Ag. Surveyor General wants Nigeria’s natural resources chronicled

By Ochiaka Ugwu

In order to strengthen the economic diversification agenda of the Federal Government, the  Chairman of the Governing Council on the Federal School of Surveying (FSS), Oyo, Surv. Abduganiyu Adeyemi  Adebomehin has called for the chronicling of the natural resources which he said abound across all the states in the country.

In a press statement released in Abuja Thursday by Office of the Surveyor General of the Federation and signed by its Head of Press and Public Relations, Abu I Michae, it noted that Surv. Adebomehin who is the Acting Surveyor General of the Federation (SGoF) stressed this while fielding questions from a major television station at the 21st Convocation Lecture of the FSS in Oyo recently.

He said this could be achieved through surveying and geo-informatics in such a way that requisite geospatial data could also be made available to the government for effective decision and implementation of harnessing all the resources for the common good of all Nigerians. 

Before the convocation lecture, he encouraged surveyors to avail themselves for the economic policies of the Federal Government geared towards placing Nigeria in the map of developed countries.

The Council Chairman said surveying is about precision and has no room for people who would not be genuinely committed in providing reliable and requisite geospatial data for leaders to take effective decisions and effectual implementation of projects and programmes of development. 

In his lecture, titled, “Natural Resources, Regional Structure and National Development: Where Nigeria Got It Wrong and How to Get There”, Prof. Nurain Bolanle Tanimowo noted that surveying is about land, resources and development.

Prof. Tanimowo says, “Nigeria is blessed with vast resources. In the country, tremendous and sustainable development is expected. Development in physical sense of its definition is phenomenal growth on the land, below the land and above the land.”

He pointed out that the greatness of North America according to his studies was achieved by focusing on resource regions and assigning resource and people to development by specialized regions. At the beginning, North America according to him was grouped into 6 physical regions which were Hudson Bay, Laurentian or Canadian Shield, Appalachian and Gulf Plain, Interior Plains, and Western Mountain Region.

In her address of welcome, Rector of the school, Dr. Dupe Nihinlola Olayinka-Dosunmu said the school has been positioned to raise experts in the fields of surveying and geo-informatics and other related courses for the country.

The lecture according to her was meant to provide deep insight into the relevance of surveying and mapping and to as well provide the school areas of focus in the training of students.