OSGoF, geospatial data and quest for repositioning

The Office of the Surveyor-General of the Federation (OSGoF) is an extra-ministerial, career, pooling and self-accounting office under the supervision of the Minister of Works and Housing. The office is saddled with the constitutional and statutory responsibilities of carrying out trigonometrical, cadastral and topographical surveys; it is also her responsibilities to implement the provisions of the Survey Coordination Act of 1962 and its subsequent amendments.

As the apex surveying and mapping authority of the Nigerian government, OSGoF is responsible for the provision of requisite geospatial data or information needs for the government or any sectors of the economy. Among the products of surveying and mapping is geospatial information. National planning and development generally in developing countries have become herculean, and what is needed to demystify the myths, particularly around the challenges of planning and development of physical infrastructure is nothing less of geospatial data. Geospatial Data has strongly been recommended by the United Nations (UN) as necessary ingredients for any tangible development.

Still on the relevance of these useful products of surveying and mapping, a report produced jointly by the Task Team on Global Data and Task Team on Alternative Data Sources established in December 2016 by the Working Group on Geospatial Information of the Inter-agency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal Indicators (IAEG-SDGs) with contributions from Mr. Stephan Arnold, Prof. Jun Chen, Mr. Olav Eggers, Prof. Zhilin Li, Ms. Sandra Liliana Moreno Mayorga, Prof. John Mills, and Prof. John Shi and reviewed by members of the working group before being made available to IAEG-SDGs at its ninth meeting in March 2019stated that “Geospatial data describes the location and relationship of the features and/or phenomena on, above or beneath the Earth’s surface. Such data have significant value in facilitating to realize and implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), 169 Targets and 232 Indicators.

The reality is that geospatial data remain vital and necessary ingredients for achieving any developments, be it in disaster management, agriculture, construction of houses, bridges, dams, health, water, roads and transportation system, laying of downstream facilities, electricity, telecommunication installations, community policing, security and defence. The incumbent administration of Muhammadu Buhari appreciates this and the systematic approach to governance. Government, through the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, in a keynote address at the recently concluded Virtual Survey Coordination Conference and Meeting of the Advisory Board on Survey Training with the theme, “Geospatial Information: Achievement of SDGs and Good Governance” reiterated the importance of geospatial data in national planning following the outbreak of COVID-19.

In recent times, the Management and Staff of OSGoF acknowledged the commitment of the government to geospatial technologies, surveying and mapping products in view of the encouragement and support being given by the Minister for Works and Housing, under the leadership of the incumbent SGoF, Surv. Taiwo Samuel Adeniran, activities on surveying and mapping are being mainstreamed. All activities at OSGoF have been aligned with the 9 priorities areas of the Federal Government; production is now demand-driven, based on usefulness of products to avoid waste of resources, and only customized thematic maps would be produced henceforth. Much could be said to have been achieved.

IGIF

The Nigeria country-level Integrated Geospatial Information Framework (IGIF) has been developed in line with the United Nations position. The direct benefits include among many others, provision of new and innovative approaches to National Geospatial Information Management; implementation of Integrated Evidence-Based Decision-Making Solutions, and maximization and leveraging of National Geographic Information Systems (NGIS) customized to individual country’s situations. The framework by and large would encourage countries to embrace e-economies, e-service, and e-commerce in order to improve the services rendered to the citizens.

Currently, OSGoF is developing high performance Data-Base Centres in the six geopolitical zones of the country. When fully operational, geospatial data could easily be sourced from any part of the country.

The Continuously Operating Reference Station (CORS) is a very important surveying and mapping infrastructure. One of the best things that has happened to the human world is the development of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) based Continuously Operating Reference Station (CORS) technology which according to experts has revolutionized position fixing; it is said that the position of any location can now be fixed within the exactitude of tenth place of decimal of a meter.

CORS is an active station that behaves like satellite and could map anywhere within its range. From the schema produced by OSGOF according to the SGoF, Nigeria requires close to 200 number of CORS which ought to be placed at 50km or less from one another across the length and breadth of Nigerian space for effectiveness.  The SGoF has said with the help of the government and available funds more of the CORS have been installed to increase the number from 17 to 24. CORS, according to him could facilitate mapping anywhere within its range.

The CORS has the capacity to generate huge amount of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) for the Government if a good number is installed, activated and maintained.

COVID-19 Maps

As part of the tools for analysing the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country and for ease of evolving an Evidenced-Based Decision-Making System, the OSGoF has been producing maps based on the data from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). Preparations have been made to also map all the health facilities being used to address the pandemic to ensure effective and equitable distribution of the vaccines being expected.

Many forests in the country have become safe haven for criminals and terrorists. In the Federal Government’s quest to see the ungoverned spaces and adequately tackle the insecurity challenges, the OSGoF and the Nigeria Police are collaborating to produce forest maps. This with other geospatial technologies will be used to track down criminals and effectively curb their activities in these forests.

Tourist map

One major focus of the Buhari administration is also to diversify the economy so as to free the country from over depending on oil. Nigeria’s tourism potential is huge and capable of expanding to great extent her revenue base. The OSGoF is already in partnership with the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC) for generation of geospatial data for production of tourist map. The scope of the collaboration will enhance the tourism potentials of the country by ensuring that beyond pictorial and descriptive representation, tourism sites and places of interest are represented with their real geographic coordinates and more importantly tourist maps.

For equitable distribution of the nation’s wealth

On 10th August, 2020, the SGoF, Taiwo Samuel Adeniran exchanged views with the chairman, Indices and Disbursement Committee of the Revenue Mobilization Fiscal and Allocation Commission (RMAFC), Chris A. Akomas.  The OSGoF and RMFAC partnership is expected to generate Geospatial Data that may be used to ensure equitable distribution of the nation’s wealth by producing requisite geospatial information.

Upgrading and development of Nigerian law schools

The Nigerian Law School which was established in 1962 by the Federal Government for the practical training of prospective barristers and lawyers, has six campuses. They are located in Abuja, Lagos Enugu, Bayelsa, Kano and Adamawa states. As part of its efforts to improve legal practices in the country, the Federal Government has planned to upgrade its facilities to provide the best of learning conditions. Following the directive of the Honourable Minister for Works and Housing, the OSGoF is already working to determine the sizes and shapes of the lands on which the 6 campuses are sited. The office is to provide as-built, topographic and perimeter surveys in order to develop a guide even for other future developmental projects in a way to ascertain the sustenance of their original designs.

Work on Nigeria-Niger Republic international boundary

Another major responsibility of the Office is the determination, demarcation, delineation and maintenance of the country’s international boundary. This is done in collaboration with the National Boundary Commission (NBC) and the officials from the neighbouring country in question. Presently, the old boundary beacons on Nigeria/Niger boundary were replaced with new ones and some intermediate pillars were also established to make the boundary more conspicuous.

The members of the Joint Technical Team converged in Birni-Konni, Niger Republic and stayed throughout the period of the exercise.  The team met with National Boundary Commission (NBC) team on the 7th of August 2020, in Illela, Sokoto State and proceeded to Birni-Konni and joined Institute Geoghraphique National du Niger (IGNN) and Commission Nationale des Frontieres (CNF) the Nigerien counter parts to carry out this important national task.

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