NSE chairman calls for professionalism
Professional bodies have been called upon to mind their areas of specialisation so as to defend their careers effectively and efficiently.
Speaking during the pre-qualification examination into corporate membership for the young engineers at the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike (MOUAU) old engineering workshop, the Umuahia branch Chairman of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Engr. Victor Ejikeme Ihediwa, said “every profession has its own takes. So the general thing I will talk about on other professionals is that every professional body should mind their areas of specialisation.
“I want to tell you that one of the problems we are suffering in build industry today is as a result of some other professionals in the build industry not minding their own area of specialisation, have taken up the areas of engineering; and since they have taken up the area of engineering, that is why we are having a lot of failed structures here and there.
“Even people in government who are minding the law, when they have a problem, we asked them, do you have an engineer supervising the project, they call a name of one other person who is from a different profession altogether. As far as they are concerned, they have no knowledge that this is an engineering programme and therefore is an engineer, a qualified, accredited and registered engineer who should be involved, they don’t know about that.
“So the other professional bodies should learn to mind their profession as well as go through the same system we are going, so that whenever we have professionals in the field, they will be able to defend their career”.
On the examination, he said, “this exercise seeks to remove quackery in the sense that whoever passes through these series of test- oral test, written test, show of certificate and quotes, then being examined by experienced and professional engineers who have been in the field, is truly an engineer and can stand the test of time.
Ihediwa lamented that one thing that is rampant in the society today is the act of quackery, pointing out that quackery comes as a result of either half-baked engineers or non-engineers at all practicing engineering.
He said: “The only problem we have is, even the government itself have not recognised the difference between quacks and the originals. As far as they are concerned, it is a matter of whom they relate to, so they assume this one is an engineer. We have had cases, we have gone to the field to see failures of structures in particular, after the checks of who and who was involved, we have discovered that there are no professionally accredited engineers involved.
Speaking on the need for the examination, the NSE Umuahia branch Chief Examiner, Prof. Nelson Onwuka, said after graduation from the university, for one to be called an engineer, the person must have been registered with the corporate membership of NSE.
He said: “The essence of the exercise is to register young engineers to become full members of the society. If you do not pass through this process, you can never be called an engineer. You have graduated from the university, yes, but you must register officially to say, you are now an engineer. And also this opportunity afford us to give them a little test, to know actually they really passed through the normal hurdles in the university, then showcase and explain to us the practical experience they have had in their field of practice.
Speaking also, one of the monitors representing Civil Engineering group, Engr. Dr. Amadi C., observed that the examination/exercise was orderly, fine, smooth and followed due process without loopholes.
He advised the prospective engineers to go home, do the necessary corrections/amendments in areas that call for that, adding, “it is not as if they have come here to get 100 percent but at least they need to get something that is adequate for them to pass”.
The immediate past Chairman of Umuahia branch NSE, Engr. Shedrach Iweha, attended the exercise which saw about thirty two perspective engineers examined.
