By Johnbosco Agbakwuru
Calabar—The Nigerian Society of Engineers, NSE, has called on the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency in the transport sector; rail, marine and air transportation systems and steel production as a result of dilapidation in the sector.

The call for the declaration of state of the emergency on the nation’s highways was part of the  statement after the 2011, National Content Committee workshop of NSE at Tinapa Business Resort and Leisure, Calabar, Cross River State.

Besides, the engineers said the country’s dream to be among the top 20 economies in the world might remain a wishful thinking until there was revolution on infrastructural development and called for the strengthening of the ongoing power reform and liberalisation policy in order to sustain progress in all ongoing Nigerian content development initiatives.

It said, “Infrastructural development is integral to the practice of engineering and indeed a catalyst to national socio-economic development. The Nigerian Society of Engineers supported by the government should engage in focused training and retraining to build national capacities, encourage innovation and entrepreneurial initiatives among its members. This calls for another state of emergency in the rebuilding of all educational infrastructural facilities.

“The manufacturing sector is a major pillar for the sustenance of the Nigerian Content Development; deliberate efforts should be made to ensure its revival and repositioning in order to reap the enormous benefit derivable from a viral manufacturing sector”, it stated.

Delivering an address at the workshop with the theme “Infrastructure Development as a Stimulus for the implementation of the Nigerian Content Act”, Chairman of National Content Committee, NSE, Engr. Chris Okoye said unless there was a concerted efforts towards the development of infrastructure every other efforts towards making the country one of the world’s leading economies will remain a mirage.

He said, “Nigeria’s dreams and aspirations of emerging as one of the world’s top 20 economies by the year 2020 will only remain as a mere unfulfilled dreams and inordinate aspirations unless the development of infrastructure (manpower) is made a cardinal point of Nigerian economic planning.

“A country’s economic strength and to a large extent the sense of national pride is inseparably hinged on her level, depth and ownership of technological advancements which can only come about by robust  adaptations of the excellence in contemporary engineering practice”, he said.

Engr. Okoye said for any country or nation state to evolve into the mould of the developed economies in the present day, she must harness and refine home grown technologies that would allow her to dictate the pace of her growth and be the master of her own destiny as she constructs and maintain her own infrastructure without disruptions to her fiscal and cultural space.

According to him, in spite of the nation’s huge oil and gas reserves and the inmate potentials of her people, it was yet to be reckoned with as an engineering giant, stressing that the level of engineering practice of any given country is a direct function of its state of infrastructural development.

He said that there was an absence of industrial and legal framework for driving the implementation of the country’s institutional agenda and that it appeared that governments at various levels paid lip-service to the evolution of Nigeria Local Content.

In his keynote address, the Executive Secretary, Petroleum Technology Development Fund, PTDF, Engr. Muttagha  Darma said in economic terms, the development of any nation’s infrastructure should be the catalyst and most singular important factor for nation building.

The PTDF boss said, “Without it, no matter what progress there appears to be, it will just amount to no development”, adding, “Most developed nations in the world jump-started their economies by accelerating their infrastructure and building on it thereby driving employment generation and wealth creation”.

Engr. Darme said that infrastructure development is a key driver for the implementation of Nigerian Content Act and advised Nigerian engineers to always strive to obtain quality training and practice in order to be able to participate effectively in the project activities to enhance the nation’s content.