PROPERTY ARTICLES

Olusola Atilola is the National President, Nigerian Institution of Surveyors. He speaks with ADEMOLA ONI on land reform, the need to survey and map every land in the country and to create a land market economy, among other issues.

Why is it necessary for the Nigerian Institution of Surveyors to rebrand now?

As a matter of fact, we started our re-branding effort before Prof. Dora Akunyili was appointed the Minister of Information and Communication, therefore, it is not because the Federal Government is re-branding that we just started our own. It has been one of our projects. The fact is that we have just put more emphasis on it within the last two years, and it is one of the cardinal points of this institution.

So, our own re-branding is not based on the kind of re-branding going on in Nigeria. In our own case, we started when this government came into office in 2007.

There are three major areas we are looking into. First, we intend to ensure that the survey profession is made more visible; that is, if you call yourself a surveyor, people should be able to ask you what type of surveyor you are. We want to let the public know that we do more than just four-corner blocks, and that we carry out surveys on land, on air and we measure the sea surface and sea bottoms. So, we want people to know that the institute exists and we want them to know the importance of our institution and that you cannot carry out any development without surveying and mapping. Not only the government but the public. All these we have addressed several times. We want the public to identify with us through our logo. That‘s the essence of changing the logo.

In the past, you could not put more meaning into our logo. So, we decided to change the logo to make it more acceptable and something the public can identify with and understand. The reason is that since about 20 years ago that the logo was designed, it has not been changed. We have had over 60 years of existence in Nigeria. Even if that logo was not formed, the minimum is about 40 years. Also, part of what I have chosen is to make sure that the public know what we are doing and we identify it when we go to site with the issue of jacket. So, that is the re-branding process in the outer circle of the institution that is from the public.

There is also an internal re-organisation of the institution. Like I said earlier; re-branding is about packaging; the significance of this is that apart from re-branding, we must also do a kind of retouching to improve our content. We are ensuring that we re-package the institution in terms of practice, professional ethics, as well as our association with the international bodies outside like the Professional Association of Surveyors and Commonwealth Association of Surveyors and Land Economy. We have participated very well in the Professional Association of Surveyor to the extent that we have been awarded the hosting of 2013 Working Week by the International Association of Surveyors, which holds its congress every four years. Every year we have the Working Week.

What will you describe as your specific achievement?

I have brought a lot of awareness into the profession. People now know us more than ever before. I have also brought to the consciousness of the public that you cannot plan without surveying and that is the result of re-branding internally and externally. I have also put the NIS on the world map, as far as surveying is concerned. We have presented papers at FIG conferences and the world surveying knows that this profession exists in Nigeria, and that our membership is very strong. Then, we have contributed to national issues; we did on land reform. To the glory of God, I moved the NIS headquarters to Abuja.

Surveyors are now better known than ever before; highly interested and aware of the possibilities of what the profession can do and the benefits of being members.

You said surveying is synonymous with the development of any nation. Is that the scenario in Nigeria? What do you think it has caused the country in terms of moving the country forward?

There is a difference between growth and development. The fact is that surveying has not been used as an instrument of development or growth; it is just that houses are springing up everywhere. Go to Lekki and Abeokuta here, they are springing up haphazardly, that is not development. Development should be systematic and should be sustainable but that is lacking in this country. When you develop something, there must be a follow up to make sure that you improve on what you have developed and there is orderliness. Everywhere you go in this country, you notice that there is something besides the road, like markets here and there. That is why the roads are not passable and there are no parking spaces. It is the same on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. Why can‘t we put the right thing in the right place and let the rule of law be enforced. It is surveying that will give us where to and where not to keep something.

Any nation that is developed makes sure that it maps out its entire entity (country). Britain, America and Sweden and all other advanced countries have done this. In Sweden for instance, the country is mapped out every two years and the people know what they have and where they have it. So, surveying is part of their culture and the government pays a lot of attention to it because land is very important to them. That is why land use is important to their environment because they want to know what is the relationship between a particular development and other developments around and how they affect or relate with each other.

But in this country, everybody is just doing whatever they like. There is duplication of energy and duplication of efforts. Various government‘s departments -ministries of agric, water resources, population commission, rural development and others - are supposed to add value to what surveyors do; not for them to go and commission various mappings: that is not surveying.

