President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday challenged indigenous
engineers in Nigeria to up their game so as to effectively match the
professional standards offered by their counterparts in foreign lands.
This, he said, would enable Nigerian engineers to reverse
the trend of foreigners dominating the construction industry.
Jonathan gave the charge in Abuja at the opening
ceremony of the 23rd Engineering Assembly organised by the Council for the
Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria.
The 23rd Assembly’s theme was ‘Commercialising Engineering,
An Imperative for National Development.’
The President, who was represented by the Minister of State
for Works, Mr. Adebayo Adeyeye, said, “The time has come for the engineering
profession to face the reality of competitive globalisation. The Nigerian
engineering personnel must now measure the index of performance against foreign
counterparts and buckle up and reverse the trend of foreigners dominating the
construction industry in Nigeria.
“We have reached the point in our nation when we must
reflect and review what is and what ought to be in the interest of our people.”
Jonathan observed that one of the factors inhibiting the
growth of the engineering profession in Nigeria was that Nigerian
engineers usually chose to be on their own, wanting to do it all by themselves.
According to him, engineering required a “compendium of
resources” and noted that the profession succeeds with combined knowledge,
capital and other resources.
He said, “Nigerian engineers must therefore come together to
form consortia in order to face the challenges of growth facing them. They must
do this if they wish to grab the opportunities which generously abound in the
profession.
“They must do this if they wish to take up projects and
complete them successfully. We must join hands to build capacity. This is the
only way to successfully challenge the dominance of foreign firms in the
industry.”
The President also noted that the Federal Government had
taken deliberate steps to change this situation.
He stated that to promote participation in projects, the
Federal Government set up the Presidential Committee on Strategic Plans for
Engineering Development and Control which in 2005, released a White Paper
explicitly stating that jobs less than N500m should be reserved for indigenous
contractors.
“The Nigerian Content Policy must not be seen to be
applicable only in the oil and gas industry but in all facets of engineering
infrastructure in Nigeria. These opportunities are meant to be fully harnessed
by the Nigerian engineering personnel in order to excel,” Jonathan added.
The President, COREN, Mr. Kashim Ali, decried the problem of
quackery in the profession and stressed that this was largely responsible for
the collapse of buildings in Nigeria.
He said it was now mandatory for ministries, departments and
agencies of government to request all engineering firms that practice in
certain categories to submit COREN registration and licence as part of the
requirements for patronage.
He listed the categories as engineering
manufacturing/production firms; engineering inspection, testing and laboratory
services firms; and vendors of engineering machineries equipment, plants and
materials, among others.
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