World Engineering body moves to unify African Engineers

A high powered meeting in Cairo Egypt organised by the President - elect of the World Federation of Engineering Organisations ( WFEO), Engr. Adel Alkharafi has set up a five-man committee to work out an arrangement that will bring together two parallel Engineering organisations in Africa to enable African engineers present a common front at the international level.

The Federation of African Organisations of Engineering (FAEO) headquartered in Nigeria and the African Engineers Forum (AEF) with headquarters in South Africa ,which was recently formed by mainly Southern African countries, have been presenting divergent fronts at the international level, a situation that has confused development institutions who are keen on providing technical support to African Engineers.

The Committee has two Nigerians, Engr. Felix Atume who is Secretary-General of FAEO, representing his organisation and Past president of NSE, Engr. Ibrahim k. Inuwa representing West Africa. Other members of the committee are David Botha representing AEF; Engr Kamel Ayadi from Tunisia representing North Africa; Engr Julius from Tanzania representing East Africa; Engr. Francis Hapi of Cameroon representing Central Africa and Engr Martin Manuhwa representing South Africa.

The Interim committee would be coordinated from the Tunis office of the World Federation of Engineering Organisations. Its terms of reference include : to develop an inventory and Database of all the engineering institutions in Africa to establish capacity status; to liaise with all relevant international organisations such as UNECA, UNESCO, WCCE, Royal academy of Engineers, etc and to develop a constitution for the new body.

Others are to convene a General Assembly for African engineering organisations within 6 months to consider and adopt the constitution and conduct elections; to create an interim supporting secretariat for African Engineering organisations in the WFEO Tunis office to achieve these goals; and to promote and develop national, regional and international participation.

Participants described the development as “a good beginning to check the incessant wrangling in the profession which has been hampering the growth of engineering in Africa”

The meeting in Cairo was attended by over 60 engineers from Africa.

NSE to focus on continuous education and professional development of members

The New administration at the Nigerian Society of Engineers will focus mainly on continuous professional development and Education of members as a way of making them relevant and bringing them up to date to meet current challenges of the profession.

The newly inaugurated President of the Society, Engr. Olumuyiwa Alade Ajibola who spoke in Eket, Akwa Ibom state on a visit to the branch of the society called on all branches of the society to explore ways of developing its members through seminars workshop and lectures and through tapping into the programmes of the Society Resource centres in Lagos and Abuja.

He attended a memorial lecture in honour of Engr Felix Esi who was one of the founding members of the NSE branch in Eket and laid the foundation for the branch’s Resource Centre and Engineering Centre

“As I said in my inaugural speech at the investiture a fortnight ago, our real professional strength in providing service to the nation lies in the specialised divisions and branches of the Nigerian Society of Engineers. Therefore the branches must continue to provide avenues for the professional growth of its members. We must be prepared to promptly respond in a systematic manner to challenges of the profession nationally and internationally and one of the ways to do this is through interactions and lectures like this. At the national level, we shall continue to strengthen the branches with constant interaction so as to make them alive to their responsibilities for the professional development of their members.” He said.

The NSE President said engineers must continue to prepare themselves to confront the challenges of a modern society in demand of more engineering infrastructure and called on members of the society to ensure that they exhibit the highest level of professionalism in their activities. He said integrity, hard work and professionalism should be the hallmark of the Nigerian engineer.

“All over the world, there is increasing demand for engineering infrastructure to meet the ever increasing needs of our world. Nations are strengthening their engineering practice and training in response to the emerging scenario and our country Nigeria cannot be left behind. That is why we have concluded plans to upgrade our Engineering Resource Centres in Lagos and Abuja and work with the oil and gas companies and institutions, engineering based and engineering delivering Ministries and agencies, international organisation, the private sector and other relevant institutions to meet the capacity building needs of our members.”Engr Ajibola said.

He called on the National Assembly to pass into law a bill now at the committee stage in the House of Representative which seeks to make it obligatory for the government of Nigeria and all its Agencies to award construction contracts of up to N5 billion to Nigerian Indigenous Construction Companies and to motivate and protect indigenous contractors engaged in construction in Nigeria.

In his inaugural speech, the new chairman of the Eket branch, Engr Thompson John Manam said his branch will continue to strengthen the professional devolvement of its members through holding technical paper presentation and discussions on quarterly basis to attain its objectives of enhancing capacity on specialized skills.

He said the building of the Engineering Centre would ensure availability of space and facility for training of engineers, Technologists, Technicians, Artisans and craftsmen. Engr. Manam takes over from Engr. Imabong Inyang who has been elected to the executive Committee at the national level.

