• engineering suffering in Nigeria -COREN President
By Christiana Ekpa
Deputy minority leader of the House of Representatives, Hon. Toby Okechukwu, Wednesday, said that the roads infrastructure in Nigeria would be hard to realize if the fund bills were not assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari.
He said that two bills, roads fund bill and road authority bill passed into law by the national assembly to give a facelift to the sector were rejected.
Okechukwu spoke in Abuja when the President, Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), Rabiu Ali led a delegation of the association to present a letter of honorary fellowship of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) to him.
The deputy minority leader however appealed to president Buhari and all concerned Nigerians to give attention to the bills.
He appreciated COREN for the award, saying that engineering practice was significant to the development of any society.
He said: “I am happy that the NSE placed me at the top of their professional calling and reward system. On a serious note, engineering crisscrosses our lives. It controls 90 percent of our lives. If we neglect or ignore engineering, we do so at our peril. When we came in as Committee of Works, we were able to diagnose the challenges in the industry, capacity, personal issues and how the profession is practiced. That was how we came up with the idea of amending the COREN act. We also diagnosed funding issues regarding roads construction, maintenance and we came up with roads fund bill. We also dealt with the issue of organizational structure of that outfit that will maintain and develop roads. We also came up with the idea of roads authority bill. Those bills passed all through the platforms of national assembly, in the house and in the Senate. It was passed to Mr. President, unfortunately, we were not on the same page or they could not be up to speed regarding approving it. Luckily, COREN bill passed and it’s now an act of the parliament and I am happy that you are here to follow it up.
“So, it is our pray that the roads find bill and roads authority bill should be paid attention to.
“The other day I was listening to the minister and he said they have over 10 trillion liability and 765 billion outstanding certificates. There is no way you can develop growth in this country without dealing with the issue of reforms in the system and those acts were meant to cure that. So, I am really happy that at least one is down, then, the other two to go. We must follow up the activism and the pressure from the press has to be momentous.
“Anybody who tells you that road construction in this country can get any golden era without those roads reform bills passed into law or without Mr. President signing it is joking.
“Hon. Maren was the person who moved the motion for us to investigate the PPP arrangement with regards to Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and then, Second Niger Bridge. Otherwise, it was PPP. When he did that, we knew what we wanted to achieve because the PPP arrangements were not working. We called motorways and all those people who were involved and eventually, those PPP arrangements after our public hearing, we were on the same page with the minister. The federal government had to take back their assets and that is why they reawarded them and that’s why you got them to finish.
“And it is the funding machanism that is making possible that they are the only projects that have a pathway to completion. So, if anybody is telling you we are completing this or that, it’s not possible. No body is the problem of roads in Nigeria. It is the method and plan we have for it. So, the earlier we deal with it, the better. And NSE is at the forefront. If the practice for construction work is going well, our people will blossom. There isn’t any problem. It’s not because of incompetent contractors. Nobody is taking your money. Unless you have asphalted, nobody is going to give you any penny. But they are not in a position to do so because it is not funded. So, I wanted to use this opportunity to make that point. So, I appreciate deeply what you have done. I will also follow up to make sure the profession get the necessarily momentum it supposed to get.”
Presenting the award letter earlier, Engr. Ali said that the fellowship was sequel to Okechukwu’s contribution to engineering in Nigeria especially in amending the COREN act.
He said that engineering has received a boost with the new law.
