Terrorism: Surveyor-General calls for mapping of states

The Surveyor-General of the Federation, Prof. Peter Nwilo, has urged state governors to adequately map their states as this would help in the fight against terrorism.

Nwilo also stated that mapping would help state governments in their drive to generate more revenue to run the affairs of their respective states.

The surveyor-general pointed out that the military as well state governments were not optimising mapping and geo-spatial information available to them.

Nwilo, in a document made available to our correspondent by the Office of the Surveyor-General of the Federation on Sunday, noted that there were so many ways by which mapping could be used.

He told journalists in Abuja that that the military, if done properly, were always a step ahead of the civilians.

He said, “And I believe that in northern Nigeria, a lot of surveys they have made are based on information from maps and remote sensing. You cannot do military intelligence without the maps and imageries.

“However, where you have a forest, it is more difficult and therefore you will then need to use some other methods of remote sensing. We need optimisation of what geo-spatial information is all about. If we optimise the information we will know that it is useful to everybody. So what I am
saying is that we have not optimally used what is available to us.”

According to Nwilo, Lagos is the only state in Nigeria that is fully and properly mapped.

He said, “You can see how Lagos State generates so much income. It is based on information, on geo-spatial observation. Now, other states are trying to map. Under the present civilian government, Cross River State was the first to map in year 2000 and they are in the process of doing it again.

“Anambra tried to do some mapping but it was no where near what Lagos did.
Enugu started but they didn’t complete it. I know that Nasarawa is mapping presently at a scale that is just like that of Lagos. They are doing that because they know that they are very close to Abuja and want to attract much development.

“Ogun is doing something. Delta started but they have not finished and are still on it. Kano has also done well. So we are doing advocacy and each time I have opportunity of talking to any governor I try to give a lecture on why they must map their states and they are listening.”

Nwilo added that state governments could map using their respective surveying offices.

He said, “Maybe people from the grassroots should look for ways to convince their governors to map. Through the office of the surveyor-general of their states they can map and for us it will be a win-win situation. So advocacy is what we are talking about.”