THE PRESIDENTIAL TECHNICAL COMMITTEE ON LAND REFORM WANTS TO TRAIN QUASI-SURVEYORS.

THE PRESIDENTIAL TECHNICAL COMMITTEE ON LAND REFORM WANTS TO TRAIN QUASI-SURVEYORS. IS IT NECESSARY?

The Presidential Technical Committee on Land Reform was mandated to provide technical assistance to government in its efforts to undertake land cadastral nationwide, such that land cadastral boundaries and title holdings are demarcated appropriately. As soon as it was inaugurated, the committee realized the enormous tasks in its mandate. It was clear that its mandate required a comprehensive cadastral survey of virtually the entire country.

Moreover, being a group of experts in land and land-related professions, the committee accepted the use of new technologies such as remote sensing and satellite imageries, Global Positioning Systems (GPS), Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and appropriate computer software. The committee also admitted it would need expertise of high level professionals for collection, processing, analysis and structuring of spatial data into geoinformation that would be needed to produce a nation-wide cadastre and its continuous updating. The committee agreed that it would need thousands of such manpower to achieve its mandate.

However, the committee thought these skills could be taught to persons with high school certificate over a three-month course period. Such persons, the committee declared, can be regarded as “para-surveyors.”

The committee has realized an enormous problem, but wanted to face it with kid-gloves. Through the committee the federal government is trying to do land use reform without touching the land use act. But no land reform can take place in the country when the act remains in its original form. Any land reform in the country will reduce the powers of the governors as vested on them by the land use act. And the governors will not allow it.

Moreover, the plan of the committee to train “para-surveyors”, which professional surveyors rightly see as “quasi-surveyors”, is illegal and a waste of tax payers money. These assertions are further explained below.

Training of “para-surveyors” to do the work of surveyors is illegal. The law recognizes four levels of personnel in the surveying profession. They are survey technicians, survey technologists, pupil surveyors and surveyors. Each of these personnel is distinct from the other in terms of their level of knowledge and survey works they can carry out. The law stipulates that any person purporting himself to be a surveyor by carrying out any survey work shall be guilty of an offence. It is only a matter of challenging the committee’s error in a court of law and the attempt to train “para-surveyors” shall be declared illegal.

In a forum, the chairman of the committee rightly identified training of “para-surveyor as one of the problems the committee will have to face in its tasks. The question is, “Why create the problem in the first place?” He said it was like taking the meat from the mouth of professional surveyors in order to save cost. The committee will find strong resistance from the professional body.

The idea of training “para-surveyors” is tantamount to a waste. While trying to save cost, at it claimed, the committee will actually be wasting fund. The persons trained, being secondary school leavers, will not need the half-complete skills imparted to them. Neither will they be of any use to the profession afterward. The fund spent in their training and the skill imparted will therefore become a waste.

Instead of training “para-surveyors”, the committee is advised to use graduate surveyors. There are thousands of them seeking to be profitably engaged. By engaging them to collect geospatial data, the committee will be doing great service to the graduate surveyors, the profession and the nation at large. The graduate surveyors need little or no training to capture geo-data, which is one of the basic skills they learnt in school. So the committee will save fund. The professional body will never object to the idea since it has been its concern that graduate surveyors lack practical field experience needed to take their place in national development. The committee’s employment will therefore give the graduate surveyors such needed practical experience.

Moreover, unlike the so called “para-surveyors”, graduate surveyors need the skill which will continue to be useful to them in their career. Furthermore, using graduate surveyors will reduce the number of graduates roaming the streets in search of jobs, helping to decongest the labour market of idle hands. Finally, the graduate surveyors need not be engaged as full-time government officials. They can be engaged as ad-hoc staff the same way INEC engages NYSC corps members.

In conclusion, the Presidential Technical Committee on Land Reform has an enormous task of mapping the entire country. While carrying out its mandate, the committee will need to do lots of consultations and capacity building. Training of “para-surveyor” should be struck out of their list of what to do, seeing it is a waste and unnecessary. The committee is advised to use graduate surveyors instead. By so doing, the committee will be a blessing to the young graduates, the surveying profession and the nation as a whole.

DISCLAIMER: This material is only an attempt to answer an examination question, though written from a background of solid knowledge and practical experience in Surveying and Geoinformatics. It has not gone through peer review. Therefore, all views and opinions expressed therein remain the responsibility of the author and do not necessarily represent that of any institution.  Feedback on corrections and constructive criticisms are welcome. Thank you.