Task before new helmsman at NIESV Bature

Sir: History has been made in the annals of leadership of the landed profession following the emergence of Bature Ali Muhammad as the 27th President of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV). It is indeed a well-deserved position; one earned purely by merit, dint of hard work and astute professional excellence over the course of professional practice and through his trajectory of leadership at the NIESV. He hails from Kaduna State and is the first NIESV president of northern origin in the 57 years history of the institution.

Bature had earlier honed his management skills in various professional involvements rising through the ladder of leadership in the NIESV, culminating in his penultimate assignment as the 1st Vice President of NIESV which by a silent agreement adhered to over the years, is heir apparent to the institution’s throne. Before then, he was chairman of several key committees of NIESV which showed the versatility and the diversity of his professional disposition.

The new NIESV helmsman is stepping into the exalted Institution’s leadership office at a crucial moment of the institution’s history. He is expected to give immediate attention to the barrage of deep seated issues that have already mounted on his new table. Some of these issues include the infiltration into estate agency by non-estate surveyors and valuers, advocacy for the Office of the Valuer General of the Federation and the incursion of engineers and other professionals into valuation that’s a core professional function of the estate surveyor and valuer.

Perhaps, the most worrisome challenge is the limited recognition by the government at the various levels of certain roles and functions of estate surveyors and valuers. Recently, in January, the Office of the Surveyor General of the Federation officially inaugurated a five-man Land Use and Allocation Committee comprising the Surveyor General of the Federation, three land surveyors and one quantity surveyor. The estate surveyor who is a key professional in the land procurement process was blatantly excluded.

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Admittedly, estate surveying is still a relatively young profession in Nigeria. Many Nigerians, even amongst the elite class cannot tell the difference between the functions of an estate surveyor, land surveyor and quantity surveyor. Many don’t know what an estate surveyor does other than just being an estate agent. Therefore, the Bature presidency has much to do to continue the enlightenment campaign until most educated Nigerians, not just those in the major cities, know what an estate surveyor and valuer does.

Admittedly, one ready handicap of the profession is the relatively few numbers of estate surveying professionals on the landscape compared with the older professions that are in hundreds of thousands and so wield much influence to skew government policies in their favour. The institution still lacks this political clout.

Today, there are not many estate surveyors in the system to champion the cause of the profession and to accord its pride of place in governmental affairs. For example, the institution has never had a member who became the Minister of Works, Housing & Environment or even housing as a sole ministry where the estate surveyors’ input would be impactful because of his specialist training. Hopefully, the Bature presidency would rise up quickly to galvanise the members to ensure that their cherished profession is accorded its treasured place in the system. Indeed, with Bature, NIESV couldn’t have asked for more.

•ESV Paul Ojenagbon, Lagos.