The Nigerian Society of Engineers is an umbrella body for engineers in the country and has 53 branches spread across the country and each of them is headed by a Chairman. Apart from these branches, the society also has 18 professional divisions of engineering which are also headed by chairmen.

NSE tasks oil companies on local content

The President of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, Engr. Olumuyiwa Ajibola has asked Oil Companies in Nigeria to adhere to local content stipulations in their operations to allow opportunity for addition of value and acquisition of technology and associated skills by indigenous professionals especially engineers.

The NSE President who was speaking in Eket, Akwa Ibom State when he paid a visit to the ExxonMobil Joint Venture Operations Manager, Mr Ron Romere, said the local content requirements for oil companies has the force of law and therefore should be complied with.

He said the Nigerian Society of Engineers was ready to partner with oil companies to explore areas where the need for Nigerian engineers would be higher as such will help both the Joint venture Operations and the country. He said such a partnership will specify areas that engineers were needed most and the requisite skills they require to fill such gaps.

“ This will help us at all levels because it breaks our heart to hear that there are gaps between training and needed capacity and I think they is need for us to meet and work this out” he said.

Engr Ajibola also called on the company to encourage engineers in their employ to register with the Nigerian Society of Engineers saying belonging to the professional body would only strengthen their service delivery in terms of commitment, discipline and professionalism.

Speaking earlier, the Joint Venture Operations Manager , Mr Ron Romere said it was a misnomer to call companies in oil sector ‘oil companies’ as they were really engineering companies and should be referred to as such. He said it takes a lot of engineers to keep an oil company running adding that he was proud of the engineers from Nigeria working with the company.

“ Engineering is the present and the future. The progress of the world depends on engineering” he said.

In a related development, the Paramount Ruler of Eket, Dr. Timtiniko Enodiem has challenged the Nigerian Society of Engineers to rise up the challenge of generating and transmitting adequate power for the country. He said engineers can no longer hide under the fact that they have been schemed out of things and abandon their responsibilities.

He was speaking when the NSE president paid him a courtesy call in his palace in Eket.

The paramount ruler who was permanent secretary in various ministries including Ministry of power said the country had abandoned coal as a source of energy in error as it would have complimented other forms of power generation,. He said there was nothing wrong with the country employing all available sources of power for the generation of electricity in the country.

The NSE President was in Eket to lay the Foundation of the Eket branch Resource and Engineering Centre.

 

My mission is to make Nigerian Society of Engineers, a world class professional Body- New President

 

The newly elected President of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, Engr. Olumuyiwa Alade Ajibola has stated that his major mission would be to bring the society up to a world class professional body that is well positioned to meet the needs of the people of Nigeria.

 

The new president who is billed to be inaugurated as the 27^th President of the society in an investiture ceremony billed for the weekend in Abuja was speaking at Ibadan yesterday where he was among three key leaders of professional associations honoured by the Governor of Oyo state, Chief Christopher Ala-Akala.The others honoured were Rotimi Akeredolu of the Nigerian Bar Associations and Architect Olatunji Bolu of the Nigerian Institute of Architects.

 

Engr. Ajibola said no country can develop without paying attention to the study and practice of engineering and assured that the Society under him will partner with relevant institutions and the private sector in ensuring provision of quality engineering infrastructure in the country.

 

“My plan for the body is to bring it up to a world class professional body, able to give its services to its people, to the government, the private sector and demonstrate the relevance of engineers to national development.” He said.

 

The NSE President said he was excited that the Governor of Oyo State decided to honor him along with two others even when none of them were from the state but for the only reason that they have all practised their respective professions in Ibadan for many decades.

 

He said it was a good development and hoped that other state government will pick up from there and even begin to sponsor professionals to special trainings and capacity building which they can tap into in their development plans.

 

For him, Nigerian would not develop to its full potentials until it is able to offer professionals opportunities to excel and contribute to the growth of the country.

“The country must recognize its professional and give them opportunity to serve in appropriate positions where they can apply their skill’ he said.

 

The Governor of Oyo state, Chief Aloa-Akala told the gathering that his administration decided to honour the professionals whom he said had risen to the pinnacle of their professional bodies because they were products of the state as all of them have spent all their professional lives in Ibadan.

He said the action was also to encourage the younger ones to take to professionalism in their endeavours and said the state viewed them as indigenes of the state.

