SLC S22W1 / Basic Concepts of Digital Cartography.

Maps is a guide that we use to navigate around the world and understand our surroundings. In todays post , I’ll be talking on Nigerian maps and some states I will love to visit. I’ll also be sharing, what map is about and some critical elements of map.

The map above, shows where our federal capital territory (FCT/ Abuja ) is located in Nigeria. FCT is located in north central zone of the country. While “Rivers state” one of the major oil producing states in the country, that’s where I live. Rivers state is located in the South/ south zone of Nigeria and also has one of the highest IGR in the country.

South-south state

• Rivers state
• bayelsa
• cross river
• Akwa ibom
• Delta state

South-east states

• Imo state
• abia
• Ebonyi state
• Enugu

These are all the states I can remember by heart. The reason I can still recall them is because back in secondary school, our geography teacher used to make funny comments about how the South-South, which is the oil-producing region of the nation, and the South-East, which is the business hub of the nation, are the ones "carrying the whole country on our heads." That’s why we are always placed at the bottom of the map. If they removed us from that map, the country would collapse due to how heavily dependent it is on crude oil to generate revenue.

The states shaded with blue pen are the states I’ve always wanted to visit and they include;

• Kano state: is located in the north-west part of the country and has a vast land. I have actually had the opportunity of going there before many years ago during my compulsory national youth service to the country, I actually rejected it because of the sharia law governing the state since is a predominantly Muslim population. Another reason, I rejected my offer going there was the religious tension always coming up between the Christians and the Muslims. But recently, I have heard people say that apart from Lagos state, the second largest industrial center is Kano state and also one of the best states to be in the north west. There are lots businesses there ranging from textile, footwear cosmetic and a whole lot more.

• Benue state: is located at the north central. One of my reasons I will love to go there is the fact that they have lots of foods over there. Majority of the farm products we eat in the country is gotten from benue state. The slogan for benue state is the “food basket of the nation”.

• plateau states: is one of the coldest states in Nigeria and from what I’ve heard, is so cold that it snows at times. For someone like me who have never traveled overseas before to witness how snow looks like, my closest place of witnessing it is plateau state. So, yes, I want to go to plateau because of snow!!😊

A map is a symbolic representation of a place that helps you understand the world around you. A map goes beyond just lines and shapes but a tool that helps you get from one place to another. It shows us everything from street in a city to the entire country.

For example, if you are looking for the “garden of Eden”, a map is the only thing that can gives you directions to know where you are going to

For me, the most important element of a map are;

• Title: when you go to a library and you are looking for a book, the title of the book will give you an idea of what the book is about. Same thing goes with map. The title tells you what the map is about, so you know what kind of information you're looking at.

• Scale: Assuming you are with the map of your neighborhood and that of your whole country, the one of your neighborhood will give more details like the houses and streets but the one of the whole country will show less details but covers a much wider range. This means, a scale helps you understand how big or small the area on the map is compared to the real world. Without this, it will be very hard determining how far the places are from each other.

• Legend: gives that additional information that helps us understand what the colors mean on the map. For instance, when looking at a map with different shades of colors, green can represent trees, blue could represent seas, the darker shade may represent dense population etc. without legend, it will be hard to know what those colors signifies.

• Coordinates: a lot of time in movies, especially war movies, you hear when soldiers say “i am sending you my coordinates”, especially when they are in hostile territory. That coordinates is to pinpoint the exact location you are located anywhere on earth. The most commonly use type are universal transverse Mercator (UTM) which is expressed in meters and Geographic coordinates expressed in degrees, minutes, and seconds.

Yes it is very important because that’s the only way we can interact with the world around and us and here’s why!

• If you go to a new city, with a map, you can know exactly where you are incase you’re lost. It even shows you the shortest route to your location especially if you’re into e-hailing business.

• Cartography will help you know your surroundings very well. Like mountains, trees, seas etc and how they are all connected.

• As a town planner, map will show you areas that are prone to disaster like flood, earthquakes etc. That way, they can build safer communities and create an emergency response plan incase of any natural disaster.

• Like I mentioned earlier, in terms of war or any natural disasters, map will make it very easy for rescue teams to locate you.

• With map, you can navigate in any city of your choice. You locate restaurants, pleasure parks, shopping centers etc