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INTRODUCTION including developing countries such as Nigeria face enormous challenges of urban planning problems affecting economic development. Urban growth, for example, has a number of impacts on the environment and human welfare. In addition to limited impacts, almost all major cities are increasingly plagued by environmental problems. In other words, there is a greater threat to the health and safety in most Nigerian cities (Egunjobi, 2000 and Kessides, 2006) courtesy of unguided urbanization and ineffective planning (Mabogunje, 2001 ; Ogunsanya, 2002 and Egunjobi, 2000). There are several schools of thoughts and ideas on the causal factors, and government efforts to tame to mitigate this situation. One such factor is the overlap of professional practices that greatly affect the functionality of our environment and society in general. For example, in Nigeria, overlapping of professional practice by themselves is not the only factor affecting the actual functionality of the company. The paper argues that although overlapping work could be a problem in most developing countries, lack of proper attention on planning as a profession, and the actions of charlatans have greatly contributed to the aggravation of urban problems. More specifically, the wife of paper on professionalism, and highlights the responsibilities of planning for different segments of society, as it highlights the need for planners of competence through continuous training and retraining programs, such as seminars , workshops and courses. Just ask the question of who is a professional urban planner and regional levels? What are their responsibilities to sustainable livelihoods and development of a nation? The underlying motivations of this document refers to the dynamic nature of professionalism as a concept, and essence of skilled practitioners in our society. This is more pertinent that the technological revolution has an impact on various facets of human activity. In addition, the geographical zoning tends to vary the practice of urban and regional planning from nation to nation. > Based on this premise, the paper aims to contribute to the growing academic literature discussing a professional Urban and Regional Planner is in the Nigerian context. Professional Urban and Regional Planner Professionalism is an inclusive term that covers a variety of activities in different fields of study. Oni (2007), supported this point by insisting that the work would include some level of systematic knowledge and competence. Thus, educational planning is a systematic process to develop the knowledge, skills and abilities in others. It includes training and re-training exercise in an institution of higher education approved by the Ministry of Education and Registration Board of Nigeria Planners (TOPREC). Specifically, a professional planner is identified here as a person who has acquired a mastery or proficiency in planning and related areas of knowledge and skills, and effectively assisting local authorities to mitigate social, economic, and environmental problems through the delineation of roads roads, schools, location and designation of other infrastructure, and suggesting zoning regulations for private property in a locality. The Nigerian Institute of Planners views a professional planner as a person who has one of the following academic and other qualifications: (i) A degree in Urban and Regional Planning / Planning (ii) a professional degree in urban and regional planning / Urban (iii) A pass in the final phase of the Nigerian Institute of Planners / Planners Registration Council for consideration, (iv) Completion of 2 years experience diploma monitored. It should be noted that courses leading to obtaining the qualification indicated (i) and (ii) above shall be an institution recognized and accredited by the Council Planners Registration (TOPREC) (NITP, 1991 ). It can be inferred from the above that, a Masters from an accredited institution is planning the best training for a wide range of positions in planning. However, to varying degrees in urban and regional planning major institutions designed to provide planners; (i) a broad understanding of forces and processes that shape cities, regions and built and natural environment; (ii) To keep a breast with the physical, economic, social and environmental factors that strongly influence the practice of the profession; (iii) Knowledge and confidence to question and, where appropriate, challenge the wisdom of current planning, and creativity to develop alternative proposals for planning; (iv) To generate in compliance with the planners and commitment necessary to make the effective consultation of communities and interdisciplinary collaboration essential to the practice of planning. Above all, professional planners must be able to think in terms of spatial relationships and visualize the effects of their plans and drawings. They must also be sufficiently flexible to accommodate different views and make constructive recommendations. Professional planners should however be able to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing, as is necessary and can never be disclosed who are interested in urban and regional planning profession. AGBOLI et al (2004) perceived planning as a deliberate action. In other words, it is to take decisions or make appropriate arrangements before hand to influence the course of action on a particular need of development. They went further by saying that planning is to make appropriate choices among several options that seem open to the future and advice to government concerns about how to deploy the resources necessary to implement the solution adopted. This definition, which is one of several views (Oyesiku, 1998; Adeniji, Egunjobi, 2001) of deliberate planning, planning to show or display; (i) the general approach to decision making; ” ; / p> (ii) An exercise oriented toward the future (iii) an activity with many variants (iv) Choosing among alternative others, depending on the facts based on historical experience, current situation, future planned and the resources (human and material) available