By Moses Nosike

At the recently concluded 2022 engineering week of the Nigerian Society of Engineers Ikeja branch, Nigerians had frowned at the rate of building collapse and epileptic power supply that has crippled the economic growth and development of the country and therefore called for a state of emergency on the country’s power sector.

The organisers of the week long programme with the theme; “Taking Responsibility for Nigeria’s Transformation: The Imperatives for Engineers”, also called on engineers, government, public and private sectors to assume responsibility towards transforming Nigeria, even as they engaged professionals as keynote speakers and panel discussants who proffered solutions to the reoccurring wave of building collapse as well as Power and Energy insufficiency in Nigeria.

Speaking at the media parley at NSE Ikeja branch Secretariat, a past chairman of the branch and Chairman Arup Nigeria, Engr. Adekunle Adebajo in his lecture on why buildings collapse especially in Lagos said that developers cut corners to maximise profits at the detriment of human lives.

Engr. Adebajo also advised that the services of professional engineers must be employed to carry out building construction to avoid building collapses and minimise quacks rushing into building constructions.

Continuing, Engr. Adebajo said, “for this campaign against building collapse to achieve desired results, there is need for collaboration so that building constructions can be properly monitored by government agencies in order to save lives and property.

In addition, the keynote address delivered by the Honourable Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development in Lagos State, Dr. Idrisokanla Salako speaking on the building collapse said, “it is important for us as major actors in the built environment to approach equity with clean hands. I must say that this workshop is well-timed and aptly focused. A corollary to the theme of building collapse is the issue of voluntary compliance which is in tandem with ongoing efforts to promote wholesale adoption of positive behaviours towards the physical environment of the State.

According to him, the avowed solution to building collapse is compliance, which simply implies, “Building right” by following the dictates of Physical Planning laws.

Continuing he said that to reinforce compliance, it is important to maintain effective monitoring while advocating and enforcing the desired behaviour where necessary. As you are aware, the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development and its Agencies are in the vanguard of the “M” Pillar of the THEMES Agenda – “Making Lagos a 21st Century Economy”. However, this tall vision can not be attained without the cooperation of all concerned.

Speaking also, the NSE Ikeja branch Chairman, Engr. Tosin Ogunmola (who is serving his last tenure) while responding to questions from newsmen on what it takes the the branch to achieve this level of programme said, “I want to really leave with something that resonate with my passion, and my passion most fundamentally is nation building and that is why I guided my colleagues, the branch executive committee as well as the Planning Committee to drive the theme for the engineering week which is, “Taking Responsibility For the Transformation of Nigeria; the Imperatives for Engineers. “I want to say this in the words of a man called, Idran Bajan who said, ‘without engineering, there is no civilization’. So if we must indeed transform Nigeria this is a call to action to engineers that we have a fundamental role to play.

However, taking that as a fundamental theme, we now look at those areas we can begin to take responsibility.

During the press conference, we looked at the area of building collapse, and we said as engineers we should be able to address that issue. Then we looked at another issue, power supply. We all know and of course, this also resonated with the honoree of the day, Engr. Ademola Isaac Olorunfemi. What we have done with the annual programme is in his honour as a past president of the NSE who served from 2014 to 2015. He was the first person to undertake the assignment on infrastructure score card for Nigeria. So he is so passionate about infrastructure and that is why we instituted this colloquium in his honour on, “Engineering, Resilient and Sustainable Infrastructure”.

According to Engr. Olutosin, that is the entire global theme of the colloquium. “We now said, what is the topic we can treat this year, it also resonated in him that the issue of power is an urgency in the country, which we must declare for state of emergency because power is more or less the engine of the economy. If the economy must make progress we must get power right. Fundamentally you will understand that it is commonly said and known that the basic need of man is economic, so if power is an issue in economic progress, it will affect the citizens of this country”.

In the same vein, Engineer Ademola Isaac Olorunfemi, the honoree of the Colloquium said, “in the 90s I started with Ikeja branch and I served as publicity secretary before I came to the national level. In the past 12 years I have been the president of civil engineers and we prepared an infrastructure score card which has come to stay. There is insufficient power supply in the country. Power is the centre of it all. Next year we look at agriculture. I am also an Agricultural engineer. This platform is an avenue I can use to contribute to the growth and development of Nigeria.

In the same vein, the keynote speaker at the Colloquium; the Honourable Minister of Power, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Engr. Abubakar D. Aliyu, represented by Special adviser, Technical Services to the Honourable Minister of Power, Engr. Kingsley Odoh responding to the topic: Power & Energy Insufficiency in Nigeria – The Way Forward said that the topic is very relevant because NSE is the heart of engineering and is able to put up some solutions that government would look at in terms of building policy for getting the power sector better.

However, I want to establish that the power sector project is a long term project in that if you start the project now it can take another three years for you to complete. “Though there has been some mistakes at some point right from the last administration, but the correction and ongoing processes of putting structures that would better the power sector is an ongoing conversation that requires every Nigerian so that we can solve the issue of power sector”.

Engr. Odoh who agreed that engineering profession is a passion, said, “it is not something you do today and forget about tomorrow. So, I encourage young engineers to have the same passion and have quality in their thinking and ensure that challenges are tackled.

At the grand finale and dinner night at Airport Hotel, the Nigeria Society of Engineers, Ikeja branch gave out five categories of award which include, Distinguished Award of Corporate Excellence, Award of Outstanding Performance, Lifetime Achievement Award, Spouses Forum Leadership Award, Spouses Forum Distinguished Award and Spouses Forum Excellence Award. It was a night of hundred (100) awards as a total of hundred awards were bestowed on Senior and Young Engineers of the Branch, Corporate bodies, Government officials, guests and Engineers’ spouses.