President Goodluck Jonathan on Tuesday urged the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) to raise world class engineers that would chart the country’s development.

Jonathan made the call at the 2013 Annual General Meeting of the society in Abuja.

Represented by Prof. Chinedu Nebo, the Minister of Power, the president called on the NSE to enhance its capacity building programmes to be able to achieve the objective.

He described the theme: “Strategies for Transforming Agriculture and Water Resources Sectors of the Nigerian Economy’’, as apt and timely, adding that government would continue to support the NSE.

In his welcome address, the NSE President, Mr Mustafa Shehu, urged the Federal Government to initiate policies to protect and promote indigenous manufacturers to expand the country’s industrialisation process.

Shehu said he had visited a number of manufacturing outfits in the country as the NSE president and the revelation was not too encouraging.

According to him, most of the industries are winding up due to lack of appropriate policies to protect manufacturers in the country.

He said the revival of the manufacturing sector was critical to the actualisation of the transformation agenda of the Federal Government.

“Statistics have shown that Nigeria is currently spending about N1.3 trillion about 8.2 billion dollars yearly to import basic food items such as rice, sugar and fish.

“A country is developed or otherwise depending on its capacity to explore its engineering and technological skills, while deploying its natural resources for the benefit of its people.

“As engineers, we know that our nation has the capacity to produce enough food for its teeming population, export and even earn foreign exchange.

“We must deploy all our technological know-how, our arable lands, live stocks, overflowing rivers and dams to create enormous wealth in as many ways as we desire,’’ he said.

He said the NSE was also dissatisfied with the level of development in the Iron and Steel sector, adding that the industry was the bedrock of industrialisation globally.

He said the Iron and Steel sector consumption index determined the standard of living in any country.

“The development of a viable Iron and Steel industry in Nigeria has for a long time been enmeshed in controversies and comatose situations.

“Yet the advantages accruable to Nigeria from the development of its Iron and Steel industry and from its raw materials will be to a very large extent enormous.

“All the contentious issues need to be addressed soonest to enable the resuscitation of the Ajaokuta Iron and Steel Industry.’’

Shehu also called on the government to consider the construction of the 7th Production Train in the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Company in Bonny to enhance the country’s revenue generation.

The Minister of Water Resources, Mrs Sarah Ochekpe, who also spoke at the conference, said engineers remained the major drivers of development in the country.

Ochekpe urged the engineers to use the conference to chart the way forward for water development in Nigeria.

She said the ministry’s National Water Resources Master plan would help the country to attain its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and achieve its vision 20:2020.