As the country eagerly awaits the outcome of the forensic investigations being carried out by the Office of the Surveyor-General of the federation (OSGOF) with other relevant agencies, the Coordinating Director of the office and Director, Geodesy, Surv. Barde Jatau, has stated that the development could be a fallout of human activities. Surv. Jatau said…
As the country eagerly awaits the outcome of the forensic investigations being carried out by the Office of the Surveyor-General of the federation (OSGOF) with other relevant agencies, the Coordinating Director of the office and Director, Geodesy, Surv. Barde Jatau, has stated that the development could be a fallout of human activities.
Surv. Jatau said this while reacting to questions from journalists during a press briefing held in the office by the Surveyor-General of the Federation (SGOF), Surv. Ebisintei Awudu, in Abuja.
“The cause of the tremor could be human factor. For instance, we know that there were mining activities around the Koyi area in the 1950’s in search of tin. Of course, that is a very long time to you, but in geological time it is just a brief period.
“That is not to say that the Kaduna earth tremor was caused by the mining activities; it is possible that there was an intra-plate fault around the area. The earth, just like the human skull, has so many bonds between different crusts. In Africa, we have two major crusts called tetonic plates, one being the African or Nubian Plate on which Nigeria is situated, while the other is the Somali or Ethiopian Plate, and there is continuous movement beneath the earth by the hot liquid which scientists say constitutes the core of the earth, sending vibrations through the crust and causing cracks.
“Recently, there was an earthquake along the rift valley of Tanzania. In this Kaduna case, there is the possibility that the people there are leaving on the fault line,” he explained.
Speaking about the office’s limitations, Jatau, said the needed importance has not been attach to the office in the past, leading to its neglect in terms of the huge fund it requires for its strategic operations.
According to him, Nigeria is yet to tap fully into the numerous uses and advantages of the office in terms of accurate data gathering for quality decision-making and planning which cuts across all spheres of life, including boundary definition of this country.
“The federal government was gracious enough to establish this office and fund the 15 highly technical reference stations we are working with currently, but that is not enough for a large country like Nigeria. We need about 300 of those stations to cover adequately.
“But for a long time, this office has not been given a dime to improve or increase its facilities, and that led to our having nothing to show in our boundary dispute with Cameroon then. So if the government now can do something about the funding, the sky will be our limit.
Tanwa Ashiru
Tanwa Ashiru is a U.S Airforce veteran, and the CEO of Bulwark Intelligence Solutions. She holds an M.A in Intelligence Studies from American Military University (AMU) and is a Fellow of the Association of Enterprise Risk Management Professionals (AERMP).
Tanwa has provided services for various public and private sector organizations including: NATO, Nigerian DIA, U.S Army Africa Forces (USARAF), Total E&P, IBM Nigeria, U.S Embassy Abuja and many more.
She has featured in several international media publications including: BBC World, Arise News, CNBC Africa, The Guardian Nigeria, Channels Television, Financial Times, and many more.