Date: 2017-03-13

The Federal Government has been advised to change its policy of appointing unqualified Nigerians into the power sector and ensure that only qualified professionals are appointed to head the sector.

The Chairman, Ilorin branch of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) Engineer Joseph Sunday Adebayo gave the advice in Ilorin the Kwara State capital while answering questions on a Radio KWARA personality interview programme, Playing Host.

Engineer Adebayo explained further that anybody that wants to head any Engineering Ministry ,engineering sector or the transmission companies must be a qualified engineer and should not be based on political patronage.

According to him, the country has enough manpower to man the nation's power sector but regretted that the government had not carried out enough and regular maintenance of the sector and therefore called for a complete turnaround maintenance so as to improve electricity supply in the country.

The NSE chairman lamented that the situation in the power sector is worsening daily despite the various energy sources available in the country.

Answering another question, Engineer Adebayo also stressed the need for government and construction firms to involve qualified engineers at the initial stage of every building projects to avoid building collapse and expressed dismay that most people ignore the advise of professionals in construction projects but rather patronize quacks.

He appealed to youths to embrace the engineering profession as the world has now advanced technologically and called on the government to patronize qualified indigenous engineers in the handling of outstanding engineering projects and described lack of patronage of their members by government as their greatest challenge.

Engineer Adebayo who is a Chief Engineer in the Electrical Department of the University of Ilorin, enjoined all members of the NSE to register with COREN or any other recognized registered engineering body to be qualified to practice in any part of the country stressing that graduating from the university does not automatically make one a qualified engineer.

The NSE chairman pledged to improve the welfare of his members , collaborate with government , flush out quackery in the practice of engineering in the state and join hands with the national body of the society in improving the salary entry point of their members across the country.