Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State has challenged Nigerians engineers to use their training and skills to proffer practical solutions to issues of infrastructure, especially power.
Governor Sule three the challenge while delivering his goodwill message during the opening ceremony of the 32nd Engineering Assembly of the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) in Abuja on Tuesday.
According to the Governor, time for talk amongst engineers is over, especially with the present challenges confronting the country.
“I think it’s about time as engineers we make the necessary impact. We have talked a lot and we have talked enough. We have gone through so many communique, we have gone through so many summits. I think with the challenges Nigeria is facing, it is about time that at the end of this event, we should at least pick one or two areas and make necessary impact so that Nigerians would agree that engineers have arrived,’ he said.
He identified areas such as infrastructure, power and energy as areas Nigerian engineers can focus on with a view to preferring practical solutions to address the challenges inherent in these areas.
The Governor lamented that for over 15 years, since the formulation of the Vision2020, when the country planned to produce 50,000 megawatt of electricity from the 6000 being produced then, Nigeria is still producing less than 6000 megawatt of power.
He therefore emphasized that Nigerian engineers must do something in order to practically demonstrate their impact in the society.
“We must pick an area and say this is the problem, this is the solution and we must drive it to fruition. Because Nigerians are intelligent, Nigerians have the capacity. Engineers in Nigeria are some of the best engineers you can find in the US and other countries. We must do something to be able to show practically that we are truly engineers who are making this impact,” he stated.
Citing the Dangote refinery as example, Governor Sule however said it is not all bad news, especially that Nigerian engineers played critical role in delivering the refinery that is comparable only to a similar refinery in Pasadena, Texas and has 98 arms making it possible to load 98 trucks at a go.
He used the opportunity to highlight some of the achievements recorded by his administration in Nasarawa State.
“When I realized I was going to contest for governorship election in 2019, I approached KPMG to assist me to come up with a report called the Nasarawa Economic Development Strategy. I said as an engineer I have no excuse to go and fail in Nasarawa because it will be the failure of NSE and COREN. I said I must go there and succeed. I can’t succeed without knowing where I am going.
“That is why we came up with the NEDS to give us what are the prospects and challenges in Nasarawa State. What can we do? How do we achieve that? Inaugurated an advisory committee to assist the government drive its policies.Today, we are making those progress.
“Two months ago, Mr President was in Nasarawa State to commission our very first lithium mining factory that has the capacity to process 4000 metric tones of lithium a day. Next week, we are commissioning another tin mining and processing plant again in Lafia. We focused in the oil and gas sector. Because I am interested in what is happening in the Northern belt, to say how much do we have in the Benue Trough. I am happy to say that we have been able to discover oil in Keana in the neighborhood of over one billion barrels that you will only be able to compare with the Bonga, the Elha, the Agbani and those kinds of big fields that are offshore Nigeria,” he said.
The 32nd Engineering Assembly of the Council for Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria has the theme: ‘Regulating Engineering for a Shared prosperity in Nigeria’.
