FG tasks NIS on human capital, institutional development

The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has urged the Nigerian Institution of Surveyors (NIS) to have enduring institutions that would exploit human capital, to develop and promote true professionalism.

Fashola, who spoke at the yearly Olumide Memorial Lecture in Abuja, explained that an institution is a mere idea to which effect is given by humans, saying, “we can still be talking about surveyors because of great men like Olumide and others.”

He added: “His contemporaries held fast to their professional callings and were determined to defend the ethics of the profession. They never compromised no matter the pressure from any quarter. This is what surveyors should strive to emulate today.”

Explaining further, the minister stated, “when these great men were there, politics was there, but they ignored it and preferred a good name and work. The quality of any institution is as a result of the quality of its human capital.

“It is their devotion to duty that we gather to celebrate excellence, devotion and professionalism in the name of Olumide,” he said.

The minister observed that when institutions do well, it is men and women, who have done well and vice versa. “The surveyor is an example of the type of good men and women we all need to build institutions in private and public life,” he said.

Fashola said that what runs through them all is professionalism, adding, “would it be possible in that era to suggest, in a way that it was recently suggested that a sum of missing money was swallowed by a snake? Is it not lack of professionalism?”

He, however, said that if Nigerians of today can take up the challenge, stick to their values and ethics of the profession against all odds, the Nigeria of Olumide era is not only possible, but it can be better and achievable.

Earlier, NIS President, Kayode Oluwamotemi, described the yearly lecture as a worthy venture to hon the memory of a man, who was a symbol of excellence in professional practice and a visionary leader of all times.

He urged the members of the institution to strive to emulate the exemplary lifestyle of the late surveying icon, saying, “we are really striving to make his ways ours and to make our action his model as a father, friend and professional excellence.”

On the occasion, Fashola was honoured with the NIS Award of Excellence, followed by the inauguration of past presidents as an advisory body on critical issues that concern the institution.