at this time and / or should be available at the time of implementation ( AGBOLI et al, 2004 and AGBOLI, 2007). It is noteworthy that the main responsibility of the professional planner is to serve the public interest. However, the definition of public interest is formulated through continuous debate, a planner owes allegiance to a conscientiously attained concept of the public interest, which requires special obligations. In reality, the public interest refers to the common good of society as a whole. It also involves the common “welfare” or general “welfare”. Consequently, the public interest is at heart of political debate and professional practice. Thus, professional planners have responsibilities valuable for the public, clients and employers, professionals and colleagues and self-responsibility planner. For effective practice, planners require the use of theories and techniques of planning (Agola, 2001 and Ayeni, 1998) that informs and structures of the debate, facilitate communication and foster understanding. Interestingly, professional planners are expected to: (i) the practice in a manner that respects the diversity of needs, values, and aspirations of the public and encourages discussion on these issues (ii) Provide complete information, clear and accurate information on planning issues for policy makers and the public; (iii) Recognize the interdependent nature of planning decisions and their consequences for individuals, the natural and built environment, and public interest, and (iv) Identify and promote opportunities for meaningful participation in the planning process for all stakeholders. In addition to the established responsibilities of professional planners to the public, the vitality and credibility of the planning profession, and the Institute reflect the quality of the composition. Advancing the profession, members will be required to achieve and maintain a high level of professional competence and conduct, which extends their relationship with other members. They should also encourage healthy and constructive criticism on the theory and practice of planning among colleagues and share the results of experiments and research findings that contribute to changes in the body of planning knowledge. Moreover, the maintenance of appropriate awareness of contemporary philosophy of planning, theory and practice by seeking and receiving vocational training throughout the career planning. Many debates in developing countries, especially now surrounds the relationship between Nigeria that section of society concerned with the development of long-term plans and short-term land use and growth and the revitalization of urban, suburban and rural area in which they find themselves and the world of work. The discussion has tried to focus on issues such as increasing building collapse in cities, rapid urbanization and population growth which creates a big challenge for state and government municipal infrastructure and service provision. The scale and complexity of the facts mentioned above are intensifying in Nigeria. collapse of buildings, traffic jams and accidents, unemployment, urban violence and crime and a host of other problems are found in Nigerian cities. However, they have dramatic consequences on the social fabric of cities, threatening the reform process and erode the ability of the poor to build assets and participate in urban development. They also create neighborhoods stigmatized and leads to loss of investment, as well as uncontrollable spontaneous reactions such as gangs and mob justice. Government at all levels are insufficient to meet these challenges. In other words professional planners and other related disciplines have a key role to play in achieving sustainable development. To remedy the situation, professional planners and policy makers in Nigeria have been faced with the need to provide manpower to facilitate the economic and social progress. To answer these difficult responsibilities, aspiring professional planners must achieve competence in a wide range of areas. In fact, it has been argued that the requirement of professional ethics above all is to perform competently (Hepworth et al, 1986). The logic behind this assertion is convincing, because the stakes are high for consumers of services of professional planners. It is therefore important to disclose the charlatans “competent planners and professional planners. The competent authorities may be run simply considered” adequate, suitable for the purpose, adequate, qualified, having legal capacity and qualifications (Oxford Dictionary, 2000 ). To evaluate the professional competence in the practice encompasses knowledge, values, skills and attitudes necessary to fulfill the professional role of a traditional way (Hepworth et al, 1986). It should be impressed, a professional planner may be competent in the provision of certain services or perform certain responsibilities or duties, and not in others. The elements of competent practice put in another question in various professional fields are in a constant state flows following the enlargement of knowledge, new skills and changing demands of practice. Thus, jurisdiction must be considered within a temporal context, based on the fact that a professional planner can achieve competence at a time only to suffer gradual erosion of that power by failing to keep abreast of the most-expanding knowledge and planning skills. It is interesting, urban and regional planners focus on one or more fields of specialization. Among the most common are community development and redevelopment and land use or code execution. While planners can specialize in areas such as transportation planning or urban planning, they are also required to keep the bigger picture in mind and do what is best for the community as a whole. To make choices, and implement selected interventions requires a thorough knowledge skillfully theories and practice many techniques and a rigorous approach to selecting those who are most appropriate for a given customer. eclecticism systematic as advocated by Beutler (1983), Fisher (1978); Siporin, (1979) and Thorne (1973), is a rigorous approach practice. Simply, a