Business
COREN Wants Local Engineers In Projects Execution
Registrar, Council for the
Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) Mr. Felix Atume, on Thursday in
Abuja condemned the non-involvement of local engineers in Nigerian projects.
Atume told newsmen that engineering
played a very critical role in the development of any nation when properly managedas
such urged Nigerians not to ignore that.
He said attention should be given
to the engineering sector by involving Nigerian engineers in major projects in
the country.
“Nigeria needs to build a robust
engineering capacity by allowing Nigerian engineers to take charge of
engineering in this country otherwise we will not make progress.
“Why is it that Nigerians are used
in every other sector except in the engineering field? Why do we have to bring
in foreigners to do our projects for us when there are engineers in the
country?.
“What they are doing to us is like
saying our journalist are not good enough so they bring in people from BBC and
CNN to cast the news for us, if that is not done in the media and other
sectors, why do they use foreign engineers instead of us?’’
He said a “clear example of
projects” given to foreigners was the Onitsha-Owerri rail project, stressing
that the project should be built mainly by Nigerians and foreigners should only
be invited when and if serious challenges were encountered.
“Nigerian engineers need to handle
the railway project from Ontisha to Owerri.
“If they start and support is
needed from outside, we will bring them on our own terms.
“Basically we should do it, so we
can build the capacity; otherwise if we are building power stations and railway
lines and Nigerians are not involved, who will maintain them tomorrow?’’
He said that it was just an
assumption that Nigerian engineers could not perform since they were not given the opportunity.
He added that Nigerian engineers,
most times, did better outside the country because of “a fair playing ground”.
Atume urged engineers to take their
place in the economic and technological development of the country, and execute
jobs with high integrity and standards.
He said they needed to start
looking at the basic things in the country and always ensure that all lifts in
government offices and necessary facilities were in good working condition.