BY M A C ODU
The whole country is adrift in the wide ocean. Even Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers has failed to nourish its noble ship with some integrity and respect for tradition which eminent professionals have built through the last forty-seven years, laying down principles by which our noble institution should stand out for respect and patronage of decent members of Nigeria Project. It is evident now that we are not better than other institutions that have been riddled with greed and avarice and disrespect for institutions that has become our shameful heritage from the military establishment that has left us prostrate in multiple directions of the compass.
National Conferences of Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV) used to be meeting point of the young and old. It was a talk-shop of new dimensions to practice, a clearing ground of ethics in the profession, and a distillery of culture and tradition of the noble profession of the land.
Professionals should be the hallowed bastion of opinion on issues concerned with human development. The landed profession should remain the last word on use value for use of space which Town Planners and other actors in the human environment should rely upon to design and create the atmosphere for man to excel himself in Creation.
Association of Professional Bodies of Nigeria (APBN) was born for ensuring the coordination of expertise of professionals for securing and improving synergies for sustaining and bettering the efficiency of the human environment. Its mission has been largely misunderstood by the component professional bodies.
The real estate profession was a founding member of APBN. Yours truly was nominated to APBN by 6th President of Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV), ESV A T Sangosanya. I was elected Deputy President of APBN and was privileged to move APBN into its coordinating role through my years of service there. I even moved APBN into the first ever Town and Gown Concourse in partnership with National Universities Commission for the purpose of strengthening institutions concerned with Human Environment.
47th National Conference in Owerri was a shame. There was no reverence whatsoever for those who built the profession. Not even a note of courtesy from disoriented professionals who designed the conference was shown to their precursors who bore the brunt of founding and providing the younger ones with training ground for their relevance. No wonder then that outsiders especially those who landed political office without basic qualifications did not perceive any aura of wonderment about the profession, motivating charlatans in the country to wonder why they also should not be professionals of the noble profession by just saying so and coveting people’s property.
We have sunken into abyss by our drift from relevance to lust, greed and avarice. Unfortunately the founders are a vanishing breed. No beacon lights are left. The dogs of battle for filthy lucre have been unleashed. Only the reduction to nothingness is left of our noble profession. The saddest line of this script is that when institutions die, all comers rush in to sound the death knell of what could have remained a noble profession for all time. I hope and pray it does not vanish during my life time. At the moment it is anaemic of nobility.
All those who stand idly by and watch lust, greed, avarice, and tyranny take hold of psyches of the majority are eternally to blame for impending doom to Nigeria Project. I am fulfilled to have lived at the best of times and can only leave the scene unblemished by any of the vices of the new generation. At least I have spoken out even when hostility attracted mortal danger. I told General Olusegun Obasanjo where he erred. Engineers rejected his plea to belong. He saw to it that he degraded the professions. Little did he fathom that his own glamour would run its course someday soon I dared and survived General Sanni Abacha, and I will outlive charlatans and villains of Nigeria Project no matter how highly placed they think they are.
The military have hugged power for too long and Nigeria Project is failing. For all time, the safety and increase in growth of the commonwealth shall be the supreme law of good leadership. Doom is deserved by all those who pillage institutions for personal gain. Their memory and legacy shall be short-lived. We have revolts and Militants to show for it.
NIESV should not be allowed to die on the altar of Lust Greed and Avarice. It is an institution built on Trust. Noble as heaven should be and untainted by villainy, envy and greed it should remain. It should return to that grand mission now. Perhaps new hands are called for the salvage mission. Being wealthy first is not a qualification for leadership of the noble. What pays higher dividends for institutions is integrity. Those who seek wealth should avoid leadership of institutions.