Decolonising Urban Planning Epistemologies: Alternative Planning Frameworks for Nigerian Cities

Urban planning practice in Nigerian cities remains epistemologically anchored in colonial and post-colonial frameworks derived from European and North American planning traditions that are inadequately adapted to the informal, communal, and relational urban geographies of Nigerian cities, generating persistent planning failures that demand a fundamental decolonial rethinking of the epistemological foundations of urban planning knowledge production. This study theorises and empirically explores decolonised urban planning epistemologies applicable to Nigerian urban contexts, focusing on three cities across different geopolitical zones: Kano in the North West, Onitsha in the South East, and Benin City in the South South. The theoretical framework draws on decolonial theory, African urban studies, southern urbanism, and planning theory's communicative turn to construct an African planning epistemology positioned against the universalising claims of orthodox comprehensive planning. The empirical research design uses a comparative multi-site case study approach, examining how informal governance actors, traditional land administration institutions, and community-based urban improvement initiatives operate as de facto planning systems in each city. Data collection combines archival research on colonial planning documents, interviews with 120 community leaders, informal developers, planning professionals, and academics, and ethnographic observation over three months in each city. Analysis identifies core epistemological principles of indigenous urban planning practice including relational land tenure, incremental infrastructural investment, flexibility over regulation, and communal accountability mechanisms. The study proposes an African Urban Planning Framework operationalising these principles for integration into Nigerian planning curricula and legislation. This work makes a foundational theoretical contribution to decolonial planning geography. Keywords: decolonial geography, urban planning, Nigerian cities, southern urbanism, planning epistemology.