President Muhammadu Buhari has called on Nigerian engineers to utilise the nation’s natural resources to make it an industrial hub that would create jobs and reduce poverty.
Buhari made the call on Saturday in Abuja at the investiture of Mr Adekunle Mokuolu as the 31st President of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE).
Represented by Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, the Minister of Science and Technology, Buhari said that many nations had become great by utilising their natural resources through science and technology.
Onu pledged the commitment of the Federal Government to partner with Nigerian engineers to ensure the realisation of its policies and initiatives.
The President said that the recent policy guidelines on the design, planning and execution of projects would address some of the challenges confronting engineering practice in Nigeria.
“We expect our engineers to be in the vanguard of the scientific and technological renaissance that we have inaugurated through innovative policies with the aim to spearhead the development of our nation.
“These policy guidelines, which have already been approved by the Federal Executive Council, are reviewed with great revolutionary potential that will be of great benefits to the generality of our engineers.
“I challenge our engineers to jump on the bandwagon and seize the opportunities created by these guidelines for their benefits and the benefit of the nation,” he said.
In his remarks, Mr Otis Anyaeji, the immediate past President of NSE, attributed the achievements recorded during his tenure to the support and understanding of members of the society.
Anyaeji identified the installation of elevators, furnishing of NSE complex as well as influencing the appointment of engineers in some political positions as some of the achievements recorded.
The society immediate past president, who served in 2016/2017, however, decried the low level of involvement of engineers at the policy making level in the country. (NAN)
