1

RACING TO DESTINATION 2020; PUTTING

ENGINEERING REGULATION ON THE DRIVING
SEAT.
PAPER PRESENTED TO THE 17th COREN
ENGINEERING ASEMBLY
BY
ENGR. PROFESSOR E.I.E. OFODILE
DEAN, FACULTY OF ENGINEERING
NNAMDI AZIKIWE UNIVERSITY, AWKA.
1.

INTRODUCTION:
A paper of this type would begin with an understanding of the
topic as posited.

What for instance is the import and

significance of the year 2020 and why does Nigeria want to

race to that destination. What are Engineering Regulations
and of what relevance are they in achieving Nigerias vision
2020.
Nigerias ambition is to be counted among the top 20
economies of the world by the year 2020. This means that
Nigeria would have developed its energy needs and its ability
to meet these needs to the same level as the least developed
among the G8 countries. It means the countrys infrastructure
would have been developed to a level that it no longer
constitutes an impediment to rapid economic development,
neither does it pose problems for nor is considered a constraint
by industries involved in global trade and operations. It also
means Nigeria would have developed her industries to the

point where they are able to produce atleast 80% of her needs
and depend primarily on conversion of her resources and the
development and use of materials available locally for the
production of goods that are truly indigenous.

Perhaps

Nigerias vision 2020 would be considered to have been

achieved if by that date poverty would have been reduced to a
point where less than 10% of Nigerians are unemployed, less
than 1% of its population eat less than two square meals a day
and over 90% of its population are literate.
Every nation, including Nigeria, is battling to meet the
Millenium Development Goals and the 2020 vision can be
considered a milestone in this direction. The question is, what
does Nigeria do to get there? Can it get there by crawling,
walking, running or racing at top seeds. In particular, would
the enforcement of engineering regulations in the pursuit of
economic and technological development promote the race to
destination 2020?
Presently a chasm exists between the Nigerian economy and
the developed economies of the world. This chasm continues
to widen as the world tends towards a global village and as
regulations which should enable Nigeria become more selfreliant economically and technologically are blazingly and
blatantly flouted by those Nigerians who lack the discipline
dedication, commitment, transparency and efficiency to
observe constructive rules of engagement in engineering.
These rules of engagement are the engineering regulations
specified, promoted and disseminated by COREN.

2.

ENGINEERING REGULATIONS:
The law establishing COREN has provided regulations which
guide the training of engineering personnel and the practice of
the profession by qualified personnel in all aspects and
ramification of the engineering profession. The Council, itself,
has also in accordance with

universal practice of the

profession, provided fundamental principles and canons of

practice stipulating the codes and ethics that will regulate the
behaviour and practice of individual engineering personnel and
engineering consulting firms. It has also provided guidance,
through its regulations, to employers of engineering personnel
and executors of engineering projects.
*REGULATIONS ON TRAINING.
The curriculum for producing adequate engineers for the 21 st
millennium, and in particular the contents of such curricula that
will drive the engineering practice and technological
development to enable the achievement of Nigerias vision
2020, must not only be developed but put in place urgently.
Both COREN and the National Universities Commission
would enforce the regulations for

the adoption and

implementation of such a Curriculum. The priority attention

expected to be given the implementation would be tantamount
to putting such a regulation in the driving seat.
The anticipated regulation must deal with the duration, level of
knowledge, quality of equipment and staff, as well as other

indicators, deemed necessary for producing industry useable

and global-market-conversant graduates. Regulations should
exist that will require all tertiary engineering Institutions to
produce a specified number of qualified graduate and postgraduate engineers, technologists and technicians.
*REGULATIONS ON PRACTICE: Nigeria cannot meet the
needs of vision 2020 if quacks are allowed to infiltrate the
practice of engineering. Stringent regulations which already
exist for practice of engineering must be enforced. COREN
has instituted a programme for monitoring engineering practice
and the observance of engineering regulations tagged the ERM
(Engineering Regulations Monitoring).

