I hope our ongoing constitutional review addresses the matter of urban renewal as some of out city centres are a colossal embarassment

Ayo Akinfe

[1] The Federal Ministry of the Land, Housing and Urban Development will be responsible for granting settlements charters that grant them city status

[2] To be granted city status, an urban settlement must have a cathedral, central mosque, university, central post office, at least 10 secondary schools, a city centre, a shopping mall and unemployment must have been under 5% over the last five years

[3] In every city, the heart and soul of the community must be the city centre, which will be a downtown pedestrianised zone

[4] Every city centre must have a car-free shopping street lined on both sides with shops and department stores

[5] Every city will have as directly elected mayor responsible for maintenance

[6] City councils will also be elected and will be independent of state governors

[7] Citizenship of cities will be defined by birth

[8] All cities will be secular zones in which religious police will be prohibited

[9] City councils will be responsible for providing social housing and will have annual targets set. Special mortgage banks will provide low interest loans for this purpose

[10] City councils will be set emission targets and must ensure that at least 20% of their communities are open green spaces. This will be supervised by the Federal Ministry of the Land, Housing and Urban Development and failing cities can have their charters revoked.