NIS boss makes case for use of maps to address security challenges

By OLALEKAN BADMOS

President of the Nigerian Institution of Surveyors (NIS), Bode Adeaga, has advised stakeholders in the security sector to take use of maps and mapping more serious in the quest to secure a safe environment for Nigeria.

Adeaga, who gave the admonition in Benin on Tuesday at the opening ceremony of the 49th Annual General Meeting and Conference of the NIS, expressed the readiness of the Nigerian surveyors to collaborate with security agencies in fighting terrorism, particularly in the Northern part of the country.

“A society that plays down the value and importance of maps and mapping will only succeed in enmeshing itself in a quagmire of failures," he said.

Insisting that only proper mapping could bring about structures that guarantee sustainable development and safe society, Adeaga regretted that the last meaningful mapping exercise done in the country was in the days of the Ordinance Survey of the colonial period.

"The surveyors of this country are willing and ready to partner with government to address the paucity of Spacial information in our economic and development planning matrix. A battle is fought and won based on superior intelligence. Spatial information is necessary and strategic to any security operation. If you do not know the ground you cannot traverse it. So we are ready to partner with government to fight insecurity," he added.

In his speech, Edo state Governor Adams Oshiomhole observed that the importance of surveyors in the modern society cannot be overemphasized, adding that it was in recognition of this that his administration had involved surveyors in its designs and construction of new roads, rehabilitation and expansion of older roads to solve flood issues ravaging some parts of the state.

Represented by the state Commissioner for Lands and Surveyor, Donald Osikhena, the governor noted that "as a way of showing commitment to the profession, Edo state government last year bought digital instruments worth over N30 million for the Ministry of Lands and Surveys, Survey Department."

Former governor of Edo state, Oserheimen Osunbor, in his keynote address, traced the problem associated with absence of drainage and functional sewage system in major towns and cities in the country to the neglect of the professionals in the area of physical planning.

"Surveyors also have an important role to play in tackling the current security challenges through the location of suspicious. Changes on the landscape using high resolutions imageries such as Geo-eye, Quick Bird or Digital Globe," the professor said.