ON the internet a few days ago, I came across a news item which proclaimed that stakeholders are kicking as the Federal Government launches the National Policy on Welding. 

First, I was pleasantly surprised that the central government, which hitherto had demonstrated crass incompetence in the management of our affairs, could find a profession like welding, populated mostly by artisans, worthy of national attention. It then came to light that the Nigerian Institute of Welding had come to life many years earlier to give voice and structure to welding as an emerging professional voice in the spirit of the Nigerian Local Content Act.

The news report I came across alleged, among other things, that “there appears to be some confusion regarding what’s louder: the applause from the December 4th launch of the National Welding Policy by the Federal Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, FMSTI, or the outright rejection of the policy by many industry stakeholders.”

Who the stakeholders are was not specified in the report, which went further to aver that “there is overwhelming conclusion by industry and professional bodies that the process has been conducted in total secrecy with the coloration of gross personal interest.”

This is  where a departure from what occured and what the report attempted to portray happened. To those who have maintained interest in matters relating to the National Institute of Welding and related matters, it could be recalled that the Ministry of Science and Technology headed by Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu during the Buhari administration did a lot of work to further the welding profession.

In 2021, Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, inaugurated a committee for the drafting of the  National Policy on Welding and Welding Related Fields; and National Status Survey on Welding and Welding related fields with specific Terms of reference. The Committee met severally for a period of about 12 months. The council of the NIW was apprised of this via a memorandum, part of which stated:

“The purpose of this memorandum is to inform Council that the Committees for Drafting of national policy on welding and related fields and national status survey on welding and related fields was inaugurated in Abuja on 6th May, 2021 by the Honorable Minister. This is in fulfillment of the Council approval at the 16th meeting of the national Council of Science, Technology and innovation held in Lafia, Nasarawa State in 2018 followed by the Honorable Minister’s approval for commencement of a national status survey on welding capability and capacity across relevant sectors of the economy and drafting of a national policy on welding and its related field for onward presentation to the Federal Executive Council, FEC, through the Ministry.”

The drafting of the policy was completed and critiqued in April, 2022; validated in May, 2022 and approved by Federal Executive Council on October, 26th, 2022. 

The policy covered Vision Statement, Mission Statement, Underlying Philosophy, Policy Strategies, Human Resources Development in Welding, Local Content Policy on Welding and Welding Related Fields, Funding, Monitoring,  Evaluation and Reporting, and Establishment of Centers of Excellence.

The critiquing of the policy was carried out at the ICT hall of the Ministry in Abuja and was attended by critical stakeholders.  The validation session was chaired by then Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, while the Minister of State, Permanent Secretary, a cross section of the Directors, Federal Ministries, State Ministries of Science and Technology, Standard Organisation of Nigeria, the Academia, NCDMB and other critical stakeholders were in attendance. The Policy was therefore validated at this meeting on the 29th of May, 2023.

Further, a combined team from Nigerian Institute of Welding and Federal Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation met and developed the implementation strategy.

As such, the December 4 launch of the National Policy on Welding was the outcome of actions undertaken in that regard by the Buhari administration, with Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu as the minister driving policy actualisation. Since government is a continuum, it only makes sense that the Tinubu administration continued where Buhari stopped. 

A process that took more than two years since 2021, with several meetings in government offices, cannot be said to be “shrouded in secrecy with the coloration of personal interest.” In any case, if there is no personal interest, what informs the allegation of personal interest? Why didn’t the sponsors of the aforementioned story carry placards in protest to the venue of the policy launch?

My take is that the nation’s population of artisanal welders, who are now about to be upgraded into the orbit of dignified professionalism should not be denied this golden opportunity through needless agitations. In fact, this is a clarion call on other professions, like carpentry, printing, bricklaying and others to raise their ante and seek government support by way of cogent national policies as has now been done for welders. From here on with this policy, the welding profession is set to take off like a phoenix as it gets to take its rightful place with the National Content Act as enabler.