Aregbesola Tasks Nigerian Engineers To Provide Solutions To Fuel Subsidy, Electricity Challenges

The Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, has challenged engineers in the country to come up with creative ideas to assist Nigeria to solve the problem of fuel subsidy and provide electricity at reduced cost to Nigerians.

The minister said this at the 29th founder’s day celebration of Nigerian Society of Engineers, Ikeja Branch and the inauguration of the Rauf Aregbesola Engineering Resource Tower.

The minister, in a statement on Tuesday by his media aide, Sola Fasure, said engineers should make their impact felt more by Nigerians by proffering solutions to numerous challenges confronting the country.

The minister said, “One other major national challenge is energy – for homes, vehicles and industrial uses. We have had enough talk on the energy deficits and challenges.

“Engineers should now take the lead. There should be new approaches to providing cheaper and affordable alternative sources of energy and conversion of our machines, vehicles and appliances to function with these innovations.

“When I visited Egypt some 10 to 15 years ago, I found out that most of their taxis were very old vehicles, none of them caused toxic pollution on the roads. That society as at then had perfected the use of gas to power their vehicles with the use of simple engineering equipment.

“I am therefore using this occasion to challenge our engineers to come up with very creative ideas to help the country reduce its cost of subsidising petroleum for Nigerians. “

The minister also urged engineers to provide solutions to the problems facing Nigerians including housing deficits.

“One major challenge of an urban centre like Lagos is housing shortage. According to the latest estimate, Lagos has 2.5 million housing deficits. This creates other problems of health, the environment and security.

“The overcrowding and high population density in some areas is a ticking time bomb in epidemics and pandemics of the future. Engineers should begin to design and construct low-cost houses that use less concrete and blocks and can be produced at very fast rate in order to decongest and restore sanity to these areas,” the minister added.

Speaking further on the role of professionals in setting minimum standards for development in the country, Aregbesola stated that professional bodies should put themselves in the position to ensure that the government is getting value for money on projects and that the public feel their impact on the way government conducts its business, so they can gain the respect and admiration of the public.

He said, “More than anything, engineers and professionals in general, should re-horn their sense of role and responsibility to the society in a developing economy like ours. On roads, for instance, engineers and other professionals should come up on an annual basis the requirements and the cost of constructing different categories of roads in the different regions of the country.

“This will prevent just anyone from coming up with arbitrary figures that aid corruption and deplete public resources. Such template should be available on any public works. We need to entrench a culture of government officials and contractors being conscious that they are being watched and scrutinised and that they will be held accountable.

“Unless these professional bodies put themselves in the position to ensure that the government is getting value for money on projects and the public feel their impact on the way government conducts its business, they will find it difficult to gain the respect and admiration of the public and will be seen as part of the scams going on.

“In the developed world, it is these professional bodies that keep society in check and prevent people from going astray. Nigerian engineers therefore should be involved in the entrenchment of values – of works and service to the community.”