Elijah Ayolabi

Ayolabi Elijah Ayolabi is a Nigerian geophysicist. Quotes I think it’s important to understand that Geoscience is a broad field and it encompasses a number of things. It has Geology, Geophysics, Geochemistry and the rest of that put together to form Geosciences. Geosciences have to deal with the use of physical principles, theoretical knowledge to unravel the mineral resources within the earth surface or to map whatever area within the soil surface. Now, the practice in Nigeria might not be as to what you have in advanced countries but that does not mean the practice is not appreciated. For instance, if you look at the application in the Oil and Gas industry, we have an association called the Nigeria Association of Petroleum Explorationists. This association from time it was formed has been in the forefront for the exploration of oil and gas in Nigeria and has contributed a lot to national development. If you look at it from that perspective, the practice of Geoscience has contributed a lot to the economic development of the country. If you go to mining, it is another area where Geoscience application is relevant. It has not been really appreciated in this country today. That’s why you see that tapping into the mineral resources has not been properly maximized. The Geoscientist has to be involved in mapping out the area of the mineral resources where they can be properly exploited and used in the economic development. So what you have in that perspective today is kind of haphazard exploration here and there, scattered all over the country particularly in the northern region where you have a lot of solid mineral resources. In that regard, you can say the knowledge has not been properly appreciated or applied as it is supposed to be. Besides that you would also see that Geoscience is also relevant in the area of search for ground water, in terms of road construction, building and the knowledge of Geoscience can be deployed in all of these areas to ensure that we do things rightly. In the area of building collapse, often time, the failure is attributed to the use of inferior materials but that’s not always the situation. Because people don’t always give regard to what lies beneath the soil surface, the soil surface is like an elastic material when you put weight on it, if it’s not solid, if it does not have the organic capacity to carry the weight, it is going to give way. That’s why at times, you see the building structure collapsing because the knowledge of Geosciences has not been applied. So, from my little assessment, until people run into problems, they would not appreciate this and therefore from that perspective you would see that the knowledge is not properly tapped for the development of the nation and when you look at ground water development that is another area where Geoscience is very important. Unlike this area and Lagos, where you are sure you would find water, it is just a matter of depth and the quality, in some other areas, you have basement rock like Ibadan, Ondo and some other areas where you have this happen, you don’t have water everywhere. You have to use Geoscience knowledge to find out suitable areas where you can find ground water.