Deregister defaulters on infrastructural failures — FG tells COREN
By Owoleye Oluwakayode
Federal Government has directed that Practitioners in the construction industry who are involved in infrastructural failures to be deregistered regularly.
The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, gave the charge to the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria while speaking at the just concluded 29th Engineering Assembly.
He said, “The unprofessional or unethical engineer must be promptly sanctioned in accordance with the rule of law to prevent them from adversely affecting our national posterity objectives.
“I learnt that some engineers were recently deregistered for professional misconduct to serve as deterrent to others. I believe these sanctions need to be carried out regularly and necessary to avoid infrastructural failures.”
Fashola, who was represented by the Minister of State for Works and Housing, Abubakar Aliyu, also said the Federal Government had awarded contracts for the rehabilitation and construction of over 13,000km of federal roads.
This, he said, was part of measures adopted by the government through his ministry to develop the country’s infrastructure.
He said, “The outline of that infrastructure development is made clear by the fact the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing is currently managing over 800 contracts for roads and bridges covering over 13,000km of the 35,000km of federal highways and bridges.
“In every state of Nigeria today there is a road, bridge or housing project that is under construction.”
Earlier in his address, the President of COREN, Ali Rabiu, observed that the skills gap in the construction sector had continued to increase over the years due to the retirement of aged engineering technicians and craftsmen without the young generation being sufficiently groomed to take over.
“The situation is compounded by the absence of a well-structured TVET (Technical and Vocational Education and Training) and apprenticeship system for workmen in technical colleges,” he stated.
Rabiu said that about 80 per cent of artisans found on construction sites across the country were foreigners from neighbouring nations, adding that Nigeria was losing over N900bn to foreign engineering technicians and craftsmen.
