The Vice Chancellor, University of Abuja, Professor Abdulrasheed Na’allah, has charged the National Society of Engineers (NSE) and other professional bodies to comply with Executive Order 5 of President Mohammadu Buhari which calls for partnership with government to improve local content and value addition.
Na’allah made the call thursday in Abuja while addressing the 4th annual conference and general meeting of the NSE Giri branch convened on the theme: “Utilising Emerging Disruptive technologies for sustainable national development”.
It would be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari earlier this year signed Executive Order 5 to improve local content in public procurement with science, engineering and technology components.
The Executive Order is expected to promote the application of science, technology and innovation towards achieving the nation’s development goals across all sectors of the economy.
Represented by the Professor of Development Economics, Prof. Nazifi Darma, he said executive order 5 gives opportunities for local content development.
“One of the area of complains of professional in Nigeria is that contracts awards were not give to them but with the Executive order it will go a long way but, the NSE must put their house in order so that quacks will take over their jobs,” he said.
“Most importantly, NSE need to enlighten the public on the need to engage only registered engineers by asking for their COREN registration number before they awarded contracts in the name of engineers,” he stressed.
The VC further urged the NSE to partner with local branches to ensure buildings are constructed by registered engineers for better standardisation, stressing the need for real stock taking and re-evaluation in order to know what members of the association were doing.
In his welcome address, the Chairman of NSE, Giri branch, Engr. Olayinka Abdulkareem said the theme was apt, explaining that disruptive technology was synonymous to growth, advancement and development.
In a paper presentation the Guest Speaker, a fellow of the Institute of Policy Management, Engr. James Agajo, said it was imperative to say that Businesses need to stay ahead in an environment of continual evolution and change.
According to him, “Engaging technologically informed and adaptive regulatory reforms, and improving infrastructure and human capital to capture data-driven opportunities may help achieve the aim of optimising economic growth and sustainable development.