PROPERTY ARTICLES

President of the Nigerian Institution Surveyor (NIS), Dr. Olusola Atilola, has advised the Federal Government that no reform can be made on a land of which its spatial dimension, characteristics and attributes are not known or defined.

He made the submission last week in Abuja at the 27th Annual Olumide Memorial Lecture organised by the institution. The guest speaker at the event was Stig Enemark, the President of International Federation of Surveyors (FIG). The Theme of the lecture was "Land Governance: Supporting The Global Agenda And Serving Society."

He underlined the need to urgently embark on comprehensive surveying and mapping at the relevant scales of the geographical entity called Nigeria.

He added that the institution had also proposed the creation of structures for the acquisition, archiving and management of the resultant date for availability and use by all sectors of the economy and society.

His words: "The capital outlay of the exercise is certainly going to be huge and major capital component of the land reform programme, but indeed an exercise that must not be sidetracked if government must deliver on the land reform programme."

He added that land was a basic natural resource that supported all human activities and from where all other economic resources were derived.

He said, "There can be no sustainable economic development without sustainable land governance. Land is a natural asset of the common man which government should help in converting to capital and means of empowerment.

"At present this natural asset of majority of rural Nigerians is locked up as ‘dead capital’ as various interests in them does not possess registrable titles to raise capital. It is in attempt to unlock this ‘dead capital’ into land market economy to the advantage of the common man that government included the land reform as part of the Seven-Point Agenda for the nation."

The NIS boss added that the importance government placed on land reform is further emphasised by the setting up of the Presidential Technical Committee on Land Reform which has since commenced action by calling for memorandum from all stakeholders.

Atilola went on, "We are still a country that is struggling to provide power and security, is grappling with our transportation challenges and food security. We are yet to adequately house our population and do not have the full benefit of our maritime resources. We are struggling to open up the potentials of our mineral resources and are seemingly not able to drive our education sector. The launch pad for getting a solution to all these challenges is the effective surveying and mapping of our country. We must address it with utmost sincerity and collective commitment.

"We pledge our support to the Presidential Technical Committee on Land Reforms in all areas of our professional competence and will be delighted to see Nigeria truly take off towards its developmental vision and glory by immediately commencing on comprehensively surveying and mapping the Nigerian space.

"At the early stage of our administration, we set for ourselves the objective of correcting and re-inventing a more positive and pro-active public image for the profession. We set out to creating the profession as a brand which would be easily identifiable and related with by government and the people as one of fundamental importance to their everyday decision and actions. We have moved closer to achieving that objective. We have not only tried to maintain positive visibility both locally and internationally, we have put on stream a set of identifiers that would cut the profession our as a distinct image."