Surveyors. Dr.M.O. Ibitoye, fellow, is the President, Nigerian Institution of Surveyors (NIS). In this interview on the sidelines of the Annual General Meeting of the Lagos chapter, talks about some issues affecting the practice of the profession in Nigeria. He also speaks about quackery and what the association is doing to reduce activities of quacks. DAYO AYEYEMI reports:
So many people talked about quackery and fake people in the surveying profession. What are you doing about this challenge?
Number one challenge is that there won’t be any quack if there is no patronage. Quack is not a new thing in our profession. But when there is no patronage, the quack will not be in existence.
There are some of us that are aiding them. And we are doing it in such a way that when you are patronizing a surveyor, look for a registered surveyor. A registered surveyor is one that is registered by the Surveyor’s Council of Nigeria.
If you are around when they are reporting, some of these quacks have been apprehended, tried, and then some jailed, some fined, and so on and so forth. So we are going all out to see that some of these issues of quackery are reduced through various means. We know that we cannot eradicate it totally.
This is the society we are in. We believe that NIS is trying through information dissemination; we are trying to see who are the surveyors and those quacks we need to control.
We heard that some diaspora surveyors are practicing surveying in Nigeria. Do you have a system that allows that?
There is no system for such diaspora here. In the practice of surveying, you must have contact with the property you are measuring. The property that you are determined to give to your client.
You don’t stay outside Nigeria. And by my view, the certificate given to you as a surveyor is that you can practice surveying in Nigeria, not stay outside Nigeria and serve your surveyor in diaspora. Surveying is not what you can practice in proxy.
But technology has made things possible. Isn’t it?
If the technology made it, what is your contact with the land you are talking about? If there is any issue on that land, you sign a document, and the document is tendered in the law court, and you stay in the United Kingdom (UK), and Australia. Who will defend that job? In which court are you going to defend such a job, if not in Nigeria?
So you are not giving to stay outside Nigeria and serve you. I am hearing it for the first time. It has never been in our system. I have been in this system for more than 40 years, I have never heard that, this is a new development that we are hearing now. That is not going to see the light of day because there is no position or section of our constitution that gives to a diaspora’s surveyor.
There is another issue that was raised, which has to do with the issue of punishment. Are you considering reviewing punishment for those that have erred from your members?
The issue raised was truly about the fine—money. We are considering the person’s economy.
You may say that it is too low, but nevertheless, that is not the bottom line. The purpose of the fine is to tell you that what you have done is wrong. And whatever, if it is just N500.00, you are guilty and you are guilty. Even in the World Cup, when you are fined, you are guilty, and you are ex-convicted, no matter what. That is the purpose. Not the amount of money put in it. Notwithstanding, when the time comes, we will look at all these things, the reality of what is happening in our society today.
We are going to review it. Nevertheless, what they have given as a minimum cost on that thing is okay, but the person has entered into the group that is not practicing ethically. If there is anything that somebody do to get there, that should be Hall of Shame. That is the bitter truth!
What are you doing to arrest the issue of Japa in the profession?
The issue of brain drain is a cankerworm that enters or eats into the fabric of this nation. It is not only in surveying, it is rampant in medical line.
You see, people are leaving this country because the economy is not looking up. There is no security and people want to live in an environment that they can secure can secure jobs and secure their life. Many of our members, they find it difficult here in Nigeria. You can’t go to sub-regions in Nigeria to carry out your assignment. Therefore, if you have an opportunity elsewhere, you leave with your family. There is another slavery that we may not even know now or later in our life that we are entering to another self-slavery. This is because we are voluntarily going there to settle, send our children there, not to come back home. At the end of it all, they settle there. So, it’s a problem not only to surveying, it’s a problem to Nigeria as a country.
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