New dawn for professionalism, technical standards at RICS Nigeria

For the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) (Nigeria Group), it is a new dawn for professionalism, and the highest technical standards delivered ethically in the public interest as Jimmy Olayinka Omotosho emerges its chairman.
This is also time for RICS to lead with humility, openness and a sense of mission and seriousness as the new man on the saddle has come through the route of practice, not governance; has come from a world of extensive stakeholder engagement, not member working groups, and above all, he has come via the professional experience route.
“I am convinced that what we are doing is right. But it is presumptuous to think that it is self-evident to all members in all their different circumstances and locations. Leadership is to lead, that means not to strongly believe in a cause and impose it, but to explain why it is necessary and how it is beneficial. And that is a major part of my task”, Omotosho assured in his inaugural speech in Lagos recently.
A fellow of the institute, Omotosho whose journey into the royal institute started 29 years ago, has had an amazing and fulfilling career that has taken him around the world where he met many excellent colleagues, some of them active on RICS committees and working groups.
“But my principal engagement with RICS was as a dedicated professional benefitting from the assurance of the RICS brand, access to high quality guidance, and status that goes with it; it has been exciting, fast-paced and rewarding”, he enthused, noting however that anything that is good comes with heavy responsibility and, as senior partner in his firm, he believes that he has a duty to his clients to invest their savings sustainably and responsibly, and to advise on real estate matters accordingly.
The new chairman says he has benefitted enormously from RICS over the years such that his outlook and career were substantially shaped by the concepts, standards and other ethos of RICS. “I stand here before you as an example of someone who is not only a member of RICS, who is committed to RICS, but was also formed by RICS. I felt strongly compelled to give something back, with the belief that I also had something to offer in return”, he told his colleagues.
As chairman, Omotosho says he is not a committee, but a committed man, assuring that he is committed to doing his very best to represent their profession to the world and also committed to the values at the heart of RICS—“the highest technical standards, delivered ethically, and in the public interest”.
Also committed to seeing through the changes needed to make the institute remain relevant, he assured further that in the coming year, he would work hard to promote international standards, diversity and inclusion and would take RICS Exco through the next phase of modernisation.