‘Non-engineers Heading Key Institutions, Bane of Power Sector ‘

Council for the Registration of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) has attributed the “confusion” in the regulation of the power sector and poor implementation of the National Integrated Power Project ( NIPP) to the appointment of nonengineers to head sensitive positions.

President of COREN, Kashim Ali, said specific examples were the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission ( NERC) and the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NPDHC) whose chief executives were not engineers.

He spoke at the 24th COREN Engineering Assembly in Abuja, with the theme, “Overcoming the Challenges of the Nigerian Monolithic Economy: The Role of the Engineering Profession.”

“Particularly worrisome is a situation where positions requiring engineering skills and experience are given to people without engineering background,” he lamented. “A very recent example is the power sector where key institutions like NERC and NDPHC are headed by non- engineers.

“The current confusion in the regulation of the sector and the poor implementation of the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP) cannot be divorced from this. This situation also applies to MDAs like Transport, ICT, etc.”

Lauding the time Gen. Muhammadu Buhari was at the helm of Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) when hundreds of engineers were given opportunities to deploy their training and experience, Ali expressed the hope that with his return as President, Buhari would make better use of engineers for speedier development of the country.

Regarding corruption in the sector, the COREN boss who said the council had taken a number of measures to check the malaise, told Buhari: “Mr. President, as our champion of this fight, we hereby kindly implore you to make a proclamation, here and now, that acts of corruption in engineering projects will be punished according to the law irrespective of the perpetrators’ standing in the society.”