Ikuru Lauds Engineers Over Awards

Rivers State Deputy Governor, Engr. Tele Ikuru has commended the Port Harcourt branch of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) for sponsoring the awards it gave its members.

Engr. Ikuru gave the commendation last Thursday during the 6th Annual Lecture/2011 Awards ceremony of the Nigerian Society of Engineers at the Hotel Presidential, Port Harcourt.

Expressing satisfaction over the manner the event was organised, the state deputy governor said that the Port Harcourt branch of NSE has set a new trend in Merit Awards organisaiton in the country, stating that “unlike other organisations that would request prospective awardees to pay their prize money for their awards prior to the day of the investiture, NSE sponsored the awards and paid the prize money from its purse”.

Engineer Ikuru who was a recipient of the society’s Consistent Support for Activities of the branch award” called on various organisations which give awards to emulate the example of the Port Harcourt branch of the NSE and dedicated his awards prize money to the Home of the Elderly in Port Harcourt.

In his lecture titled: “Indigenisation of the Nigerian Construction Industry, a Sine Qua Non for the Attainment of Vision 20: 2020”, the guest lecturer, Engr. Fyne Ogolo emphasized the need for Nigeria to put in place, policies and actions that would fast-track the realization of the vision, adding that the vision can only be realized if the nation’s construction industry is indigenized.

He advocated for the capactity building of the nation’s local engineering manpower and full implementation of the local content policy, noting that this  is the panacea for ensuring that Nigeria beomes one of the world’s largest economies by year 2020 as planned.

In his speech, the Deputy Vice Chancellor of the Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Professor Howells Hart said that absolute hand-over of the construction industry and other technological services to indigenous engineers would suffer some hiccups because of the un-seriousness of our present day graduates, stating that the whole thing is about nationalism and the will to achieve excellence.

In his welcome address, the chairman of the branch, Dr. Hilkiah Igoni explained that the lecture would offer a contribution to the solution of Nigeria’s development problems, many of which are engineering-based.

He therefore urged Federal, State and Local Governments to make use of our local engineers for all construction and technological services as “only Nigerian engineers can solve Nigeria’s engineering problem”.