Nigerian surveyors still pay Google for images when we have satellites – Abiodun Awofeko

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Abiodun Awofeko is a surveyor and Fellow, Nigerian Institute of Surveyors. He is the CEO of Quest Consolidated Limited and member, Advisory Board, Lucent Homes and Properties. In this interview with franktalknow.com, he speaks on the relevance of space technology to surveying and how Nigeria can use satellites to fight insecurity, among others. Excerpts:

How would you describe the state of surveying practice in Nigeria?

Surveying is the bedrock of development. Although it appears as a small integral part of the development, it’s one that you have to do first. One must survey before the architects and other developers will get to work. That is why the colonial masters started with surveying.  They acquired lands and produced maps. They called those maps the Crown Grand Land maps.  They used those maps to designate those lands for their usage. And those records are still there even till today. If you go to the British archives in the UK, Nigeria maps are kept there. You can’t do without it. You must know the size of the land before you can do anything else on it. It deals with space measurement and management.  Although technological improvement like computers plus the GIS (geographic information system) has evolved the practice, you still notice that surveying still boils down to you knowing the size of the space you want to work on.

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Mapping is important when it comes to development. But when the British left, we were not very keen to properly demarcate our borders. And that’s why we had issues with Cameroon over the Bakassi Peninsula. When it comes to the delineation of Nigerian boundaries, that area was not properly mapped, even when the Europeans have left the place for us. So these are some of the deficits that we face as a country.

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The government is not fully financing surveying. We have a department that is in charge of surveying, which is the Office of the Surveyor-General of the Federation. He should be the one in charge of mapping and collecting data. The states’ offices of the Surveyor-General should also be involved in the mapping of data and collating information because those are the areas where we are deficient.

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But it seems surveying is not as popular  as professions like engineering and architecture. And critics say practising surveyors like you have not done enough in marketing the profession. How would you react to this notion?

Surveying has always been the background job, and that has influenced how people view surveyors. Back then, surveyors hardly had offices, and when they had an office, the only thing you would see there was their artisan table. So one way or the other, such appearances lowered the impression of the profession, and it made students going to university not to consider studying surveying. Even some children of surveyors are discouraged from  studying  it because they don’t see it as a fashionable profession when they compare it to other professions where you go to office dressed in suits, looking and smelling nice.

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As a matter of fact, surveyors are called bushmen because they’re always in the bush, and you see them with pools, theodolites and dragging heavy chains. Sights like that discouraged quite a number of people. But many don’t know that these surveyors, who are called bushmen, come out of the bush with big money. That is because surveyors are the first set of people to move to a site, no matter how thick the bushes on it are.

But technology has changed those concepts and impressions about surveying because carrying out these tasks is now easy with the help of technology. And now, many students are enrolling to study surveying at the university, polytechnic and School of Surveying.

When I was in school, we were just six studying surveying at the University of Lagos. In those days, some students were even compelled to come from other departments to join the Department of Surveying. All that has changed now because many are beginning to see the beauty of surveying. The instrumentation used in surveying has improved. We are now using computers, space technology, remote sensing, and now people can easily capture information using cameras or drones. These have improved the practice of surveying.

What has been your experience in the surveying industry in Nigeria

It has been very laudable for me.  My experience also grew from working with private firms before I set up my firm, Quest Consolidated, in 2000. At Quest Consolidated, we have done quite a lot in mapping. Mapping is very important when it comes to development. It is all about knowing your space, where you are, and where you’re going. And you need to develop the topographic map of a location. That map would guide and tell you the undulation of the land. And that would help you know where you are now putting your structure, either road or any other infrastructure you want to put in there. With the mapping, you can now come up with a design that will be aesthetic and would fall into the size of the space. Mapping is necessary, it is not just building at any place we see. You need to look at the shape of the land and be able to come up with a design that will be best for that location. These are some of the things we do.

Talking about space technology, Nigeria has launched some satellites into space. Have you benefited from such developments?

 The National Space Research and Development Agency has been there.  It has been responsible for launching our satellites into the orbit. Also, NIGCOMSAT is the agency for the marketing of satellite imagery. But the government does not see the importance of those agencies. Those that initiated the idea to establish these agencies knew that before we can develop, we need these agencies. But changes in government and policy summersault have affected the efficiency of these agencies and our satellites.

The satellite is there orbiting the Earth, capturing images. And those images are sent to the end-users, people like us. But here in Nigeria, most of us pay to source our images from Google. This is not good because Nigeria is losing revenue. NASRDA should be able to give us those images so we can digitise them.

Also, when it comes to security, satellite images are very important. If you look at the US, UK, and China, they have many satellites. Each of those satellites is designated for a certain use. Those countries make sure that their satellites orbit the earth. They call them their monitoring system. If we had such devices here, it would help Nigeria tackle insecurity. Because when security operatives gather intelligence that a group wants to attack Nigeria, they can use satellite imagery to monitor all exit and entry borders.

For instance, we have been fighting Boko Haram for years. We don’t even know where the terrorists come in from and where they are going to strike. But satellites can see their movements. You can’t tell me the Americans, British, or the Chinese don’t see these militants when they move. Their satellites are like cameras, checking every individual that is coming into their country. They use it a lot because those are the things that bond their country and make it peaceful because a peaceful country develops faster. It’s not that there won’t be pockets of destruction somewhere, but they can easily nip them in the bud. But in Nigeria, if any attack or crime happens today, we might not even get the source because we don’t have any monitoring system anywhere.

So back to your question on if NASRDA is making any contribution to surveying, security, and the economy of the country? To me, they are not. And that is because of poor funding. We have launched about two satellites and they spent about 15 years orbiting the earth. But I learnt that one of the satellites is on the verge of shutting down because of expired batteries. If we had a serious government, we should have about 15 to 30 satellites orbiting the Earth performing different functions.

If you were to advise the government and other stakeholders, what would you tell them?

The government needs to properly fund surveying agencies. It is  very sad that they only get funded when the government needs information from them. Then we need to ensure more training. But that would be a huge challenge because you need to ask whether our universities and polytechnics even have funds to buy equipment to train the students. Or are the students going to only listen to what their lecturers are saying? What becomes of them when they graduate? Many surveying students get discouraged because they come to the workspace to start seeing equipment they don’t know how to use because they were not taught at school. So they give up and delve into other jobs like banking and accountancy.

You are a member of Advisory Board, Lucent Homes and Properties, we have many real estate firms these days, what is special about Lucent?

Lucent Homes and Properties has a formidable team. It is playing its part in Nigeria’s economy. It has taken the burden of what we call ‘Omo Onile’  from buyers. So clients can be sure that whatever they buy from them are free and assured.

Usually, the problem with many estate developers is trust issue. When trust fails, a company cannot grow. Property market is open. People must stay in a space no mtter the state of the economy. Lucent is trustworthy in documentation and it is honest, I  know this because I consulted on their property.

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