Through the ERM,

seriously and conscientiously implemented, not only would

quacks be kept out of the profession but also the qualified
practioners in the profession would be forced to observe the
rules of practice, to use approved codes and standards and to
show the level of transparency and discipline needed to move
the profession in Nigeria to international levels. The practice
of engineering in Nigeria must be guided by regulations which
ensure that the profession in this country is a store house of
knowledge for both internally generated are externally
acquired technical information.
Regulations must exist which would ensure that the practice of
engineering in all its aspects and reifications is essentially in
the hands of Nigerian engineers, technologists, technicians and
craftsmen. It is clear that as long as major engineering projects
in Nigeria are in the grip of foreign professionals and neoprofessionals, Nigerian Engineering practice will not advance

very far and the chance of meeting the goal of vision 2020 will
be almost non-existent.
require

companies,

The regulations must continue to

consultants

and

experts

handling

engineering projects in Nigeria to have attached to them

competent and appropriate Nigerian engineering personnel
who would be exposed to all aspects of the design,
construction and maintenance of the engineering projects.
Such regulations will include disciplinary actions that are
enforceable and that will be taken against defaulting expatriate
firms and professionals. The regulations should also spell out
the minimum number of Nigerian Engineering personnel that
must be employed by engineering organizations established in
Nigeria or coming into the country to carry out engineering
projects.
*REGULATIONS FOR EMPLOYERS:

The Continuing

Professional Development of Engineering personnel, especially

where skill and new technologies are involved, can only be
achieved through regulations which require employers to train
their staff (in service) or ensure that their employees benefit
from internal or external training in new technologies. The
kind of requirement by COREN that employers should send
their Engineering personnel to the yearly Engineering
Assembly should be extended to cover workshops organized
by the Nigerian Society of Engineers, COREN, ACEN
(Association of Consulting Engineers Nigeria Ltd), Industries
and other agencies engaged in providing new technical
information.

*REGULATING

FOR

SAFETY:

The

engineering

profession is essentially responsible for the safety of not only

the practitioners of engineering but, more importantly, that of
the general public.
manufacturers,

Individual engineering designers and

fabricators

and

constructors

are

held

accountable for unsafe designs resulting in fatal failures of

engineered products.

To avert the disaster of failure,

engineering regulations which ensure to safe design and

application of engineering products, must be enforced. The
vision 2020 is more likely to be achieved if the ingredients of
implementing these safety regulations are so refined and made
readily and widely acceptable among the practitioners of the
profession that they become very conversant with them in their
daily practice.
*REGULATING QUALITY AND STADARDS: There is no
way the Nigerian Economy can belong to the top 20 economies
of the world by the year 2020 if its products and productivity
have not sufficiently improved to make it competitive in the
global market. And there is no way for her products to be
competitive unless their quality and standards of production
have attained international standards. The one way to assure
that quality and standards are observed is to enforce safety
regulations using the instrument of ERM as operated by
COREN and NSE.
*REGULATING ETHICS: Observance of ethical behaviour
and application of codes and standards in the practice of
engineering are a sine qua non for translating the present state

of the Nigerian economy, as governed by engineering, to the

level which would make the Nigerian economy belong to the
top 20 economies by 2020.

Such observance can only be

effected through strict regulations that will employ the carrot

and stick principles. Those engineering personnel recognized
to be practicing in ethical ways and conscientiously using
appropriate codes and standards in their practice should be
encouraged with incentives while those personnel (who in any
event may be considered as quacks) who disregard engineering
ethics and use of appropriate codes and standards must be
subjected to severe penalties.

Tribunals which have been

established by the COREN Act must begin to function

effectively.
CONCLUSION: Should Nigeria crawl, walk or race towards
destination 2020?

What speed of operation is needed for

Nigeria to close the chasm between her and the economically

developed nations? If we crawl, we shall be counted among
the bottom 20 economies of the world. If we walk, we will
remain in our present position. If we run, then we may hope to
join the top 50 nations economically, but if we start the race
now and operate at the topmost levels of efficiency,
transparency and tenacity, then we definitely will achieve the
vision 2020 of joining the top 20 economies of the world. This
is only achievable if we can create an enabling environment for
competition

and

establish

and

implement

engineering

regulations that will foster such competition by providing

enforceable penalties and reasonable incentives.

Prof. E.I.E. Ofodile

Dean, Faculty of Engineering