The Minister of State for Niger Delta Affairs, Mr. Darius Ishaku, has called on the Nigerian Society of Engineers to monitor the engagement of Nigerian engineers by construction firms in the country.
Ishaku said the Federal Government had made it compulsory for construction firms in the country to employ a particular number of local engineers in the execution of their projects in line with the local content policy.
The minister spoke at a maiden public lecture entitled 'Cost engineering in total cost management of the economy' organised by the Institute of Appraisers and Cost Engineers in Abuja on Tuesday.
He said the NSE had a responsibility to ensure compliance with government's directive to firms in the building and construction industry to engage a particular number of local engineers for each project.
He said as part of the efforts of the Jonathan Administration to create employment opportunities for the Nigerian youths, contracts were awarded with a condition to engage a specified number of Nigerians.
He said, "The government is already doing something, and as I have said, what needs to be done is enforcement; and the only people who can encourage or help the government in that enforcement is the Nigerian Society of Engineers.
"They should insist that the number of engineers that the contractors are saying they will employ on each project are being employed."
The minister called for urgent measures to be adopted to replace of the aging engineers in the country, produced about 60 years ago, with those from the younger generation.
He praised Nigerian engineers for their competence, stressing that they had continued to ensure that the obsolete equipment installed 50 years ago were functional.
In his remarks, the Guest Speaker at the event, Mr. Otis Anyaeji, said effective application of the principle of cost engineering would put the country in the league of developed countries in Europe.
He said the non-adherence to the principle of cost engineering was responsible for the abandonment of projects in the country.
"We have abandoned projects because the principle of cost engineering was not strictly adhered to.
"If we practice the principle, Nigeria would have been better than some of the countries in Europe today."
The minister, who decried the dearth of young engineers, stressed that something must be done to get replacement for the older crop of engineers in the country.
Ishaku, while commending the competence of engineering profession in Nigeria, said, "It was when I got to the Ministry of Power as a minister of state that I realised the competence of Nigeria engineers."
