From: Taiwo Oluwadare, Ibadan

Following reports of building collapse in the country, the Oyo State government has empowered the Surveyor-General of the state to oversee the activities of practicing Surveyors both private and public to give instructions when and where necessary.

Acting Surveyor-General in the state, Alaba Abiodun Sekore, who was represented by the Deputy Surveyor General, Mrs. Adefunke Oduwole, made this known in Ibadan, on Wednesday, during sensitisation workshop organised by the state Surveyors Council of Nigeria (SURCON) for surveyors titled “Surveying and ethical practice”.

In his paper presented titled, “Expectation of the State Government from the Surveyors”, Sekore said the new state government’s directive would avert loss of lives and properties occasioned by inaccurate Geoinformatics in survey practices.

According to him, it is therefore imperative for the office of the Surveyor-General to bear its mind out on what is expected of practicing surveyors to promote the best practice and have mutual interaction with one another.

Sekore added that it is on this backdrop that the state SURCON Ethics Committee chose to organise the seminar so that no practitioner would claim ignorance of the new rules and so that transactions between the practitioners and office of the Surveyor-General will be very cordial, smooth and rewarding.

He added that three major sections in the new rules by the office of the Surveyor-General to interact with the practitioners include area of professional practice, government acquisition and survey inspectorate.

Corroborating him, the State Chairman of Nigerian Institution of Surveyors, Ola Shiyanbola, said Geoinformatics was the information or attributes of a land saying wrong information of a land whether it’s swampy or plain may mislead the engineer to make appropriate structure therefore leads to building collapse in the future.

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Also in his lecture, one of the fellows, Mr. Adetunji Adeleke said the seminar was organized for practitioners to know nitty-gritty of the profession, to know how to discharge their professional practice and to interact better with allied professionals for better results.

He added that the essence of ethical practice is to avert incidents of building collapse and to provide the engineers with requisite information on topography and other specification of a land to enable the engineers make desirable designs.

Adeleke however said not all incidents of building collapse caused by inadequacy of surveyors saying other reasons can be traceable to inadequacy of engineers or the land owners not meeting the specification of all the projects components.

He therefore advised the property owners to be thorough in making preparation for development of their properties by employing right professionals at every stage and not go for cheap products from unqualified practitioners.

The Financial Secretary of Nigerian Institute of Surveyors (NIS), Mr. Bankole Adam Adewale said Geomatics has application in most disciplines and professions that are spatial earth related such as planning, geography, geodesy, infrastructure engineering, agriculture and others.

Bankole, however, noted that advancement in surveying and geoinformatics has brought about ease, precision and accuracy to survey task saying advent of different types of digital equipment had broadened the scope of survey work.

He therefore advised the practitioners to make use of these wide scopes and widen their earning capability by exploiting other aspects of surveying aside cadastral saying if pursued vigorously, the public will be enlightened about these other aspects of surveying and they will surely pay for the service.