If you are a Nigerian Engineer, Babatunde Fashola who is the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, doesn’t rate you.
It’s okay, we’ve got broad enough shoulders for you to cry on.
Worse, if you are studying for an Engineering degree in a Nigerian University, you may want to consider a change of course while it is still day.
Sorry, we didn’t make the rules, Fashola did.
A delegation of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) led by its President, Otis Anyaeji, paid the former Lagos State Governor a courtesy visit in his office this week.
It was all Fashola needed to unload on Nigerian Engineers.
And boy, did he come down hard!
1. The only reason why Government awards contracts to foreign investors is because Nigerian Engineers are a load of crap.
Hey! Not our words, Fashola’s.
If homegrown Engineers were any good, the Federal Government won’t be running after their foreign peers, says Fashola.
“If there was no vacuum, there would not be foreign engineering consultants and contractors in Nigeria.
“Unless we honestly stand up and accept that there is a vacuum, we look in the mirror and tell ourselves that we honestly do not like what we see, it will not change”, said Fashola.
2. Local Engineering firms can’t even put a bid together.
“I can tell you from experience that when I was a State Governor, when I advertised for rail project, no Nigerian firm bidded for it,” Fashola revealed.
Ouch!
3. Nigerian Engineers can’t stop our shine
“Government will not stop the development of the country, if local Engineers are not ready,” Fashola said.
So, now that Fashola wants to transform our roads into the Autobahn, our power sector into an uninterrupted array of blinding lights and our housing sector into paradise on earth, he’s got no patience for the Nigerian Engineer.
Amoshine when amoshine.
We are in tears right now.
4. Accept your deficiencies, guys.
Fashola also said Nigerian Engineers need to take a long, hard look at themselves in the mirror, accept that they are crap and then improve.
“Nigerian Engineers should accept their deficiencies”, Fashola pronounced.
What a shame!
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