The governor called on them to support his administration in its stride to make Ibadan the fourth biggest economy in the country. He said he was planning an Oyo State Economic summit where strategies towards achieving this will be discussed. The event was attended by friends, colleagues and relations of the honorees who each went home with a plaque from the state government.

 

Why I prepared and handed over on time- Engr Ali

 

The immediate past president of the Nigeria Society of Engineers, Engr. Kashim Abdul Ali has formally handed over to the Engr. Olumuyiwa Alade Ajibola who succeeds him as President of the society.

 

At a brief Ceremony witnessed by some members of the exco and Some past Presidents of the society at the Headquarters of the Society in Abuja, Engr. Ali Said the an incoming president of the Society was supposed to assume office fully by the 1^st of January of the year of commencement of his tenure and should therefore be availed of the Andover notes on time to enable him stuffy them before his January exco and council meetings.

 

He said the idea of waiting till the official investiture was wrong even though it has been the practice in recent times. The outgoing president said he decided to prepare the handover notes on time to allow the new president enough time to study them and make necessary observations and be in better prepared state to report the state of the society to the first council and exco meetings which holds immediately after the investiture. He thanked the members of exco and past presidents who he said supported him. He was grateful for the support given him by the entire membership and encouraged them to extend same to his successor.

 

He mentioned some uncompleted projects started by his administration and called on the incoming one to give them priority. Such projects include the construction of the NSE Abuja NEC offices and conference hall which he said would provide a venue for all NSE meetings and conferences when completed. He said the offices would also move form the current accommodation wing to the structure. He said the National Engineering Centre In Lagos was also under construction under a partnership arrangement and expressed optimism that work was on course and would be completed as planned.

 

Speaking after receiving the handover notes, Engr Ajibola thanked the immediate past president for his services to the NSE saying that he had leant a lot from him during the two years he served as Deputy President under him.

“The period has been inspiring and most decisions have been taken in a democratic manner. We will build on has been done” he said.

He however called on all to support him to move the society forward “in the provision of professional services to the membership”

Nigerian Society of Engineers says Indigenous construction company bill will increase employment

The President of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Engr. Olumuyiwa Alade Ajibola has stated that the ‘ Nigerian Indigenous Construction Company (motivation and protection) Bill 2009’ currently at the committee stage at the House of Representative will bring about increased employment in the country when passed into law.

Speaking during a presentation at the Public hearing on the bill at the National Assembly, Engr. Ajibola said the bill shows that the legislators were desirous of what he called positive progress in the real sector of the economy.

He said the bill was coming at the right time as countries all over the world were doing everything to improve local capacity of its professionals especially engineers through support of indigenous companies. In Africa, he mentioned the governments of Zambia and Tanzania where a National Construction Council (NCC) has been established by both governments to promote the development of the local construction industries in their countries.

Engr. Ajibola said the passing of the bill into law will particularly lead to a construction industry that maximises local participation in the country.

“The essence of this bill is to create the environment for rapid empowerment and development of Nigerian construction firms as they are characteristically smaller and therefore will not be able to compete favourably with their foreign counterparts who have been in business longer and over time and have been able to improve their efficiency in production and business processes” he said

However the NSE President made some observations on the draft bill and highlighted areas that should be clarified. Such areas include the definition of ‘who is an indigenous contractor for the purpose of the bill. “we therefore suggest the following clauses to be inserted into the bill to define an indigenous construction company: ‘For the purposes of this act, an indigenous construction company shall be a construction company owned by Nigerians’”

The NSE President also observed that there was no provision for enforcement and punishment for violations in the draft bill stating that the greatest problems with the implementation of laws and policies in Nigeria was the enforcement. He therefore called for the establishment of a National Council on Construction Industry charged with the duties of regulating the Nigerian Construction Industry and also making and implementing regulations under the bill.

Earlier, the Chairman of the House Committee on Public Procurement, Hon. Yusuf Tuggar said the bill seeks to make it obligatory for the government of Nigeria and all its Agencies to award construction contracts of up to N5 billion to Nigerian Indigenous Construction Company and to motivate and protect indigenous contractors engaged in construction in Nigeria.

“ Our indigenous contractors have not been able to compete favourably with their foreign counterparts in the construction sector mainly due to their financial disadvantage. This bill when passed will go a long way in remedying the anomaly” he said.

Mr Tuggar said the oil and gas sector was at the local content initiative and wondered why it cannot also be applied in the construction industry. The public hearing was attended by Nigerian Institute of Architects (NIA),representatives of major construction companies in the country and unions in the industry.