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One way of achieving this is by the creation of professional societies in every country 
which will monitor the contribution of surveyors to all projects, and give adequate 
publicity to the contribution of surveyors. The professional society should also serve 
as a pressure group on governments to establish and, where appropriate, equip national 
surveying and mapping organisations. 
3.2 Surveyors all over appear to be shunning or have shunned politics. They appear 
to consider politics a preserve for lawyers or attorneys, journalists, economists, etc. 
History has however provided us with evidence of surveyors who have distinguished 
themselves in politics and in government. George Washington, the first President of 
the United States of America, who led the Americans in their War of Independence was 
a surveyor, and the country surveyor for Culpeper. It is recorded? that "Washington 
proved himself and able administrator whose policies did must to strengthen the new 
government, and to make it possible for the United States to become a nation. Treaties 
with Spain and Great Britain settled the points at issue between those countries and 
the United States; successful campaigns against the Indians made it possible for the 
states to expand westwards. The country was kept at peace, the machinery of 
government was set in working order, and the national finances were placed on a 
firm footing." Guiggesberg, who was once the Surveyor-General of Nigeria, later 
became the Governor of Gold-Coast (now Ghana). He returned to be one of the 
best administrators in colonial Gold-Coast. Amongst the monuments to his credit were 
the famous Achimota College and the General Hospital at Accra. The profession of 
surveying made significant progress during his tenure of office. Herbert Macaulay, 
who founded political parties and is nationally acclaimed as the father of Nigerian 
nationalism, was a surveyor, and was for sometime the surveyor of Crown Lands for 
Lagos Nigeria. As part of the professional strategy, surveyors must follow the 
footsteps of those surveyors of old whom | have mentioned, and others beside them 
whom space and time could not permit me to mention, and get themselves directly 
involved in policy making bodies and government institutions and be crusaders for 
the surveying profession. It is gratifying to note that in Nigeria, a surveyor is a 
Commissioner and a member of the Executive Council of the Government inone of 
“the states; another surveyor has been enthroned as a ruler in his area and is now in 
a position to influence decisions at local government level. This trend should 
continue. | | 
3.2 Anyone who has had dealings with military regimes knows that surveying.tends 
not to be too much at a disadvantage under the military. This is because the military 
realises the importance of surveying and mapping. When | was the head of the national 
surveying and mapping organisation in Nigeria, | never had much difficulty in 
putting my proposals through under the military administration, The situation was more 
pronounced when the militory Head of State was someone who had been to the School 
of Military Surveys, Newbury, in the United Kingdom. On nearly every occasion, 
he would forget himself and be commending the proposal of my Department on sur- 
veying and mapping to his Council before realising that it was for the Commissioner 
responsible for survey matters to present the proposal to Council. The proposal 
would naturally sail through comfortably since the Head of 5tate supported it initially. 
Coker 4