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| Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi |
During a lively
discussion held during a meeting of the Association for Consulting Engineering
in Nigeria (ACEN) in Lagos, the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi,
criticised the quality of the engineers the country is currently producing,
especially as it relates to railway technology, which he described as “complex
engineering”.
“Our country cannot
claim to have done a lot of things properly,” Amaechi said, before launching
into a scathing commentary of the nation’s deplorable educational system, which
he blames for the inability of the engineers to deliver as they should.
“I am ashamed that
white men still supervise us during road construction,” he told his audience of
engineers, “and if you are not challenged by the fact that we don’t have an
academic environment that can produce the best in the world, it is unfortunate.”
While noting that
it is impossible to build Nigeria’s development on the back of foreigners, the
minister said the way forward was to invest in education, an idea which he is
promoting by convincing the two major railway contractors in the country –
China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation and General Electric – to
build Universities of Transportation.
“We are asking the
contractors to establish two Universities of Transportation that will train
Nigerian engineers,” Amaechi said. “Ministry of Transportation will pick up the
bill and we will not allow it to go in such a way that it will not be managed
properly or equipped properly.
“I have not seen a
Nigerian Railway Engineer that will deal with railway technology. In my
ministry, anytime we try to recruit Nigerian railway engineers, we don’t have
it. But there are those with degrees in Railway Engineering, and we have told
them to come and establish the same thing that they have in their country here
in Nigeria, train our Nigerian engineers and use them, because we don’t have a
choice. Those who drive trains are Nigerians – that’s easy – but what happens
is that when the train stops, what do we do? That’s where we have Chinese men
who jump down to check the locomotive.”
However, Amaechi’s
dismissal of the capabilities of Nigerian engineers did not go down well with
members of ACEN present at the meeting, who argued that the problem was that
they had not been given enough ample opportunities.
ACEN President, who
also doubles as the Minister of Water Resources, Engr. Suleiman Adamu noted
that “there’s really not much anything about railway; it’s civil, electrical
and mechanical engineering. There are very many qualified Nigerians that have
the basic qualifications, and engineering is all about continuous professional
development. What we are saying is that Nigerian engineers should be given the
chance to participate, understudy; there must be some local component within
the contracts that must allow for local participation of Nigerian engineers.
“We need to see our
contractors moving away from building schools, hostels, classrooms to building
the Fourth Mainland Bridge, for example, building our ports, our refineries,
our airports. That’s the kind of things we want to see. We feel like that we have
come of age.”
Adamu explained
that the advantages foreign contractors have over the local ones have nothing
to do with technical competence. “The only difference that I can think of
between our own local companies and the major players in this country is simple
access to capital,” he said. “They come from their countries and take loans at
two to three per cent and bring in a lot of equipment – construction is about
equipment and technical skill – we have the technical skill; all we need is
access to capital so that we can bring in the right equipment. There is no new
technology that comes in that Nigerians are not capable of acquiring to improve
on their performances.
“As a government,
we have a policy that we must support the local industry; and I think this is
the first time there is a serious discussion on how the Nigerian construction
industry can open up to support more Nigerian professionals and manufacturers.
Just like we have been promoting made-in-Nigeria goods, maybe the time has come
to also promote made-in-Nigeria personnel.”
Source: - Solomon Elusoji | This Day | July, 2017
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