Worried by the unargu
able notion that the development of any nation is largely dependent on its ability to utilise its local resources for goods production and rendering services that could also be exported, an engineer in Port Harcourt, Charles Omordu, has urged the Federal Government to standardise engineering practice as well as the economy.
Omordu who disclosed this to The Tide at the weekend noted that economists agree also that any country that relies solely on goods importation or hiring foreign experts in any field is tacitly building the economy of other nations, rather than its own.
According to him, observers have noted that Nigerians, including top government officials prefer imported products and services to the local variants which are readily available and more cost-effective.
Omordu, who is a member of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Port Harcourt Branch, insisted that the situation also applies to Nigerian engineers who from all indications are often marginalised by government agencies and corporate organisations which habitually have a preference for foreign engineers when executing projects in the country.
He said “The situation has degenerated to such an extent that NSE and the council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), on many occasions grumbled about the non-patronage of Nigerian Engineering”.
Omordu therefore  called on government to have a deliberate policy of developing indigenous companies and engineers with proper enforcement, as is being done in other countries, stressing that this will  guarantee sustainable development in all sectors of the economy.

Corlins Walter