1.2 Enrolment, Pupilage and the Certificate of Experience

1.2 Enrolment, Pupilage and the Certificate of Experience

Statutory basis: Surveyors Registration Council of Nigeria Act, Cap S18 LFN 2004, sections 9 and 13.

Section 9 is phrased in the language of entitlement - "a person shall be entitled to be registered" - not of discretion. That drafting matters in Paper VI. Where a candidate satisfies the statutory conditions, the Council's role is to verify, and a refusal is appealable to the Federal High Court under section 11.

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1. The four routes to registration as a surveyor (section 9)

Two features of the foreign-qualification route are heavily examined. First, reciprocity: the Council need not register a foreign surveyor unless that surveyor's country accords Nigerian professional surveyors the same treatment. Second, duration: section 9(2) provides that registration under section 9(1)(b) is granted for one year and is renewable annually for another two years - it is a limited, renewable status, not open-ended registration.

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2. The universal conditions (section 9(4))

Whatever the route, an applicant must, in addition to evidence of qualification, satisfy the Council that:

1. he is of good character;
2. he has attained the age of 21 years; and
3. he has not been convicted in Nigeria or elsewhere of an offence involving fraud or dishonesty.

Note the precision. The age is 21, not 18 - 18 was the age for enrolment as a pupil surveyor under the old 1970 Licensing Board regulations, and candidates routinely conflate the two. The conviction bar is limited to offences involving fraud or dishonesty; it is not a bar on any conviction whatsoever.

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3. Pupil surveyor status is provisional (sections 9(5) and 9(6))

Section 9(5) is the mirror image of section 9(3). A person is entitled to be registered as a pupil surveyor if he holds a certificate recognised by the Council, or has passed an examination approved by the Council, and has not had two years' post-qualification practical experience.

Section 9(6) then requires that the entry "shall show that the registration is provisional", and that no such entry may be converted to full registration without the consent of the Council specified in writing. Pupil registration is therefore a real but conditional entry in the second part of the register, and conversion is an express act of the Council rather than an automatic consequence of elapsed time.

Section 9(7) applies the parallel rule to the technical cadres: a survey technologist or survey technician is entitled to registration on passing an examination approved by the Council and having had two years' practical experience as such in an office approved by the Council.

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4. The certificate of experience (section 13)

The certificate of experience is the document that evidences your pupilage, and section 13 gives you rights over it that are worth knowing precisely.

The entitlement. A person who qualified by examination after the commencement of the Act (or not earlier than two years before it) and who satisfies the section 13(2) conditions "may apply for and shall be entitled to receive, free of charge, a certificate of experience in the prescribed form". It is filed with the application for full registration.

The conditions (s.13(2)). The candidate must have

• served the prescribed period in Nigeria in an approved office with a view to obtaining the certificate;
• acquired practical experience under the personal supervision and guidance of one or more surveyors for the prescribed period; and
• carried out the duties and conducted himself satisfactorily.

The supervisor's duty (s.13(3)). It is the express statutory duty of the employer - being a surveyor supervising such a person - to ensure that the pupil is afforded proper opportunities of acquiring the practical experience required. A pupil parked on office drafting for two years has a statutory grievance, not merely a complaint.

The appeal (s.13(4)). If a certificate is refused after the prescribed period, the candidate is entitled to (a) written grounds of refusal from the employer, and (b) an appeal to a committee of the Council. On appeal the committee may dismiss the appeal, itself issue the certificate, or give such other direction as it considers just.

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5. What counts as an "approved office" (section 13(6))

This list is examinable verbatim. "Approved office" includes the office of:

• the Surveyor-General of the Federation;
• the Surveyor-General of a State;
• the Survey Department of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja;
• any licensed surveyor in Nigeria;
• the Department of Survey in each university or school recognised by the Minister as engaged in training persons seeking to become surveyors;
• the Head of the Survey Regiment, Corps of Engineers, Nigerian Army;
• the Hydrographer of the Nigerian Navy; and
• the Head of the Aerial Photographic Unit of the Nigerian Air Force.

Section 13(7) adds that regulations made under section 21 may provide for certificates of experience in respect of employment and institutions outside Nigeria - a permissive power, distinct from the section 13(2)(a) requirement that the time itself be served in Nigeria.

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6. Practical consequences during pupilage

Keep contemporaneous evidence, because the certificate of experience turns on satisfying the Council about supervision and conduct. A dated record of projects, the instruments used, the computations performed and the supervising surveyor's periodic endorsement is the natural way to discharge that burden - and it is also the raw material from which the Folio is later assembled.