Surveyor-General vows to recover FG’s abandoned properties

The Surveyor General of the Federation (SGOF) Abduganiyu Adebomehin has reiterated the commitment of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda to recover Federal Government abandoned properties globally.

Adebomehin, who made the vow while highlighting lot of issues having to do with Federal Government activities concerning his office during a press interview in Abuja recently

He said, “ there are two main committees that are in charge of sales of government property. One of them is PIC, which is the Presidential Information Committee. And that committee reports directly to the Secretary to Government of the Federation.
“The other one is Land Use Allocation Committee, In our Committee we are just trying to see how to recover these properties that have scattered all over the world. Not even in Nigeria alone, outside the country as well.

“Honestly, the abandoned property all over the country, are a total loss, It cannot be quantified, our land in Lagos is valued at N12 billion and we’ve left it like that for more than, let’s say 15 years.”

The Surveyor-General while fielding a question on the importance of recently signed performance contract on behalf of his agency with FG said “ Well, the whole world is going paperless.
“So, the President of the country, his Excellency, President Bola Tinubu in his own wisdom, decided to look at that paper, that Orosonye paper, and give it a dose. That is why you see one or two departments moving from one place to the other. “

He said, “the minister signed a bond with the president. There’s a unit they call Central Results Delivery Coordination Unit (CRDCU) they signed a bond with that unit. Then, it was now cascaded down.

Having signed with them, the Minister will now carry whatever the president has in place, in mind and bring it to his Ministry, once you sign that bond, there will normally be a committee that comes around every three months to look at how far you have been able to achieve what you set out to and to look at how far you have been able to turn this place, i.e your agencies, around.”
Surveyor General of the Federation further said that as the Chairman of the Governing Council for the Federal School of Surveying, Oyo “we started innovation of our school right from the time I assumed the leadership of this office.

“We were able to complete the CBT unit, because everything is now computerized. And whoever fails to go with the trend is put into the gallery, the school is the oldest school in the land of Nigeria. Yes, created in 1908. And maybe very soon, it has passed the first reading, we will also convert the school to a full-fledged university.”

He said, “we are still organizing training and see how a director here will double as a lecturer. And to give lectures on time. So these are new innovations that we are launching.

“We have introduced the all-popular course. Before now, when you say you are a surveyor, people believe the controls are in the bush. But we have brought that bush to the office. In fact, there’s a training going on now. They call them Young Surveyors Forum.”
“We try to give the school a facelift. So if you are going to take a bride, you want a good bride. Ditto for the school. Let the school be something that is attractive to people that are coming in.

“So right from the entrance, we put in a new gate so that people will know it is a school. After that, we put in an electronic device and we painted the buildings, let me say, with guest house. So that if you are a visitor there today, you have a place to stay.”

Talking about quacks in the field of surveying, Surveyor General said, “For you to be a surveyor, you must have a certificate and a seal. But if you are not a surveyor, and you’re carrying out the job of a surveyor, and you go by extension signing a survey plan, it’s a great offense in Nigeria.

“And there’s an ethics committee that deals with that, and if the person is found wanting, he may find himself on his way to jail. Reiterating that “It’s a serious offense to impersonate a surveyor, it’s an automatic jail term.”