Date: 2018-09-29

By Ahmed 'Lateef The Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) has blamed lack of adequate patronage of indigenous engineers on failure of political will, saying the country was not in short supply of qualified professionals in the industry.

The society regretted that most of the contractors handling government projects are not professionals but only employ engineers on their firms for the execution of such projects.

Outgoing Chairman, Ilorin branch of NSE, Engineer Sunday Joseph Adebayo, stated this during a press briefing held at the Secretariat of the society in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital.

Alluding to the Ilorin/Jebba road project, Adebayo expressed displeasure that no local engineer was considered in the award of the contract, adding that outsourcing the execution of project of that magnitude was the height of disregard for indigenous professionals.

"In Nigeria, the only problem we have is political will. The government of the day actually in some areas they will try to patronise some of us but not really the ones they are supposed to do.

"The issue of projects would start from the award of projects, and it is our profession that has the right in the building job. But on the local patronage, I want to say that at least there is no project that is ongoing in Kwara State that is not handled by indigenous either partially or completely.

"But it is one thing to give a contract to a company, and it is another thing for that company to really justify why he is given that. So, the problem is not only on the government side, it is also on the contractor side.

"The only problem we have is that most of the contracting firms are not really owned by engineers but they have engineers in their work firms.

"The Federal Government inspected their road projects going on in April this year, and we were part of that inspection. But to our disappointment, all our negative remarks to them were not captured.

"The highest of the projects was that of Eiyenkorin to Jebba, which was given to CGC company and you would believe that there is no a single Nigerian engineer in that project, and it is a project of N14.6billion. There is no single Nigerian engineer there, which we objected to", the NSE chairman said.

He, however lamented that some of the projects handled by local engineers could not be executed satisfactorily as a result of lack of funding from the Federal Government. On his achievements in the last two years, Adebayo informed that his tenure was part of the struggle that led to the approval of new entry point for engineering graduates into the civil service by the Council of Establishment, assuring that work was ongoing to fast-track its implementation.

He also disclosed that the dispensation under review also secured approval of the NSE for the establishment of Omu-Aran branch of the society as the 70th branch while arrangements are at advanced stage for Offa branch to come on board.

Responding to a question on collapsed building, the NSE Chairman absolved members of the profession of the disaster, declaring that most of the construction projects that caved in were not handled by qualified engineers.

On flooding, Adebayo called for relocation of people resident around flood prone areas and urged government at all levels to be proactive in providing necessary infrastructures to control it with a view to averting loss of lives and property.