Influx of foreign Engineers in Nigeria’s construction industry, Worries Nigerian Engineers

Victor  Duruamaku  Owerri

A Professor of Civil and Geotechnical Engineering , Faculty of Engineering, University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State  Samuel Uchechukwu Ejezie has  expressed worry over the influx of foreign Engineers in Nigeria

He therefore called for  the enactment of local content law  for the construction industry in the country pointing out that this  would help curtail the influx of all shades of foreign practitioners in the nation’s construction industry

Professor Ejezie who is currently serving as professorial Assessor for Universities in Sudan, Ghana and Nigeria stated this in a lecture titled “State of Infrastructure in Nigeria: An Embarrassment for local Content Advocacy in the construction industry”

He noted that the protagonists seem to have apparently succeeded even without government pronouncement lamenting  that construction practice in the nation’s construction industry by Nigerians is so competitive that it has become an “all comers” affairs irrespective of educational and training background, professional affiliation or vocational calling.

The Professor believed  that the proficiency and areas of specialization of construction contractors handling most of the small –medium sized construction projects all over the country are not readily discernible.

“There are no common parameters for their identification and many of them are manned by non-engineers as key staff. Whenever accosted by deploying unqualified manpower to site, their defence is usually anchored on the number of years they have been in construction practice and number of completed structures ”

According to him, this group includes all those that can rightly be described as quacks in the construction industry but who are highly patronized by the indiscernible private developers because their services are relatively cheap.

Professor Ejezie,  extolled the  qualities of Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu  as one of the nation’s foremost indigenous players in the construction industry.

He emphasized the need  for governments to outlaw the practice of appointing non engineers  as ministers, commissioners, Directors General, Directors of Heads of engineering related ministries and units in government.

Prof  Ejezie  said  that  Engineering contracts should strictly be awarded to companies owned and managed by Engineers,that an independent judicial organ made up of  predominantly qualified and experienced  Engineers should be instituted to work with the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN).