Engineers have urged President Muhammadu Buhari to work towards reducing Nigeria’s dependence on imported products.
This, they said, had made the country a consuming nation and dragged down its economy, stressing that Nigeria was still struggling to export finished products.
The President, Nigerian Society of Engineers, Maitama District Branch, Abuja, Israel Abraham, observed that most countries of the world that got independence about the same period with Nigeria had all moved from underdeveloped to either “positively developing or developed nations.”
Abraham spoke at a press briefing on the occasion of the 5th Engineering Week for the NSE Maitama District Branch.
He said, “It is our desire to transform Nigeria from a consuming nation to a nation where we can begin to produce for local consumption and for export. We’ve come to realise that this is one area where Nigeria has actually gone down. We urge the government to look into this issue and fashion out ways to make Nigeria an export dependent country.
“Countries like Malaysia that celebrated independence at a similar period with Nigeria is far developed than our country. This is not good news for a country like Nigeria. The reason why some of these countries are doing better than us is because they are producing nations while Nigeria is more of a consuming nation. So, this year, we are x-raying the economy of Nigeria as an export dependent and not a consuming economy.”
Abraham explained that indigenous engineers had come of age, and noted that private sector players as well as various governments should start using local engineers for their various engineering jobs.
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He said, “The government and other private sector employers should start allowing indigenous engineers to take charge of engineering jobs. We are capable. An instance is the refineries that are currently working. These refineries were put in shape by largely indigenous engineers.
“We want to use this our fifth engineering week to draw the attention of stakeholders to the benefits they derive from patronising local engineers. The engineering week is in its fifth year and we use it to show the public what we’ve been doing, tell people our achievements and enlighten people on the latest technologies in the profession of engineering.
“We also use the occasion to let the public know some things that we’ve identified that are wrong in the society. When identified, we proffer solutions as to what we think should be done or how to move forward from there. That is why we came up with the topic that has to do with the role of engineering in transforming the Nigerian nation from a consuming country to one that produces products for export.”