systematic eclectic practitioner adheres exclusively to any single theory, but rather to select models and theories that fit a given problematic situation and gives high priority to technologies that have been empirically demonstrated to be effective and efficiently. systematic eclecticism is more demanding, requiring planners to keep abreast of new theories and research findings. > Most importantly, this approach to practice professional has the highest promise of be effective with a wide range of clients and issues. It can therefore rightly said that knowledge is a perishable commodity and becomes obsolete with the passage of time. Thus, it must be reaffirmed, re-learned, re-practiced any time. renewal of skills through formal training is inevitable. In response to the dynamic and increasingly complex political, economic, social and technological environment in which planning is done or practice, the need keep abreast of professional development has gained importance. Contribute to sustainable development Sustainable development has become a watchword for discussion and action because it seems to reflect a widespread sense that the state of the earth is precarious (Mannion, 1991). On the one hand we see around us evidence of the progressive deforestation, the increasing volume of waste land use mix , used, and the externalities of incessant movement we are not prepared to handle. The concept is commonly accepted by the definition introduced by the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) in its report “Our Common Future” ( 1987). According to the report, the realization of sustainable development requires economic and social judges focusing in particular on the needs of the poor. The concept of sustainable development is an integral part of the discourse on international development for more two decades. It has been linked to contemporary discourses on urban development especially after the Habitat II Conference in Istanbul (1996). In this paper, the investigation of the founding discourse of the concept focusing in particular on the concept of sustainable development as defined by the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), also known as the Brundtland Commission). The ambiguity and contested nature of the concept (Barraclough, 2001) were not The purpose of this section, instead, the focus is on analysis of the social content of sustainable development and ways to involve professional planners of operationalized. The concept sustainable development, according to Sumalee, et al, (2008) has gradually become the center of attention in urban planning in recent years. This can be attributed to the wave of concern about urban problems in scaling up the most cities. The Brundtland report defines sustainable development as development that meets present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. The concept is generally built around the three dimensions introduced by Agenda 21 of Rio (1992): the environmental, economic and social (and cultural) that support the preservation of global environment (Elliot, 1998; Vurtimo, 1994). Meanwhile, the key driver of the practice of traditional planning has been limited mainly to economic development without a comprehensive review of social and environmental aspects. As a result of urban and regional planning outcomes have not been able to reduce the nature or trend of redevelopment in the urban problems most Nigerian cities. It was also found that the lifestyle and intimate urban development practice developing countries are not sufficiently durable (Kuvaja, 2007), Kessides, 2006). This implies that education Planning has given the heavy responsibility not only to produce professional planners, but also to ensure that the sustainable livelihoods of people remain intact. This also means that every planner should contribute its share to the development of society. Thus, the view of sustainable development as noted Satterwaite, (1999b) is of great value to this article. It illustrates the fact that sustainable development aims to “meet human needs in institutions of all sizes without depleting environmental capital. This means that the search for institutional and regulatory framework in which democratic municipal authorities and municipal leaders and ensure that the needs of people within their boundaries are addressed while minimizing costs and transfer of the environment of other people and ecosystems and in the future. “Here, sustainable development refers in particular to the laws and policies to implement sustainable development while putting governance processes and municipal authorities in the center (Hardoy et al, 2007). It is however disheartening to note that despite the importance and frequent debate on the need for sustainable livelihoods in our society, the environment in Nigeria in particular cities are always in a state of disorder (Egunjobi, 1999, 2001). There has been a phenomenal growth in urbanization, resulting in our largest cities expanding and growing in an unplanned way (Aluko, 2000 ). He further stressed that the central parts or central areas of most Nigerian cities are decaying while sections are growing slums. He also noted that despite the existence of planning authorities authorities whose responsibilities include monitoring the development of urban land use, protection of environmentally sensitive areas, many buildings have been constructed and are approved without adjustments. troublingly and aggravate the problem or is the incessant building collapse noticeable in Nigerian cities (Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt and Ibadan). collapse of buildings has been a recurring decimal which led to the decimation of life. > As the incidence of pathetic, one question on the lips of many Nigerians was, why was a measure of control of construction is not adopted to ensure that building standards had been stopped on a stage? He also discussed who approved the construction of the building and monitoring its implementation in the first instance? These questions were often shelved, but in professional practice particularly in urban and regional planning, they are troubling