By Princess-Ekwi Ajide – Abuja
The Federal government of Nigeria has reiterated commitment to infrastructural Development and Economic growth of the country.
The Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, affirmed this, while addressing members of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Bwari branch, during their 2022 Annual Public Lecture.
Sen. Akpabio said over the years, Nigeria had suffered poor development in the infrastructure sector, which affected its economic growth, and there have been many approaches around infrastructural development and several presentations by past administrations with little or no active action in reality.
He stressed that the engineering profession has a critical role to play in a vast facet of our national life hence the need to initiate the process of technology transfer that would help young engineers deepen their technical proficiency which they can leverage on to become employers of labour.
The Minister explained that the public lecture with a focus on the Gas Sector demonstrates its understanding of the time and NSE’s determination to contribute to National Economic Growth and expressed hope that engineering would continue to occupy a critical role in National Development.
“There is no misgiving in admitting that as a professional body, your association have acquitted yourself. However, there is some noticeable gap. Our young engineers are more theoretically grounded than being practically equipped. There is a need to expose them to frequent training and re-training to make them compete favorably with their counterparts all over the world. I look forward to when we would have wholly owned Nigerian Construction firms in the mould of established construction companies,” he said.
Sen. Akpabio further emphasised that to achieve the feat, there must be a process of technology transfer that will help young engineers deepen their technical proficiency with consistent robbing of minds as the case of the public lecture, which will give room for greater horizon for the Nigerian society of engineers and engineers.
According to him, the President Muhammadu Buhari led administration has made the Nigerian Society of Engineers proud as it is the present administration that brought about unbridled revolution in the building of Public infrastructure, citing rail lines and trains as vivid examples adding that the administration has been adjudged as having constructed more roads than any other administration since the return to democracy.
The former governor, explained that the Second Niger Bridge is now visually evidential with work progressing at appreciable speed, adding that the professional body should be grateful to President Buhari for his revolutionary approach to ending the long decay of National infrastructures.
