PUBLIC buildings, federal and state roads in the country will continue to collapse and deteriorate because the Federal Government has failed to fully engage local engineers in the planning, building and maintenance of roads and other infrastructural facilities since independence, President of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Alhaji Kashim Abdul Ali, has said.
The sidelining of local engineers has not only made the federal roads to continue to “collapse and deteriorate” but also, the structural facilities built by foreign contractors have failed to conform to the local environment and maintenance in ensuring their durability.
Speaking at a Maiduguri press conference to mark the association’s 50th anniversary, Ali declared: “The Federal Government has continued to discriminate local engineers like the British colonial government did in the 1940s and 50s”.
Such discrimination, he lamented, was however, inherited by the federal and state governments by what he described as “patronising foreign contractors along with their engineers at the expense of local ones, which constituted the entire membership of NSE in the country”.
As the NSE commemorates its 50th anniversary, “there must be changes in policies on how roads and public buildings are initiated, planned and executed with regular maintenance”.
According to the NSE chief, the deterioration of federal roads and collapse of buildings were, however, caused by gross neglect of the maintenance culture and non-engagement of local engineers in the design and building of roads in the country.
He disclosed that over 75 per cent of capital projects in the country are currently being executed and built by foreign contractors from Europe, China, South Africa, Japan, Korea and United States of America (USA), fearing that such projects may not reach their maximum life spans.
He, however, noted that even the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) was not helping matters because the agency does not have the powers to appropriate funds for roads maintenance.
He said: “At present, there is no definite decision to do the right thing on constructing the right roads and buildings that can withstand the local terrain and environments of tropical and desert landscapes in the northern and southern parts of the country”.
Citing the Lagos-Shagamu-Benin dual carriage federal road, he said due to the non-involvement of local engineers, the road has collapsed and become impassable for all categories of vehicles.
He, therefore, called on President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua to quickly intervene by engaging all the local engineers in the planning, execution and maintenance of all roads and buildings that would be awarded by the three-tiers of government.