Ihedioha accuses NSE of colluding with Okorocha for substandard jobs
Imo State governor, Chief Emeka Ihedioha, on Thursday, accused the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) of colluding with the former governor, Senator Rochas Okorocha, to embark on substandard projects across the state.
Ihedioha spoke at the 4th edition of Engr. Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu Annual Lecture Series instituted in his honour by the Owerri Branch of the Nigerian Society of Engineers at the Ahiajoku Conventions Centre.
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He expressed surprise that the NSE kept quiet while the former governor, Okorocha embarked on substandard jobs during his eight years without any sanctions on the engineers used to prosecute such projects.
He said: “I couldn’t believe that an important body as the NSE watched in the past eight years while the immediate past administration embarked on low quality jobs. I must tell you that your silence encouraged the execution of substandard projects here and the wastage of funds that went with it”.
He called on the NSE to challenge inferior construction projects and sanction people who engage in such projects, whether owned by government or private individuals.
He therefore described engineers as people who occupy strategic positions in nation building even as he added that Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu remains a colossus who has contributed hugely in Imo State and Nigeria as a whole.
Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, in his speech, raised an alarm over what he described as grave unemployment problem in Nigeria.
The elder statesman lamented that there is abject poverty in the country, saying that the situation is dangerous for the country and Africa.
He opined that the federal and state governments must unite and establish industries, at least one in every local government in Nigeria, adding that such industries should be managed by experts.
According to him, such industries should target essential goods for local consumption and export.
Iwuanyanwu said: “Nigeria today has multifarious problems. Many people blame it on President Buhari but I want to state categorically that I don’t blame it completely on him. Any other person sworn in as President of Nigeria under the system he is operating will have the same problem”.
He noted that the Federal Government had at different times carried out different programmes to solve economic problems of the nation even as he condemned any policy that entails giving free money to any individual under any guise.
According to him, beneficiaries of such funds utilise it to solve personal problems even as he recommended that such monies be invested in industrial development, noting that that way, jobs will be created, goods and services produced, and the Gross Domestic Product will improve, poverty will be eliminated and Nigeria will occupy an exalted place among the comity of nations.
Chairman of the Nigeria Society of Engineers Owerri branch, Engr. Luke Uzoigwe, said the lecture series will always bring to the fore, the potentialities, exploits, and ingenuity of Nigerian engineers.
