economic factors affecting the programme in developing countries, especially traditional cities. Applications/Improvement: For a traditional city which requires a relatively high number of redevelopment prorammes, effective public participation would facilitate achievement and maintenance of urban development. This study suggests areas of promoting public participation which could be used by the practitioners and law makers in the development of Bida traditional city in Nigeria. Keywords: Challenges, Nigeria, Public Participation, Traditional Cities 1. Introduction Public participation is a concept which has been subjected to many social interpretations. Some authors perceive it as a process whereby people act in group to deliberate on direction and outcome of development programmes that will afect them1-3. his paper focuses principally on citizen participation in decision-making process initiated by government for infrastructural planning and development in urban areas. Prior to the role of public participation, it has been used as a tool in planning and developing human communities4. However, despite the signiicant advantages in adopting the programme, many evidences reveal that, there is insigniicant public * Author for correspondence involvement in participatory process for the development of human communities in the third world countries, especially traditional cities5,6. A traditional city is described as an urban settlement which developed through human civilization and emerged for many centuries7. his implies that, settlements are relatively not plan and lack efective development control mechanisms6. hese cities perform signiicant role namely; source of market for rural economy, preservation of cultural heritage, and administrative headquarters of rural communities among others8. Earlier studies on the challenges of public participation explored more on institutional-based factors with little attention on individual-based factors8-10. However, this paper limits Challenges Impeding Public Participation for the Development of Urban Communities in Nigeria its study on individual-based factors impeding citizens to participate in a programme initiated by government in urban development. he reasons for examining the individual-based factors are enormous. Firstly, it is a broad impending factor which directly afects citizens to participate in the programme initiated by government. Secondly, it is a bottom-up decision-making process, which invariably requires alleviating factors impeding local residents to participate in the programme11. In this regard, this study is sets out to identify the prime challenge impeding public participation by examining the individual-based factors in traditional city of Bida, Nigeria. he next part of the paper examines the legal framework of public participation in planning and development of human environment in Nigeria. 2. Legal Framework and Public Participation in Nigeria Public participation in urban planning and development is the most visible mechanism for communication around the planning process which play central role in participatory democracy in planning practices11,12. Nigerian Urban and Regional Planning Law Decree No. 88 section 13 and 16 of 1992; and Environmental Impact Assessment Decree No. 86 section 7 of 1992; permit citizens to participation in planning and management of environment. he laws were made to promote collaborative planning between government and citizens8,13. Despite the provision of these laws in Nigerian economy, involvement of citizens in government-based programme is grossly insigniicant13,14. In this regard, Public participatory practices are grouped into two categories, namely; statutory and voluntary participation as described below. Statutory Participation: his participatory practice involves planning and implementation processes via constitutional basis, such as zoning regulation of all scales. his implies that, citizens participate predominately on the aspect of expressing their objections to the proposed plan or policy in the development of human communities. his participation involves ordinary citizens, private sector planners, and NGOs among others. Despite long standing tradition of statutory participation, individuals are still agitating for greater involvement in planning process for the development of their communities. However, government establishment continue to defend themselves by limiting opportunities of citizens to participate in developing countries9,14,15. 2 Vol 9 (46) | December 2016 | www.indjst.org Voluntary Participation: his is an informal public participatory practice which resulted from ethical or moral values attached to participation. his participation usually developed unoicially and initiated by citizens, private sector planners, academicians and NGOs. he mechanisms used in the practice of voluntary participation are; public meeting; focus groups, writing in newspapers, internet and other media services. In Nigeria, power sharing in participatory process is yet to be adopted efectively between citizens and government planning agencies16. In Nigeria, there is need for promoting efective public participation practices in facilitating socioeconomic development and environmental management. 3. The Need for Public Participation in Urban Development he need for public input can be used at many stages in planning and development process. However, need for public participation depends on the purpose that it is serving because, diferent public inputs may be required form diferent set of people17. his implies that, public input requirement in decision-making process may vary with purpose that a programme is designed to achieve for the development of human environment. Studies revealed that, needs for public participation in decision-making process for development could be grouped into two categories, namely; to improve decision-making quality and to improve decision legitimacy18. his implies that, some needs are related to improving the quality of assessment and decisions making. he need could also be related to making legitimate decision19. In this regard, when concern and interested citizens are involved and they contribute in decision-making process, it implies that decision is in theory, democratic and invariably becomes legitimate in the course of planning process. Despite the needs for public engagement and increasing interest by public to participate, there has been insigniicant participation by the citizens in the programmes initiated by government. his predicament has been trace to some two broad factors, namely; institutional and local or individual factors. Institutional-based factors are those barriers originate from government, which resulted