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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