By Abubakar Yunusa, Abuja
The Nigerian Society of Engineers NSE, Abuja Branch and stakeholders has said that any form of vandalism on critical infrastructure or destruction of public infrastructure is unpatriotic and an act of organized crimes.
The president NSE, Engr Tasiu Gidari Wudil, said this at a one day -Day stakeholders workshop on public infrastructure abuse and vandalism in FCT, held in Abuja, on Wednesday.
The NSE president who was represented by the director of Mass Housing PPP FCDA, Engr Emmanuel Oluwadamis, said infrastructure vandalism is synonymous with vandalism against the state.
He added that because public resources are used to provide infrastructure and when we go to vandalize it. In fact, it is good to say that it is the insurgency that is ravaging the country.
“I think this is a good topic to discuss for awareness creation and for collective protection of our infrastructure. It belongs to us and these are the things that we are going to keep for our upcoming generations. So if we are going to spend time and energy destroying what we have built, it is as good as not building it in the first place.
“So I want us to use this forum to discuss this matter extensively and give it all the attention and publicity that it needs, especially our colleagues in the security agencies to see how they can help us to maneuver around this issue.”
In his welcome address, the chairman NSE Abuja Branch, Engr Ben Osy Okoh, stated that the infrastructure is a vision for development and it provides services that enable the society to function and its economy.
Okoh said “the Nigeria infrastructure deficit remains the physical component that continues to undermine. It is estimated that the country will require about $800bn annually for ten years to close this gap.
“This deficit has contributed to limiting Nigeria’s growth and competitive abilities globally despite the numerous ways of infrastructure provisions and the enormous challenges it imposes on our economic growth and development.
“It is unthinkable that the few provided infrastructures are being vandalized by some scrupulous element and the economic saboteurs. These activities have generated beyond the paramount importance of good tests hence, they pose a great danger to the efforts of the government and the lives of many Nigerians.
“Vandalization of public infrastructural facilities is a persistent problem of all the Nigerians urban centers today including the FCT. This has undoubtedly strained the government’s limited resources of federal, state and local government levels, rather than utilizing the government resources used in providing the infrastructure. The government is compelled to channel its resources to replace rehabilitated or reconstruct the vandalized infrastructures.
“The abuse and vandalism of public infrastructure weaken the infrastructure efficiency, they seriously upset the utility and sustainable livelihood. Some of these activities include: stealing of communication cables, stealing of bridges drainages among many others too numerous to mention.
“Many lives have been lost as a result of damage to infrastructures. There are those who died as a result of vandalized electricity wires, there are those who died as a result of opened manholes. The increasing rate of vandalism in Abuja has brought serious concern.
“The civility cultivating purity and the engineering artists that have done the landscape of Abuja are not what we can afford and watch unpatriotic elements destroy, all hands must be on deck to stop this ugly act.”
Also , the executive secretary, FCDA, Engr Shehu Hadi Ahmed, said that the security agencies with responsibility of protecting critical infrastructure should also endeavor to scale up the activities of tackling this ugly menace.
The executive secretary who was represented by the director Engr services FCDA, Engr Ezeoba, noted that it is also important to note that the sources of critical infrastructure protection rely on strong and meaningful partnership among us stakeholders.
“I therefore, challenge also most especially engineers who are responsible for this Infrastructure and other stakeholders including security agencies to raise up to challenges and find means of covering this instant abuse and vandalism of public infrastructure.
“Most of these are as a result of lack of responsible advocacy and public awareness and inadequate security. In this case I will say if you see something say something. These things belong to all of us. So vandalism of infrastructure is a crime against the state. These are state money that is used to provide this infrastructure. So anybody, if you keep quiet, we are equally injuring ourselves,” he said.
