By Oluwatope Lawanson
The Nigeria Academy of Engineering (NAE) has advised President Bola Tinubu to appoint relevant experienced professionals to head professional ministries.
The NAE President, Prof. Azikiwe Onwualu, gave the advice at the NAE Annual Lecture, Investiture of New Fellows and Life Achievement Awards held at University of Lagos, Akoka on Thursday.
According to him, engineering-based Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in particular should be headed by professional engineers or allied professionals.
The NAE president also recommended that government should involve strong institutions for effective implementation of policies and laws.
“Efforts should be made to build and strengthen institutions of government as they are key in policy implementation.
“There is need for a systemic peer review of MDAs towards some form of ranking, rationalisation, and monitoring and evaluation to optimise performance and productivity.
“Also, they should appropriate feedback based on monitoring and evaluation systems, and the use of engineering and technology to optimise project implementation,” he said.
Similarly, an inductee, Sen. Iyiola Omisore, who spoke on behalf of the newly inducted fellows, pledged to uphold the tenets and ethics of the engineering profession.
“As fellows of NAE, we will contribute to the advancement of knowledge and promotion of excellence in engineering to the best of our ability.”
On appointing relevant experienced professionals to head professional ministries, Omisore, the National Secretary of the ruling party, the All Progressive Congress, urged policy makers and the president not to place such task in the hands of mediocres.
He said: “Mediocres should not be placed at the head of ministries, rather professionals should be put at the helms of affairs in order to make the country move forward.”
Omisore noted that the country could only move forward through functional engineering system.
He, therefore, implored engineers to scale-up their skills by training and retraining so that unskilled and inexperienced engineers do not take over the administration capacity of the country. (NAN)
