PROPERTY TRANSACTION GUIDE

Engineers must be visible in quest for national development, says Bido
By CHINEDUM UWAEGBULAM, ASSISTANT HOUSING & ENVIRONMENT EDITOR

Guardian, 6th February, 2012

Not many people have passion for their career, but Bolaniran Akinribido, popularly known as Bola Bido is quite different. He enjoys his profession in engineering, ranks as one of those outspoken individuals that chart the course of the society. Currently, working as the coordinator, Project Management Office (PMO) at the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), he joined Ikeja branch of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) in 1996 and served in various committees. Firstly, starting as the Secretary to the Technical Committee in 1996. Since then, he has always been in the Executive Committee of the Branch. He was the Branch Orator until he was elected Vice Chairman in 2009, subsequently became chairman of The Branch recently. In this interview with Chinedum Uwaegbulam, Assistant Housing & Environment Editor, he bares his mind on some pressing issues concerning the engineering profession

THE Ikeja branch has been a flagship body under the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), sometimes setting the pace for others. What is the magic wand behind the successes of the branch?

The Ikeja branch is known as the branch to beat in all spheres of engineering. We have been the leading front of all the branches in Nigeria. The achievement was due to so many factors: One, the branch was laid on a good foundation. A renowned industrialist, motivator and organiser, Mr. Lanre Alabi, started it and everybody that headed the branch has built on that. The structure is there and the environment is conducive, as we are located within the best industrial layout in Nigeria and seat of power for the Lagos State government. So mobilising people and resources have always been easy. Most of the good dynamics we had within the NSE, we always come first or second position. We are a leading front in projecting engineering profession, representing the engineers and developing the young ones.

As the new chairman of the leading branch or The branch, what agenda have you set for accomplishment in the Ikeja branch?

Immediately, we came in, I set for myself an agenda to transform the NSE, from what it is today, and that is to take it to a greater height. Our major focus now is rebranding. My goal is to refocus the way society views the profession and an average engineer.

Today, an average engineer is seen as somebody who should not be heard. Somebody who works in an organisation and when it comes to decision-making, he/she is not considered. Gone are the days engineers are happy when the factories are working. We want to rebrand NSE so that we can change current perspective of the society on engineers and engineering, especially in the political arena.

Oftentimes, engineers have bemoaned their neglect. Do your think the government should be blamed for their preference for foreign expertise or the indigenous engineers have shown lack of capacity to handle projects?

Well, it is true that over the years, up till now, the engineers have not been given its rightful place in the management of this country. People will refer to such issues as not having engineers as Minister of Works, Communication and all the like. For me, we have ourselves to blame because for you to be recognised, you must be visible. Nobody takes a crown and why looking for someone to crown it, gives to the one hiding, except the story of Joseph in the Bible. I will blame the engineers for the government not recognising us. I believe that if we were visible in the market place, political arena, the government would not have any choice than to recognise us.

How can the engineers occupy their rightful place in the country?

The government must give the Nigerian engineers the opportunity, but as I always say, nobody will give you an opportunity on a platter of gold. In salary negotiation, you only get what you negotiated. Nobody gives you what you deserve. In the politics of Nigeria, whatever is our lot as engineers, is what we have been able to negotiate. Those who currently run Nigeria knows that they need Nigerian engineers; they know that if nation must move forward, we cannot do that without the Nigerian engineers.

Today, there is this penchant for foreign contractors for whatever reason; one major reason is corruption. A lot of people have identified in recent times as being the bane of our problem. But the engineering profession is in the forefront of fighting corruption. While fighting corruption, we must be seen to be doing that. Today, we fight corruption may be within ourselves, within the society, may be meetings. So, we need to take the challenge to government officials, be visible and create awareness. That’s the game. If we don’t know how to play the game, other people will continue to occupy our rightful position.

For example, when the Federal government appointed a pharmacist as a Minister of Health, the Nigeria Medical Association didn’t write memo to government, they stood up and protested. They threatened to go on industrial strike, until the issue was resolved. When any decision will be taken along that line, government will think twice as nobody wants to create unnecessary tension within an industrial sector. So, if we can emulate that and make ourselves more relevant and visible, speak on any public issue, the government has no other option than to recognise us.

Nigeria is having a fair share of public infrastructure collapse, especially roads, which the authorities are blaming on the compromise between the engineers and contractors. Is this allegation true?

That is far from the truth. The truth of the matter is we have very qualified engineers in this country that can match their own anywhere in the world. For example, those issues that have to do with collapse of building, roads, power systems and others, who are the executors? Non-qualified engineers executed them. As for today, engineering is an all comers’ profession. You go to the market place, you see a lot of emergency contractors. Just because of the corruption today, you have a whole engineering companies that do not have a qualified engineer in its employment. What do they have? You have all kinds of craftsmen and impostors masquerading as engineers. But because Nigeria has not gotten to a level, where we can monitor our own, people go away with this. If they say they are engineers, ask them to bring their qualification, which school did they attend? What is the number given to them by Council for Regulation for the Engineering in Nigeria (COREN)? But they are the ones that get the biggest jobs because they are politicians and some of them are close to the government. They get these jobs, they keep on selling it until the job goes to about four stages before it gets to the actual person who will implement it. I can assure you that no engineer that worth is salt will take such job, only companies that have unqualified engineers. They take the jobs and it collapses in few days. They will say the engineers have done it again.

COREN has a process of certification today that you can say with all confidence, that if you have COREN certification, you are qualified to practice engineering with different types of professional development being offered by the NSE and different consultants in this country. Our engineers are ready to do any job and do it well.

From your statement, there seems to be huge problem in national development as a result of the siege by unqualified engineers in the marketplace. What have Ikeja branch done to check the activities of these persons?

In Ikeja branch, we encourage our members that works in factories and other establishments to join us. In the process, we help them regularise their registration and certification with COREN. But the responsibility of monitoring and making sure that non-engineers or those who are not registered do not practice as engineers is not that of the NSE, but that of COREN. Unfortunately, as presently constituted, COREN does not have branches, as COREN is a government body. But to help them achieve this, they have collaborated with branches and set up what is called Engineering, Regulation and Monitoring (ERM) Unit, which has the responsibility of visiting these factories and using a template to assess data as well as ensure that those employed by companies and organisations are actually qualified to practice engineering.

But we have been having major challenges, because as of today, COREN has not woken up to its responsibility like what National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) did in sanitising and re-engineering the pharmaceutical industry. COREN must wake up to its duties to making sure that this country is devoid of fake engineers. Not only Nigerians pose as fake engineers, there are a lot of expatriates that have come into this country without qualification, even from their own countries. When they get here, the parent company lord these technicians or craftsmen over qualified Nigerian engineers. We have some of these complaints from Nigerian engineers. We set up ERM and the few times, we have gone out, there have been serious challenges, we need to use force on companies to ensure compliance.

What other hindrances are militating against the development of engineering profession in the country?

There is high unemployment of Nigerian engineers. We have gotten to a point that so many undergraduates are refusing to take engineering as a course; even those who are engineers are discouraging their children in studying engineering. Why? They look at your efforts and your life as well as colleagues in other profession. In JAMB admissions, look at the number of people trooping to read accountancy and banking. If COREN do not fight for the profession, there is little some of us can do. We can only appeal to COREN to do something about the young graduates roaming about the streets looking for jobs, yet we have non- engineers posing as engineers and companies who have expatriates technicians or craftsmen occupying sensitive positions.