circumstances that must be efficiently if the concept or goal of sustainable development be achieved. Planners are supposed to be equipped with different tools and techniques to control development, yet many charges are still pending against the planners. This often turn to abuse and insults. For example, one time governor of Oyo state, Alh. Lam Adesina (1999) states that “the state planners foresaw nothing but disaster for the people. They sacrificed their professionalism at the altar of money, all areas of potential catastrophe in Ibadan have been approved for construction of houses and other structures… “These statements were made during a courtesy call by the Nigerian Institute of Planners (NITP) Chairman and members of the governor. This exhibition and open confrontation as noted Aluko (2000) found that those who know the law and programming are supposed to be better planning of the environment are now the culprits. Thus, prosecutors have been accused. Given the above claims, it should be noted that vocational education planning consists of three components: training, education and the advancement of knowledge (Harris, 1983). In other words, it differs from other types of higher education, whose primary objective may be education or the advancement of knowledge or a combination of both, but where the level of direct training for a particular job is minimal. It should be mentioned that planning is a real job and distinct and have achieved itself a significant body of theory, knowledge, skills and technology. While parts of each of these aspects are shared with other professionals and other disciplines more traditionally recognized, but the essence of urban planning is that it combines them into a cohesive whole (Harris , 1983). It is this fact that makes planning singular. In addition, it addresses issues affecting all of the physical, social and administrative. It is therefore holistic and integrated in nature, inevitably ideological nature (Harris, 1983). This is the resolution of conflicts and is often influenced or directed by political forces. More importantly and to be a public profession, planners must necessarily be responsible for their work. In other words, they must be technically qualified and rigorous procedure. A professional planner can contribute to sustainable development of our nation in tackling a range of issues related to population growth, particularly in poor and developing countries and rapidly growing communities. For example, new housing developments require roads, sewers, fire stations, schools, libraries and recreational facilities shall be provided to budgetary constraints. It should be noted that the fastest growing jobs for urban and regional planners will occur in the private sector (AGBOLI, 2004), mostly in professional, scientific and technical services industries. Here, planners are employed by companies to help design security measures that are effective, but also subtle and able to blend with the surrounding area. Otherwise, planners promote the best use of land for a community and resources for residential, commercial, institutional and recreational. They are also charged with the responsibility of environmental, economic and social health problems of our community as it grows and changes over time. They should be concerned with the formulation of plans for the construction of the new school, housing, public buildings or other infrastructure. Planners can also help make decisions about resource development and protection of environmentally sensitive areas. They should be effectively involved in environmental issues, including pollution control, preservation of wetlands, forest conservation, and the location of new landfills. They should also be involved in drafting legislation on environmental, social and economic problems such as planning for new parks, housing the homeless, or make the region more attractive to business. In addition to the aforementioned responsibilities, which should be run by professional planners, he / she should also and especially before preparing plans to approach community development and individual property, study and report on current use land for residential, commercial and community. They must be interested in giving information about the location and capacity of roads, highways, airports, water and sewer, schools, libraries, cultural and recreational sites. They need to provide data on the types of industries and activities of the Community, population characteristics, employment and economic trends of the country in the areas concerned. > Although this information with community involvement or participation of citizens, planners try to optimize the use of land for various activities. They need to examine and inspect regularly the characteristics of land and building materials to study for the development or regulation. What must be done to ensure that these facilities meet the needs of a changing culture or population. They should keep abreast of economic and legal issues involved in zoning codes, building codes and environmental regulations and ensure that builders and developers follow these codes and regulations. Recommendations for future professional planners professional planners depends on the effective implementation of the facts presented in the context of this document. In other words, the clearest lesson to be learned from this overview centers on the ability of planners to make choices and implement interventions carefully selected by a review of in-depth knowledge of theories and techniques the practice of many and a rigorous approach to the adoption of those that are most appropriate for a given client. The document also noted that professional planners who do not agree to a single theory of practice, a disservice to themselves and many of their customers because they limit their range of effectiveness by trying to ’s adapt to all clients and problems in their chosen model. Planners must be borne in mind that logic dictates that the opposite should be the case. Professional Planners should select interventions and techniques best suited to certain types of problems and clients. (2004). (2001). pp. Chicago.