The Oyo State branch of the Nigerian Institution of Surveyors (NIS), on Tuesday said it is ready to partner with Oyo state government in order to generate more revenues.
NIS Chairman in the state, Surveyor Aderemi Kobiowu made this pledge while speaking during the inauguration of new executive members of the institution who were inaugurated to steer the ship of the institution for another two years.
The inauguration which coincided with the annual luncheon of the institution held in Ibadan, the state capital was attended by the State Governor, Mr. Seyi Makinde who was represented by the Commissioner for Lands, Survey and Housing, Barrister Abdulrahman Abdulraheem and Oniroko of Iroko.
Others are former NIS President, Surveyor Akin Oyegbola who represented the incumbent NIS President, Surveyor Charles Alabo, Acting Surveyor General in the state, Surveyor S.A. Alaba and Executive Secretary of Oyo State Primary Healthcare Board, Dr. Muideen Olatunji.
Those that were returned as executive members included Prince Aderemi Kobiowu (Chairman), Taiwo Oyejola (Vice Chairman), Dasola Adefabi (Secretary), Adenike Oladipo (Assistant Secretary), Kamilu Akinsola (Treasurer), S.A. Ajayi (Internal Auditor), Alex Egberinde (Publicity/ Social Secretary), Ademola Saka (Council Representative).
Kobiowu while speaking said that the NIS is ready to partner the state government in generating more revenues.
He said, “NIS Oyo State branch is ready to partner with the state government to have meaningful development in the stete. Among the area of partnership made by the institution is to have an input into the Blueprint for policy direction of Oyo State.
“Here, I itemized the policy direction that will help the state government in generating more revenue: Regularization of illegal occupation of government acquisition, Regularization of title document ana building plan of existing building, to relax process of certificate of occupancy, duplication of the role of GIS agency with that of the ministry of lands, housing and survey. Government land acquisition that required review. One kilometer acquisition along Ibadan circular road, one kilometre acquisition along new Lagos/ Ibadan railway corridor. Forestry acquisition.
“Involvement of all the rewuired professionals in road construction. Militating against building collapse by state government by implementing building code law. Loss of revenue at the local government level as a result of not having surveyors in all the local governments. Creation of state boundary commission to resolve boundary issues between local governments and adjoining state.
The Guest Speaker, Dr. Matthew Ibitoye of the department of Remote Sensing and Geoscience Information System in his paper entitled, “Repositioning Surveying Profession in a challenging Economy”, maintained that repositioning surveying profession in Nigeria must be seen as a task that requires contributions from all and sundry.
Ibitoye said, “There is no gainsay that surveying profession has passed through many phases; from traditional to computer based technology and for surveyors to be relevant and meet up the demand of the modern society must keep on moving with technology. Notwithstanding the state of our economy, the demand for the services of surveyors particularly those with broad skill will keep increasing. Such a surveyor will not just exist in the business but live above social and economic depressions that characterized the present Nigeria economy.
“As a matter of urgency the mapping bill embarked upon some time ago by the administration of Late Francis Overare, fnis, PPNIS should be revisited.
Committee on Surveying and Mapping to oversee effective implementation of the National Mapping Policy and control of mapping activities at the state level should be created. This will give prominence to surveying in the country. As a member of United Nations, governments at all levels are expected to commit certain percentage of their budgetary allocation to mapping programme. Nigerian surveyors need to press this on the government.
“There are some rules and regulations that have been in operation for years in many of our states that surveyors mistakenly assumed to be statutory. Such rules and regulations need to be legalized to stand against obnoxious directives from government officials. Over the years, surveying community has made frantic efforts to see that the survey content of any engineering projects comes to surveyors directly but these efforts seems not yielding positive result. It is at this juncture that I will implore SURCON as a regulatory body and NIS to come together and fight the “battle” collectively.
“There is one fundamental issue we need to understand while pursuing the case. Going by the short history of development of Surveying in Nigeria as earlier enumerated in this paper, there was no time the attention of the colonial masters was focused on engineering survey. What occupied their interest then was how to map the country for their economic gain. That explains why they invested so much money on topographical and administrative maps of the country.
“The Departments of surveying established then was to ensure the compliance of their immediate interest. It is therefore an herculean task to rescue this aspect of surveying from engineers who had seen surveying as an integral part of their work. However, it is a course that worth fighting not minding the “giants” holding to it”.
