I am most grateful to the Association For Consulting Engineering In Nigeria for inviting me to deliver an address on a subject that would be relevant to the Theme for your conference: “Formulating A National Action Plan Towards Integrating Nigerian Consultants Into National Development – A Case For Inclusiveness.”
The invitation arrived just as CNN carried as
BREAKING NEWS:
“Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari’s comment that his wife belonged in “the other room” has sent a furious hashtag #TheOtherRoom trending in the country.
On a visit to Germany, and while he stood next to Chancellor Angela Merkel, Buhari told reporters: “I don’t know which party my wife belongs to, but she belongs to my kitchen, and my living room and the other room.”
Buhari was responding to criticism from his wife about his leadership. In a BBC interview his wife, Aisha, a businesswoman, questioned his leadership and suggested she may not back his re-election bid unless he shakes up his government.
Buhari’s popularity at home has fallen amid a deep recession. He is also battling to stem Boko Haram insurgencies and kidnappings in the north of the country. His wife Aisha has become increasingly involved in advocacy work particularly around helping victims of the Boko Haram conflicts.
Many angry about his comments have taken to Twitter to complain after presidential spokesman Mallam Garba Shehu dismissed Buhari’s comments as just “banter”.
Neither of the two statements (by Muhammadu Buhari and Aisha Buhari) respectively have been refuted. Hence, as an “honorary Consulting Engineer for tonight only, I am entitled to rely on the veracity of the statements and even regard them as scientific facts. Beyond that, I have come to the hopefully scientific conclusion that rather than aspire to be in “the kitchen, the living room or the other room”, Consulting Engineers should join chartered accountants in the Waiting Room!! There is no evidence to suggest that any of those prime locations which have been hijacked by V.I.Ps qualify as open space or “no man’s land” regardless of the resonant declaration of President Muhammadu Buhari in his inauguration speech on 29th May, 2015.
Before we even proceed to the business of the day let us frontally address the challenge posed by the Minister of Power, Works and Housing; Mr. Babatunde Fashola. He is reported to have slagged off Nigerian engineers as follows:
‘Nigerian Engineers must step up their game’, Minister says
Nigerian Engineers will only be able to compete with their foreign counterparts if they improve on their craft, says Fashola. According to Mr. Hakeem Bello who is the Special Adviser on Communications to the Minister, Fashola charged home-grown Engineers to improve their capacity in order to fill in the void in the country’s infrastructure terrain.
Fashola, who also expressed dismay that the engineers were not involved in building the nation’s airports, added, “I have just come here. All of you were here when the airports were being put up, did they advertise them, did Nigerian firms bid for the design, did Nigerian firms bid for the supervision?”
Recalling that as Governor of Lagos State, he used the Nigerian Society of Engineers to supervise all housing projects in the State, Fashola declared, “Any serious government that wants to do infrastructure, that wants to turn peoples life around, that wants to seek development and invest in infrastructure, must take its engineers serious but the engineers must step up the capacity”.
“If the equities were equal, clearly I would choose a Nigerian firm”, he said pointing out that as a matter of principle, Government has excluded foreign firms from competing for works of less than N250 million in the country.
He cited, as demonstration of the commitment of government to look inwards, the laid down rule in the National Housing Programme whereby all the Housing materials that could be made in the country would not be imported while any of those materials brought in would not be used in any of the construction sites, but urged the engineers to step up and develop capacity.
Reiterating his call on the engineers to “Look in the mirror”, Fashola pointed out that the reason why the Chinese were in the country was because they started doing something. “They stopped talking; and we all started buying them. We used to call them fake. But they are no longer fake because even the giant manufacturers design in their own countries and go to manufacture in China”.
“That is why I have told all those who care to listen that wearing Made-in-Nigeria is not just wearing something green at a ceremonial event, it is a way of life. So we can wear what we like. Even the Chinese have dropped their Kimono, they now wear suits but the suits they wear are made in China. So it is a way of life”, the Minister said.
He said although projects like Mambila were awarded before the administration came on board, the Ministry was proposing to construct six dam projects as well as other works such as consultancy that would be used for survey, quantity surveys, valuation and that it would be ready to partner with the engineers if they showed capacity.
Reiterating that the focus of the present administration was on completion of uncompleted projects across the country, Fashola added that the administration had been grappling with the problem of unpaid contractors since assumption of duty a little over a year ago, saying government has been trying to pay its contractors and consultants.
Again calling on the NSE “to look in the mirror” in order to brace up to the challenges of the nation’s infrastructure development, the Minister said the nation’s Engineering firms would have a good opportunity to demonstrate capacity when the small hydro-dams being planned are advertised.
“So for me, we are ready to work with you and if you run side by side with us, there are so many things we can do together”, he said.
Since there has been no refutal, we must rely on science and engineering to determine the minimum threshold of proof.
· To be continued….
J.K. Randle
Join BusinessDay whatsapp Channel, to stay up to date
Open In Whatsapp
