TO turn the challenges associated with mega city, the Nigerian Institution of Surveyors (NIS), Lagos Chapter, has called for close tie between the government and professionals within the built environment.

This was one of the decisions reached last week at the body’s Annual General Meeting (AGM), held in Lagos.

Besides, members were also challenged to device best way to assist the Lagos government on how to tackle various challenges posed by the state’s mega status, especially, as the existing infrastructure are already overstretched.

The groups, while the deploying a situation where 22 million people are using facilities meant for just four million, expressed concern, saying all hands must be on deck to meet the challenges.
 
The event, organised by the Lagos of the Nigerian Institution of Surveyors (NIS), Lagos State branch ushered in a new chairman, Mr. Olugbenga Alara, who said the current situation, if left unaddressed could lead to chaos in transportation and planning.

Alara, believed that it is time, that government and professionals must come together in addressing the challenges.
 
He added: “Surveying, as we have been emphasising is the bedrock of all meaningful planning and development. Its contribution to development cannot be overemphasized, knowing that best-surveyed cities of the world are the best developed because everything are usually in their rightful places.
 
“It is the surveyor that will determine what will be in a place in terms of the topography and then the design will now follow the information provided by the surveyor and if the information provided by the surveyor is followed and interpreted by professionals, certainly, we will have better-developed society”, he said.

Speaking on his plan for the Institution, Alara said one of his major area of focus is the leadership mentoring initiative where young members in the profession would be tutored on the history of surveying, the present practice and the better ways of practice, ‘as well as morality of governance’.  
 
However, guest speaker, the immediate past Lagos State Commissioner of Physical Planning and Urban Development, Mr. Toyin Ayinde, also underscored the need for strategic planning and implementation to tackle the myriad of challenges facing Lagos as centre of commerce and economic hub of the West African sub-Region.
 
The former commissioner, who traced the history of how Lagos started as small fishing and trading settlement, recalled that the Ikorodu road was constructed in 1976 when the population of Lagos was around four million, and that the road was now serving about 22 million people, hence the need for strategic urban renewal thinking, planning and implementation.
 
While emphasizing that the major solution to the challenges was good governance at all levels, Ayinde also challenged professionals to be involved more in politics and be ready to contribute the development of the society.

He said the failure of any country is the failure of its professionals, and as such, the Nigerian professionals must be ready to sincerely and genuinely commit to the development and advancement of the nation.