AJODA NEW TOWN DEVELOPMENT, OYO STATE, NIGERIA: DESIRED ROLES VS PRESENT REALITIES

In the twentieth century, one attempted solution to real and perceived problems of large cities has been the construction of small new urban areas, intended to redistribute population and activities from the main city, creating a new form of urban society. Ajoda New Town highlights recent trends in Nigeria to orchestrate the use of new towns as strategic instruments for attempting to cope with rapid urban population growth of the major cities, and the resultant pressures on urban infrastructure which this creates. The Ajoda New town idea was conceived and developed primarily to relieve the population pressure on Ibadan, which through the massive influx of people has led to a scarcity of housing, to unemployment, to traffic problems and to the congestion of schools, hospitals and other social facilities and created pressure on the supply of energy and all other municipal services. This paper examines the proposed master plan for the new town development in comparison to the present state of development in the new town. The neighbourhood design concept was adopted for the preparation of the master plan of Ajoda New Town and the development was to follow a three-stage development process- Phase 1, Phase 2 stage 1 and Phase 2 stage 2. Two conceptual frameworks was adopted for the study; the New Town concept and the concept of Sustainable development. Data for this study was elicited from primary and secondary sources and analyzed with SPSS 20.0. Qualitative and quantitative techniques were used for data collection and analysis. 287 questionnaires were administered in the study area using the simple random technique. The secondary data used include books, journals, materials and maps from the Oyo State Housing Corporation. The findings reveal that several years after its creation, Ajoda New Town is yet to significantly measure up to the objectives for its creation as less than 20 percent of the entire New Town land area is developed according to the master plan expected to guide the New town development. Also, the New Town lack adequate infrastructural facilities and thus not independent of the city of Ibadan as it was intended to, leading to more pressure on the Ibaban city facilities and available jobs. The study suggests collaborative and sustainable approaches that can inform future policies and implementation of Growth Areas.