There must be a central area, whereby you have surveying and outlay and then you can distribute it to various sectors of the economy. And when you plan without mapping, it is like working in the dark; at the end of the day, it fails.

Most of the things we do in this country, we do not put adequate planning into them. Most our roads are failing because of inadequate survey impute and at very exorbitant costs; and shoddy jobs are delivered because of lack of checks and balances.

What exactly do you think the panel or the body that is looking into the land reform and Land Use Act can do to produce a good report?

The government has realiseds, having been lectured on land use, that if we want to empower the rural people who are farmers, the only asset they have is land. And that asset they have, which is land, must be converted into capital. But without surveying it or having a title to the land; they cannot use it as collateral in the capital market.

Therefore, the Presidential Land Reform Committee was given about six terms of references: to ensure that it determines the possessors‘ right of all Nigerians on the land you possess and that all these rights are surveyed and registered.

The question now is how will the committee do that? If it does that, it also needs to create a land bank, whereby each of the titled land can be deposited. So, they will also help the states and local governments in fashioning out a kind of land registration and land deposit mechanism. To do all these requires that the whole of this country must be properly mapped, and when that is done, you can determine who has what. After that, each parcel of land needs to be surveyed. Then the question is: how is it going to be done? Do we do it appropriately? Mapping plots of land on area photograph or satellite imaging map? Or do we do it appropriately, using modern technology? Like I told you, in the past, it was very difficult to survey because we didn‘t have the right modern equipment that could enable us to carry out rapid survey within limited accuracy.

Like if you have a continuous reference station based on the Global Positioning System, about 50km to that area, you can carry the GPS. Equipments and the Continuous Reference Station can broadcast to that point and can do rapid survey. So, as a result of this, the position of the NIS is that it must be done properly.

In a country as large as Nigeria, it is not proper and we are running into a lot of problems if we do something that is approximate; that is trying to use average product when there is enough technology. We are already at the level, where we know that the government cannot produce one within one or two years, it is a long-term project. We pray that the project lasts up to about eight to 11 years, to complete the total registration of rights of individuals in this country. Before that time comes, we have a lot of work to do. However, we must continue to make sure that it is functional because we are to invest a lot in the training of personnel. There are advantages for the country. It is only then that we will now have a land market economy. Land market economy is the only way we can improve the lot of the rural Nigerians. Any other thing, we keep them down, because that is the only way we improve the economy and that is the only way to develop the nation.

Any nation that nationalises land cannot move forward. Therefore, if we want to empower the rural Nigerians, we must convert their assets to something that can be used in the land market economy, whereby they can use, sell and mortgage it. If we have about 10 hectares of land, we can farm on it because that is the only thing we can do. Whereas in developed countries, every farmer has his property registered. But when you don‘t have your land registered and you cannot capitalise it; without a survey, if you don‘t have a title to your property, it is dead capital.

But most people may not be able to bear the cost of survey because of the fee

It is because you don‘t have a title to it: if you have a title to it and you know that you have a project somewhere, you can take that document to procure loan. But without surveying it, the bank will not accept it.

What are the challenges of the NIS?

The major challenge we are facing is that government is not paying proper attention to the issue of surveying and mapping in this country. Also, the government is not paying proper attention to surveying institution and survey departments. There is the need for proper training of surveyors and for government to properly equip this department and encourage staff in the teaching profession. What is happening now is that there is a mushrooming of polytechnics and universities teaching surveying because some of these institutions are not properly equipped. Therefore, the products that they are going to produce into the profession will be ill-equipped and standard is compromised.

There is the need for government to ensure that the right and proper thing is done to ensure that these institutions, when they are set up either by the state or the Federal Governments, are properly funded so that they can have the right caliber of professionals. Remember, it is garbage in, garbage out.

There is a need for a government‘s policy on surveying and mapping. I told you earlier about mapping in Sweden, that their policy is that every two years, the whole country is remapped to update what they had before. Now what policy have we got in Nigeria? We don‘t have a policy on surveying and mapping. There may be no crisis of land but the crisis is going to come. In order to prevent that crisis, it is better for us to be pro-active now and ensure that the area we are talking about, like the farm lands and others are touched.