Objectives during the award

Describe the skills that you expect to gain from this scholarship, and your career plans once you return

home afterwards.

Answer

At this point in time, my goal is to become an innovator in my country Nigeria; my continent, Africa and

by extension, the world, through advanced studies in Geospatial technologies. Hence my goal during the

programme is to acquire the necessary skills in Geospatial technology which includes Global Positioning

Systems (GPS), Geographical Information Systems (GIS), and Remote Sensing (RS). I also plan to improve

my leadership and social skills by participating in social group and intercultural activities in my spare

time.

First and foremost, I will aim to broaden my knowledge and obtain valuable insight and experience into

the United Kingdom approach to geospatial technologies. This will be through collaborative and

personal research and engaging case study. My main interest will be gaining new skills such as data

fusion, data mining and real-time data acquisition, geospatial analytics, data, information, or schema

integration, geospatial visualization, dynamic analysis, temporal clustering, social network analysis, and

sentiment and technology dispersion. So, I will continue my personal development through online

resources and forums especially through geo university, ESRI MOOC, common lounge and datacamp.

I plan to also participate in the vibrant culture of the university using the commonwealth community

and other clubs or volunteer groups especially those involved in advocacy and civil society projects and

developments. I intend to put my interests to use when engaging in campus activities and student

culture.

Personal Statement

Summarise the ways in which your personal background has encouraged you to want to make an impact
in

your home country. You should indicate areas in which you have already contributed, such as having

overcome any personal or community barriers to higher education

Answer

I grew up in a low-income family in Lagos, Nigeria. My parents did not have more than secondary school
(high school) education so they strived and made effort to put us through school with the help of

extended family. So, we always made effort to be well behaved, disciplined and we had to perform

exceedingly at school to encourage our parents that their money was not going to waste. Our

performance was not only about the grade but also based on percentile. The terrible thing was this: we

were not always sure how our parents would settle bills and tuition fees in high school talk more about

the higher institution. Now I can only say thank God they believed in education. What I also knew at this

time was I wanted to be a scientist, my aspirations were ever evolving - a robotic engineer, an architect,

an aeronautics engineer- as were my interests until I finally stumbled into Surveying.

Looking back I feel those issues of poverty, environmental decline, and insecurity that surrounded me in

Lagos- the city of hassle and bustle brought to mind the fact that I could be a solution to some things

that I can see going wrong. This made me enter college to study Geoinformatics and Surveying, I feel it

was also partly because I knew it was a safe bet; that I could excel in it since I excelled in science subjects

in my high school and partly because I had found out from inquiry that the course was also multi-

faceted.

Getting into the university brought a new challenge for me knowing my background. I had one priority

to excel academically. I steadily found my balance which could be attributed to activities in high school

like my involvement in drama, literature and debate society (DLDS), as well as the church, helped a lot to

help me find balance and have fun. As a result, I spent a large proportion of my time volunteering as a

homeschool tutor for O level student around my Off-campus neighbourhood, where my work varied

from teaching to guiding younger ones on O level subjects, career path, and academic plans. Also, I was

a member of the Nigerian Institute of Surveying Students' House Assembly which allowed me to focus

solely on student welfare and lecture conduct.

At the university, my academic performance was characterized by indisputable excellence. This feat

made me win the NNPC/CNL National University Scholarship. During the first three years of my

undergraduate studies, my GPA was consistently the highest in my class and graduated as the best

student in my department despite great infrastructural odds and learning environment.

By the time I was graduating, I worked for some of my lecturers in different capacities as a technical

assistant in some project works, notable among them are Prof. F.I. Okeke, Mr. Maduako I., and Surv

Nwaka O. I am one of the grateful hearts and it goes to say that hard work is directly proportional to all

success.

Voluntary and Leadership Experience

Summarise the ways in which you have engaged in voluntary activities and the opportunities you have
had

to demonstrate leadership.

Answer

My adeptness to accepting responsibilities, taking actions, solving problems and delivering results in

challenging situations describes my competencies as a leader. As with most of my agemates, building my

leadership competency kicked off from basic primary school as the Assistant head boy. I did not

understand leadership skills and competencies- the pecks at least, not until secondary school where I

was voted as the Class Captain for the class of JSS 2. At this stage, it dawned to me that leadership was a

great responsibility, especially through the democratic process. Looking back the quality it instilled in me

was empathy and teamwork. These qualities have helped me to this day in my interaction with people

and my expectation.

Fast-forwarding it to the university, l held positions such as Assistant Class Representative for my class

from 2015- 2017; Right honourable of the Nigerian Institute of Surveying Students House Assembly

(NISSHA) the University of Nigeria from 2015- 2017. It is quite challenging in this part of the world to

think of leadership without people feeling that you must be tainted. But the truth is discipline and being

true to who you are really matters in leadership excellence.

