Osei Kwame Agyeman of Casa Assocaiti, a leading architecture firm in Accra, Ghana, has linked social conflict among city dwellers to the inability of governments of most West African states to manage well the urban spaces available to them.
Agyeman, who stated this in a paper titled ‘Urban Spaces and Social Conflict’ which he presented at a forum in Lagos recently, also hinged the spread of social conflict on government’s inability to involve artisans in the informal sector during space creation in most city centers.
He lamented inability of architects to have a major control of urban spacing and planning in most countries of West African, stressing that the high flow of pedestrians along major roads in the region has made hawking and street trading essential.
He noted that street trading has become a phenomena the government must learn to absorb and handle with care rather than combat.
“The clash between government officials and artisans in the informal sector will continue until government does the right thing by including the sector in its plan during urban spacing”, he said.
ODINAKA MBONU
