Book Review: Geo-info crucial in Nigeria’s development

Book:         Geo-information Technology and Development: A Compendium of

Selected Papers

Author:      Peter Adeniyi (PhD)

Publisher:   Wura-Kay Prints, Lagos

Year of Publication: 2009

Reviewer:   Adjekpagbon Blessed

Geography and information technology don, Peter Olufemi Adeniyi’s capsular publication of his core field of long research, geo-information is quite impressive. It is an enlightening collection that offers even the green horn an ample view of the subject. The Professor emeritus, who joined the service of University of Lagos (UNILAG) in 1973 as Lecturer II and rose to through the ranks to become a professor in 1986, marked his retirement some years ago from the teaching service of the ivory tower with a public launch of the new book entitled, Geo-information Technology and Development: A Compendium of Selected Papers.

The 321-page book of 12 chapters contains the author’s selected papers, spanning several issues on the research field. Issues of land-use, census preparations, agricultural development and statistical analysis, applications of remote-sensing among others, feature in the collection which comes across as a deliberate attempt to create and establish the scope of a relatively less known field of study.

Prof. Peter Adeniyi

From the outset, it strikes clearly that author is consciously charting a course. He intends his book to assist policy makers, government agencies, researchers and students to improve on the current state of information gathering and use in the country. In the preface, Adeniyi states that the selected papers are collected in book format because Nigeria still does not have a comprehensive geo-spatia data about how its land resources are being used.

Interestingly, Adeniyi introduced the teaching of Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) into the curriculum of Geography Department, UNILAG and served as the Director of the Laboratory for Cartography and Remote Sensing in the university from 1980 – 1983. He also served later as Coordinator of Remote Sensing and GIS Laboratory from 1993 to 1994. Given this background, Akin Mabogunje, a UNILAG Professor, who wrote the book’s foreword offers that the material “underscore the wide range of research activities with which Professor Adeniyi has been concerned over the many years of his university employment.”

Topics in the first section of the book include, Land and Land-use Planning in Nigeria; Land-use Charge Analysis Using Sequential Arial Photography and Computer Techniques; Digital Analysis of  Multi-temporal Land Suit Data for Land-use / Land-cover Classification in Semi-arid Area of Nigeria; Land-use/Land-cover Change Evaluation in Sokoto-Rima Basin of North-West Nigeria Based on Archival Remote-Sensing and GIS Techniques. This part contains four chapters. In Part Two, the book beams light on the knotty issue of census and population estimation. The author handled the topic with focus on aerial photographic method for estimating urban population. He also engaged the matter of using remotely sensed data for census surveys and population estimation in developing countries using examples from Nigeria. Mabogunje primes the reader’s taste through his in-let into the author’s scholarship trait. He informs that Adeniyi is largely concerned with improving the Nigerian situation. Hence, there is a certain penchant for national questions in the topics. “Adeniyi worries a lot about how development and growth can come to Nigeria. More than this is conveyed in the book’s pages,” notes Mabogunje.

It is therefore, from this perspective that the thrust of Part Three can be well appreciated. The section which contains two chapters takes a periscope of Agricultural Land-use Investory and Mapping in Nigeria; Application of Remote Sensing; and Using Remotely-sensed Data for Tackling Fundamental Agricultural Problems in Nigeria.  Some of the sub themes in the part include – Agricultural Programmes in Nigeria; Status of Remote-sensing Applications in Nigeria; and Application of Remote-sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) in the Mapping and Monitoring of Agricultural Resources in North Western Nigeria. Borrowing from Hardy (1982), the author states: “Remotely-sensed data provide information about physical and cultural environments with unique and valuable characteristics. The information can be generated in unbiased form, acquired at a known point in time; displayed accurately; geographically referenced; prepared in real time (or nearly so) and assembled in useful, storable format.”

He points out that given those characteristics, several scholars such as Reining (1974); Tobler (1968); Conant (1982); and Stem (1982) have used remotely-sensed data to identify settlements and to revise topographic maps, such as the maps done by Moore (1982) and Gregory and Moore (1986). Adeniyi captures the current status and challenges facing geo-information technology adoption, application and development in the book’s fourth part, which comprises four chapters. Themes analyzed in this part include – Some Lessons of the Nigerian Radar Project (NIRAD); Remote Sensing, Resource Development and Education in Africa; Issues and Strategies for Developing and Managing Resources Information in Africa; and Geo-Spatial Information and Disaster Management. Throwing more light on remote-sensing in this part of the book, Adeniyi rubs in that good use of the technology can equally help food production, general economic employment and welfare of the African continent.

“Africa accounts for approximately 28 per cent of the earth’s land surface.  Since land is basic for the production of the most essential resources such as food, fibre, minerals, fuels, shelter and water, Africa has therefore been generally claimed to be endowed with abundant resources. Yet, over 50 per cent of the total annual revenue of many African countries is spent on the importation of food and related items,” he writes. The Remote-sensing expert adds that there is hardly any aspect of social development where the lack of basic resource information has not inhibited the advancement of the continent. According to him, “to date, most African countries do not have current and accurate information about the number of inhabitants they purport to plan for.” Though it dwells on a very technical subject, the use of simple language helps the reader through the book. Any averagely educated person can read it and understand. The language is simple and straight devoid of circumlocution. Adeniyi writes like a good communicator, passing across his message without creating ambiguity with the use of complex words.

His book is a highly recommendable compendium on geo-information technology and development in Nigeria and the African continent. It is a very resourceful material not only for researchers but for governments and citizenry as anyone willing to be well enlightened about his environment can gain a lot from it.

Adeniyi who obtained his PhD in Geography, with specialization in Remote-sensing and Geographic Information System at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, (1978), is a former Vice-Chancellor of Federal University of Technology, Akure. The Professor also had a diploma in Photo Interpretation for Geography and Masters Degree in Agricultural Land Use from the International Institute of Aerospace Survey and Earth Science, Enscede, The Netherlands.

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