Nigerian Engineers have been urged to commit to professionalism and adhere to codes, standards and regulations in their operations.
The President of the council for Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria, COREN, Mr. Ali Rabiu made the call in Abuja the nation’s capital, at the 30th Engineering Assembly themed “Domestication and Development of codes, Standards and Regulations as a Panacea for Engineering infrastructure failures in Nigeria.“
Mr. Rabiu said the theme of this year’s event was apt as it would provide members with the unique opportunity to deliberate on the challenges of incessant engineering failures, profound remedies and also reflect on the state of engineering by providing vibrant resolutions.
“Consistent with the initiative of the Council to institute the Nigerian Engineering Codes and Standards, as Council standing committee was inaugurated, I hereby confirm as an update that much has not been achieved and there is need for a review and articulation of the issues.
“There has been various contestation on propriety of having the Nigerian Codes and Standards, which is the position of some stakeholders, while others advise that we adopt one of the existing ones.”
Highlighting the Engineers’ Code of Conduct since the last Assembly, Mr. Rabiu said: “The code of conduct is to seeks and preserve the high ethical standards of engineering profession, which is the highest priority statutes of COREN.
“It is also meant to guide COREN Registered practitioners in their practices and ethical decision making, the document has been carefully compiled to ensure that engineering practice in Nigeria is in line with World best practices, so that all professional activities as well as the practitioner’s disposition towards colleagues, client, the public, service to humanity, etc, are done with utmost care and due diligence.“
Also, describing the harmonised Practitioners’ Registration Interview, the COREN President, said, over the years, the Council has devised several mechanisms for achieving an organised and business-like registration procedure, across board.
He said the procedures have continuously been reviewed to accommodate varying circumstances in line with available global professional registration policies, adding that COREN approved the Guidelines for Registration of Practitioners, which is the current extant document being used for registration.
“The guidelines spell out the qualifications and experience required to be attained by prospective registrants, including the approved procedure for the registration, of which a major requirement, is the professional examination or interview.“
The COREN President said: “The Council has therefore reviewed and approved the harmonisation of the interviews and also rationalised the examiners selection process including their accreditation and training.
“Henceforth, the COREN professional interview will be used both for the registration with Council and the related Professional Associations.“
On the issues of COREN-Special Panel on technical inquisition on the collapsed 21-Storey Building in Lagos State, South-west, Nigeria, he said “following the collapse and pursuant to Section 1(1) h of the COREN Act. 2018 which empowered the council to Investigate Engineering Failures with highly experienced professionals across the Built Environment.
“Gleaning from the report of the panel, I wish to confirm that, the Client being the Developer and the Contractor as well as the most important stakeholder in this project, did not discharge his responsibilities with the weight that comes with it;
The Client engaged an engineering contracting firm rather than an Engineering Consulting Firm to design the buildings.
“There were lapses during the approval and supervision processes. The regulatory authorities, particularly the Lagos State building control approvals were not available, the cause of the collapse of the 21-storey building was adjudged to be due to combined stress failure of the columns at the lower floors and report also confirmed some of the things that we have always known and for which Council is of the opinion that, Developers need to be constantly reminded that using unqualified or unregistered professionals is counterproductive.”
In his goodwill message, representative of the Speaker of the House of Representative of Nigeria, Femi Gbajabiamila, Ali Wudil task COREN to ensure that only competent and qualified professionals are involved in building construction.
He assured COREN that the Lawmakers are proud and Everly ready to support the council on issues of amendment act for infrastructural and development in the country.