Growing up in an extended family, the key to survival for me was discipline, open- mindedness and

being responsible. And so, from an early age, I was imbued with the perspective of doing the right

despite impossible situations. This was what led my class attain the title of “most devoted class”. I was

able to coordinate my classmates and as a team, we carried out a clean house initiative in the

department as the finalist. At first, some members of the class felt we were acting immature and wasn’t

our responsibility. My answer at that time was this: perspective always matter, what legacy to leave
behind for our juniors? I have just one reason for this initiative, to channel this feeling of family we have

for each other to the department selflessly- to commit our last day to give back to the department. In

the end, about 88% of the class came through. Closely allied to my leadership capacity, is the ability to

contribute towards public education and to oversee the development of junior colleagues.

While serving my country through the National Youth Service Corp. I was a volunteer in the community

development service group in partnership with the NYSC and Sustainability Development Goals (SDG)

United Nations Initiative. A gap year has not only allowed me to begin volunteering at SDG but also

Young Africa Leadership Initiative (YALI) network. A group and movement specifically focusing on self-

development campaigns for the youths especially unemployed youths that are growing in numbers daily

and integrate a Do- It-Yourself "DIY" approach to study. We also carry out an awareness campaign. For

instance, the Ajegunle sensitization campaign where we talked on socio-economic issues such as vote

buying and civic duties, waste management for a sustainable environment, sieving out fake news, and

eradicating corruption.

Development Impact Statement

Provide a statement explaining:

• How your proposed study relates to a particular development challenge or need at the global,

national, or local level

• How your proposed study relates to development issues and challenges in your sector

• How your proposed study relates to your chosen CSC theme under which your course is offered.

Please see our website for more details http://cscuk.dfid.gov.uk/apply/shared-scholarships

• The audiences and users of your proposed study

• How you will apply your new skills and qualifications when you return home

• The outcomes that you aim to achieve and the timeframe for their implementation

• How the impact of your work might be measured

My Answer

Humankind faces severe threats, but I feel Nigeria is facing a much more ominous threat. Recalling

recent events, such as flooding in 30 cities within Nigeria of 2012 and 2018, the tremors in some states
in Nigeria, the Ebola pandemic of 2015, the insurgency in North East Nigeria, and the refugee crises

juxtaposed with the poverty index of 2018 in Nigeria have if anything strengthened that feeling.

Whatever the root cause of these disasters, they can be mitigated by proper use of geospatial data,

tools, and infrastructure.

The major underlying issues include unavailability of geospatial data and infrastructure; absence or non-

effective disaster risk management model and systems; lack of community resilience; Lack of political

will, commitment, and strong institution; the cost of geospatial technologies; challenges of capacity

building and expertise thereof. It is a well-known fact that at every moment of crises in the developed

world, Geospatial science and analysis has been the bedrock for real-time awareness and resolution of

the challenges. An MSc degree in Geospatial Technologies will enable me to get a thorough knowledge

and skill in geo-intelligence and emergency management system. I believe I would gain competencies in

real-time data capture and effective monitoring, geospatial data mining and fusion, geographic data

science and spatial statistics using predictive algorithm and principles of a nudge with experience in

space-time dynamics associated with both human and physical phenomena; database management, and

web-based mapping skills.

After the completion of the course, I plan to use these skills in the National Emergency Management

Agency (NEMA) for situational and impact assessment in order to improve decision making. I will apply

to work as a Geospatial Analyst and Developer where I will be involved in acquiring, processing, and

analysing data from government and commercial sources; ensuring the quality, accuracy, and currency

of geospatial information; populate databases, and produce information products for emergency and

risk applications. I will also introduce automated systems by allowing data fusion and modeling to

reconfigure the locations and trajectories of sensor platforms (e.g., aircraft, vehicles) to closely monitor

events (e.g., flooding) or high- value target in order to improve the quality of fused output estimates of

interest. These systems will provide the framework for a real- time situational awareness and problem

resolution for an emergency. Accurate information delivered quickly can save lives, reduce damage, and

reduce the costs associated with emergency response achieving the targets of UN sustainable
development goals of “Science and technology for development''. Smart communities and

crowdsourcing is a prerequisite to fostering emergency preparedness and response systems, hence, I

will collaborate with the agency to train the crowd into a proactive community, increasing

communication and awareness within the crowd and between it and the Geospatial technologies

community.

I aim to achieve these within three years following completion of this course. In order to measure its

impact to development, I will constantly submit spatial statistical analyses and indices via NEMA

publications and podcast, and National Bureau of Statistics website which will be available to everyone.