Stop Cutting Corners; Forum Tells Construction Engineers

Panelists at a workshop in Lagos have called for value re-orientation to shift the attention of young engineers from quick money syndrome to capacity building to boost local content in project execution.
The panelists made the call on Wednesday at a special event hosted by Master Builders Construction Chemicals (MBCC) at the Real Estate Unite Summit in Victoria Island, Lagos.
The forum enabled the MBCC to interact with the state’s leading voices in infrastructure to get insights into the direction of present and future policies toward sustainable infrastructure.
The panel discussion was titled: ‘Sustainable Infrastructure: regulatory frameworks and policies to create an enabling environment for sustainable infrastructure in Lagos State.’
Special Adviser to Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu on Works and Infrastructure, Mrs Aramide Adeyoye, said young engineers must adopt new attitude that priortised excellence above financial gains to curb corruption for the country’s speedy growth.
Adeyoye, a chattered civil engineer, said there was a dearth of practical skill, which must be filled by grooming young engineers while there should be willingness of older ones to keep upgrading their knowledge.
She called for attitudinal change among engineers towards hard work and ensuring things are done right towards future personal and national gains.
The governor’s aide advised engineers to collaborate and form consortiums to be able to bid for big projects and compete with multinationals.
“The world is going for collaboration and you now have a one-stop shop that provides all the solutions,” she said.
She said, “Lagos State is doing well for companies” and called on firms not to deprive themselves of the opportunities.
Adeyoye also called for the political will on the part of the federal government to set up a construction board that will equip local engineers in projects delivery.
“We must be careful of growth that has no trajectory,” she said.
The Managing Director of the Lagos Metropolitan Area Authority (LAMATA), Dr. Abimbola Akinajo, also decried the get-rich quick syndrome among young engineers, causing substandard constructions and project delivery.
She said accountability in projects must be enforced to checkmate laziness.
“Until we begin to sack engineers who are none performing, we can’t get anywhere,” she said.
She stressed the need to keep training young graduates to boost their practical knowledge.
On her part, National Vice Chairman, Nigerian Institute of Civil Engineers (NICE), Mrs. Omolola Adetona called for a sustainable plan to groom young engineers.
Adetona, who is also the Chief Executive Officer, Engineering Resource Academy, decried the skill gap and called on local engineers to form partnerships toward accessing big projects.
“We all know there is gap, we need to leave this text book engineering and go practical,” she said.
She said NICE was already training some young engineers and had a target to train one million on practical application of their knowledge.