By Jude Njoku

Ven. Ladipo Eso, past chairman, Mr. Gbadebo Sangosanya, chairman ESVARBON and Mr. Bode Adeniji, NIESV president

The Estate Surveyors and Valuers Registration Board of Nigeria (ESVARBON) last week, admitted inducted 163 new estate surveyors and valuers bringing the number of registered estate surveyors in the country to 2,679. Speaking at the ceremony held at the old Senate Building in Lagos, ESVARBON Chairman, Mr Ayodele Sangosanya described te number of registered estate surveyors as grossly inadequate to cater for the over 140 million Nigerians.

Mr Sangosanya said ESVARBON will collaborate with the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV) to work out modalities that would accelerate the registration of more estate surveyors and valuers in the country.

He told the inductees that the stamps, seals and certificates given to them are properties of the Board and would be withdrawn if abused. “The rules and regulations of the Board should be the guide of any Estate Surveyor and Valuer and their violation will not be tolerated. Therefore, te ethics and ethos of the profession should be carefully guarded by all and sundry … Integrity is te hallmark of every professional, so it should be consciously protected with the fear of God,” Mr Sangosanya said.

The ESVARBON boss who is also te 9th President of NIESV declared the intention of his Board to reduce the nefarious activities of quacks. “In this regard, the Board has put requisite machinery in place in collaboration with the relevant law enforcement agencies to check the spread of pseudo practice and bring to book, culprits found guilty of the offence. It is worthy to stress here that te Board has instituted actions in court against quacks who would not heed its warnings,” he said and advised the new surveyors to be good ambassadors of the estate management profession.

Also speaking at the induction, NIESV President, Mr Bode Adediji told the new surveyors that “it is one thing to have the stamp and seal as an estate surveyor and valuer, it is another thing entirely to practice and function as a qualified professional.

“The rent seeking mentality exemplified by quackery operations contribute in no small measures in exacerbating the gap between the rich and the poor. In other words, if you concentrate your mind and life on estate agency in the crude form of it as practised by quacks, you will be contributing to housing crisis in the country,” he said and urged them to embrace the profession’s core competence – development, construction, project management, valuation, investment studies and facility management.

Mr Adediji who spoke on “bridging frightening gap between ric and poor -te role of estate surveyors and valuers” decried te widening gap between the rich and the poor in the country.

“One of the most feasible symbols of this widening gap is in the areas of housing and property development which constitutes a key area of core-competence of the estate surveying and valuation profession. Today, Nigeria is reputed to have 16 million housing deficits and the upsurge of slum dwellings have reached an unacceptable height. Specialised property projects are scanty,” he lamented.

According to him, the income level of most Nigerians cannot support the cost of renting a flat not to talk of buying a bungalow or duplex in any decent neighbourhood. The number one surveyor attributed the housing crisis in the country to the absence of political will, dysfunctional institutional arrangements, policy somersaults by various regimes and legislative impediments.