Fashola supports development of National Digital Map

The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola has shown his support for the development of a National Digital Map for the whole country.

Fashola, while swearing-in the President and nine other members of the Surveyors Council of Nigeria, (SURCON), explained that aside enhancing internal security; the electronic map would benefit weather forecasts, agriculture and internal transport systems.

The minister said there was need for all the state governments in the country to come together to strategize on how to raise funding and digitalise all the mappings of their territories, adding that the mappings would then form the basis for the National Digital Map.

Fashola pointed out that “The need for states to digitalize all the mappings of their territories had become expedient because of the importance of the exactitude of the science of Surveying not only to national security but also to the safety of life and properties, adding, “But beyond security is the fact that the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan has as one of its pillars the development of our infrastructure, the development of energy.

“It will be easier to then read all the maps that we carry on our phones because they are local and domestic coordinates and data.”
He underscored that going digital would also help avoid wrong targeting in surveying as a result of wrong coordinates or wrong interpretation.”

He recalled that the issue was discussed at the recent National Council on Housing, stressing, “It will help our internal security enormously, police will benefit from it, Civil Defence will benefit from it, weather forecasts and weather predictions will benefit from it, agriculture will benefit from it and our internal transport, rail transport, land transport will benefit from it.”

According to him, the success of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan, recently launched by the President, would depend significantly on the work of the Surveying profession for the revival, development and sustenance of the economy as well as launching it into global competitiveness.

Commenting on the importance of security in creating a stable economic development, he said “We have had in some parts some errors made in targeting which sometimes may not be unconnected with wrong coordinates; or if they are not wrong co-ordinates then improper interpretation”.

In terms of the nation’s infrastructure such as roads and bridges, railways and the housing projects, the minister said nothing would have been done without the input of the surveying profession, citing the example of the National Housing programme now going on in the 33 states of the country.

“In each of the 33 housing sites where construction is going on now, we couldn’t have started work without a survey plan, because it is from the survey plan that we created a layout plan and it is from the layout plan that designs that were created were then imposed and building could start.

None of the highways currently being constructed across the country could have started without a right-of-way,” he said.

He hinted that the same impact of surveying also applied to transmission lines, transmissions stations and so on, while expressing the commitment of the government to supporting the Council to facilitate its function.

“I think that the Surveyor-General himself will be the first testimonial to say that since the Buhari administration the budgetary provision of this department has been quite expanded and will hopefully be sustained,” he added.

Expatiating on the role of the Council, he told the members. “What this Council is supposed to do is really to regulate the practice, the trade and profession of surveying; decide who and who are eligible to practice it, under what conditions and so on and so forth.

“So, you have an onerous burden of leadership. It is not made easy by the fact that, as the Surveyor General has said, it is an ubiquitous profession; ubiquitous in the sense that it is so highly impacting; and in these days of digital mapping, global security challenges, your responsibilities are not made easier at all.”

The minister informed the Council of the felicitations of President Muhammadu Buhari, who he said “charge you to discharge your statutory responsibilities without fear or favour and with your very best endeavours in accordance with the oath of allegiance that you have sworn”.

The minister also stressed that “The statutory requirements for the constitution of this Council are very clear; the Surveyor-General of the Federation, a representative of the Military, the Director of Surveys, the representative of Women in Surveying, representative of the Office of Surveyor-General of the Federation and also representatives of tertiary institutions, a broad cross-cutting representation, and also from the School of Survey”, noting that every interest group “has been thoughtfully considered in the membership of the Council”.

He also admonished the Council in the “Challenging task” before it, adding “Let me say in closing that in constituting this Council we are appointing leaders to solve problems; we are not appointing leaders to create problems and I think what I have not said there has said itself.

“I hope that at the end of your tenure of service, the President and Commander in Chief will be able to give you a very warm handshake of congratulations”.

Responding on behalf of the members, the newly inaugurated President of SURCON, Joseph Agbenla, gave an assurance that the Council, under his watch, would discharge its responsibilities to the best of their ability, and that the Council members would not create problems for Government but would rather solve problems.

The Surveyor General of the Federation, Ebisintei Awudu, earlier in his welcome address, disclosed the importance of the Surveying Profession, adding that the federal government’s diversification drive in restructuring the economy, national security, National Sustainable Development would not achieve the desired result without the input of Surveying Profession.

According to Awudu, his office “is the nation’s apex Mapping Office which coordinates the activities of Surveying and Mapping”, to partner constructively with SURCON in the areas of leadership, research, policy and strategy formulations for better services to government and the citizens of the country.

Dignitaries present at the occasion with the Minister were the two Ministers of State in the Ministry, Mustapha Shehuri and Suleiman Hassan, Acting Permanent Secretary Works and Housing, Ibrahim Tumsah, Directors and Special Advisers in the Ministry; while the SURCON side, include the representatives of the Military, Tertiary Institutions and Women in Surveying among other representatives and other SURCON members.