from constraining factors, namely; lack of adequate consultation with professional bodies, inadequate communication between government and local residents, lack of transparency, and late preparation of programme among others. However, individual-based factors Indian Journal of Science and Technology Jiman Chado, Foziah Bte Johar and Muhammad Zayyanu are those barriers from local residents, namely; cultural, socio-economic, and environmental factors8. his implies that, individual-based barrier is directly impeding citizens in participating, and institutional-based is exacerbating individual-based barriers. his is because it reduces citizens’ interest to participate, limits access to information, and consequently deteriorating the liberty and integrity of the programme in developing human communities. he study therefore, focused on examining individual-based factors to identify the fundamental factor afecting citizens in the traditional cities of developing countries with particular reference to Bida, Nigeria. 4. Methodology and Study Area In this study, questionnaire survey instrument was employed in data collection. A total of 344 questionnaires were administered using random sampling method in selecting participants, which comprises of planning oicers, traditional leaders, youth leaders, and household heads. In data analysis, descriptive statistics was adopted to analyze the perceptions of people on individual-based factors afecting public participation in Bida traditional city. his ancient city was founded around 15th century in the southern guinea savanna of Nigeria. It has land area of approximately 51km2 and population of 178, 840 in 2006 with an estimation of 229, 985 persons in 201220. he city is about 90 kilometres South West of Minna, the Niger state capital and 340 kilometres North West of Abuja, the Nigeria capital city (Figure 1). In northern Nigeria, the most prominent and conspicuous feature of a traditional city is the city wall, which is built round the delineated urban area. Like other traditional cities, Bida city wall has ten (10) gates. However, prior to the course of time only four gates exist today, namely; Ban-gbogi as the North gate, Ban-gbara as the South gate, Ban-wuya as the West gate, and Ban-gaie as the East gate (Figure 2)21. Figure 2. Bida urban area showing four gates, royal boundary, city wall and royal houses. It is observed that, Bida being a traditional city become diicult to be developed because of some constraining factors. hese factors range from the characteristics of origin of settlement development to lack of initial development plan, inadequate development control, and behavioural attitude of inhabitants22. City of this magnitude could be developed through public participation programme initiated by government in developing urban areas. By involving public in decisionmaking process for planning and development will enable government to know all the conservative problems, needs, aspiration and preference of the people in the urban area. Owing to the reasons why Bida and indeed traditional cities are diicult to be developed, couple with the signiicance of adopting public participation programme as mentioned above, the needs to identify the challenges impeding citizens to participate in the programme becomes very imperative. he next section discussed the perceptions of citizens on the impeding factors afecting them to participate in decision-making process initiated by government for the development of socio-economic activities and environmental management. 5. Results and Discussion he results represent perception of citizens on individualbased factors militating against public participation programmes initiated by government. In this regard, Figure 1. Map of Nigeria showing Niger State and Bida traditional city. 2016 | www.indjst.org Vol 9 (46) | December Indian Journal of Science and Technology 3 Challenges Impeding Public Participation for the Development of Urban Communities in Nigeria cultural factor account for 25%, socio-economic factor account for 65% and environmental factor account for 10% (Figure 3). his implies majority of respondents were of the view that, socio-economic factor is the prime factor hindering citizens to participate in public participation in Bida traditional city. he attributes of socio-economic factors are; education qualiication, marginalization by the authorities, time and money, lack of access to information, among others23,24. he inding is not supported by many previous studies3,4,25,26. hese scholars argued that, attributes of cultural factor are the fundamental barriers hindering public participation. hey further elaborate that; attributes of cultural factors namely; ethnic diferences, orientation, experience, and lack of structural tie with government are the principal factors impeding citizens to participate. Based on the above indings in this study, socio-economic factor is identiied as the most signiicant factor hindering citizens to participate in Bida traditional city. In this regard, there is need for planning oicers and law makers to critically examine this factor to have more understanding of impediments of public participation. his implies that, law makers will be able to design efective approach in facilitating involvement of citizens in public participation for urban development in traditional cities of developing countries like Bida in Nigeria. Figure 3. Individual-based factors afecting public Participation. 4 Vol 9 (46) | December 2016 | www.indjst.org 6. Conclusion his study examines individual-based factors afecting citizens in public participation programme initiated by government in developing urban economy in the traditional city of Bida, Nigeria. In overall, the study reveals that, socio-economic factor is the fundamental challenge afecting public participation programme in Bida traditional city. Alarming from this study shows that, there is need for enlightening residents of traditional cities about the signiicance of the programme and their role to guarantee required and expected development in urban economy. his enlightenment could also alleviate the impact of socio-economic factors afecting the programme in developing countries, especially traditional cities. he indings could primarily help practitioners of the programme and law makers to gain more understanding of the challenges impeding the programme and how to make it more efective in developing urban economy in African countries, especially Nigeria. 7. Reference 1. Hordijk M. Switzeland: Springer International Publishing: Participatory Instruments and Pratices of Urban Governance. Geography of Urban Governance. 2015; p. 17-36. 2. Mandarano L. 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