14th December, 2017
Mr Sikiru Osinowo, Chairman, House Committee on Land, Lagos State House of Assembly, on Thursday urged surveyors to continually upgrade their skills in the profession to remain relevant to the society.
Osinowo, represented by Mr Omoba Adeyinka, a member of Assembly, gave the advice at the 32nd Annual General Meeting and Luncheon of the Nigerian Institution of Surveyors (NIS) in Lagos.
He said that surveyors were key players in the land administration system of a country, with surveying being vital in the settlement of land disputes and other related land matters.
“The importance of surveyors cannot be over-emphasised because in cases of land dispute, it is the surveyors that come to determine the exact size of the land.
“The role of surveyors in land matters is so important that if there is no surveyor, there will be no land too,” Osinowo said.
He, therefore, appealed to surveyors to rise to the occasion and play their roles effectively in land administration/
Mr Sunday Egbiki, Managing Director, Ornament Engineering Ltd., also spoke on ‘Flood Risk Management and Disaster Mitigation: The Roles of Multi-Disciplinary Professionals’ at the event.
He said that surveyors were invaluable in managing flood risks as they were well trained to get effective survey map of a land to be able to determine the elevation of an area.
“Deformation monitoring, spatial monitoring and measurement are other strategies through which surveyors can position structures such as dams and rivers that can help in controlling flood,” he said.
According to him, Nigeria is currently using the structural measures system to prevent flood.
Egbiki, however, said that such pattern had not been effective in the country due to lack of adequate monitoring and management.
“The structural measures approach has been failing in Nigeria because they focused mainly on flood control and protection without any consideration of the management aspects.
“The Integrated Flood Risk Management system is the global flood management system which, if adopted, will go a long way in controlling flood disaster in the country,” he said.
Earlier, Mr Olugbenga Alara, Chairman of NIS, said the institution would continue to give support toward the progress of Lagos State.
Alara said that the institution would continue to collaborate with the government and other professionals to enhance infrastructure development in the state.