Awka’s Over Population and the Consequences of Urbanization

Abstract

The influx of people into Awka, from the rural areas of the south-eastern states of Nigeria,
insecurity in other parts of Nigeria and Awka becoming the capital of Anambra State resulted in
the dislocation of the Awka Master Plan in terms of implementations. The consequences of these
were the city’s over population, housing inadequacy, infrastructural decay and the development.
It is the primary aim of this study to investigate and ascertain the extent of the distortion in the
Awka’s Mster Plans with regards to housing inadequacy and the surging population, and suggest
possible solutions that would adopt urban design principles in bridging the gap between the
Awka’s housing provisions and the city’s population crises. The disciplinary area of focus is the
Awka’s urbanization and the consequences of over population, or better said, urban development
and environmental decay in Awka city; as a result, this paper adopted content base analysis.
Planning and architecture went through a paradigm shift at the turn of the 20th century. The
industrialized cities of the 19th century had grown at a tremendous rate, with the pace and style
of buildings largely dictated by private business concerns. Awka city grew from a small town to
the capital of Anambra State. The urban development and built environmental laws initially
followed the Awka people’s village settings, and the fundamental architecture, urban design
principles of a planned and surveyed city were not followed and that is the problem with the
Awka’s built environment hence, over population and urbanization. The lands in Awka were in most
cases, subdivided, designed and allocated to the privileged without urban design attributes and principles
that would have accommodated the interest of the general public, including the urban poor people. That
is always the case in land allocation in Awka and it should stop.