To strengthen the practice of surveying and position it to the path of development, surveyors in the country have called for the review of Surveyors Registration Council of Nigeria (SURCON) and the Co-ordination Act. According to them, the review was necessary to solve the challenges facing the surveyor community.
Former Chairman, Surveyors Council of Nigeria, Mr. Clement Nwabichie, made the call at the 2017 Nigeria Institute of Surveyors (NIS) conference for the South-South zone held in Port Harcourt. He pointed out that the law was enacted in a hurry in 1990 when surveyors were not registered to help the country grow lamenting that the current law is not useful to surveying practice any longer and does not aid development in the country.
“If you have a law and the law is not helping the people, then it is not useful. A lot of things are done wrongly because surveyors are left out. So any law that does not aid development, is not worth being used again”, he said.
Nwabichie expressed hope that when the law is reviewed, it will help in bringing development to the country. He also stressed the need to put in place strategic planning to move the profession forward, adding that it was necessary for every new executive to continue with policies, programmes and projects.
“A typical Nigerian, he said, only knows surveyors when he buys properties while ideally, surveyors should be involved in all the bridges and roads”.
According to him, a hydrographic surveyor must be around to determine the depth of the water in order to have a drought so that ship that comes in
does not have problems but this is not done.
On his part, the National Vice Chairman of NIS, Abubakar Halilu expressed hope that the conference would enhance the surveying practice to bring it to the international best practice as well as eradicate corruption.
