From Isaac Anumihe, Abuja
Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) has proposed a capital injection of N701billion to reactivate a section of Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited.
In a presentation during the 28th October Lecture titled: ‘Advocacy and Activism in our Engineering DNA’ a fellow of NSE, Dr Otis Anyaeji said that the injection of N701 billion would generate N809.56 billion profit over 10 years. This, he said, averages an N80 billion profit/year over the period.
“This is very crucial, being another significant and consistent effort by the Nigerian Society of Engineers to further argue for ways of adding value to local resources and thereby create jobs at this difficult period” he said.
According to him, to raise the needed capital, a combination of public and private sector funds should be considered for adoption, probably on a 30:70 ratio.
“In doing this, the investments on ground at Ajaokuta would be taken into due consideration on the public side. In other words, the real cash injection by the government may not actually be more than N100 billion at the end of the day in cash” he said.
In his own remarks, the president of NSE, Engineer Tasiu Sa’ad Gidari-Wudil, lamented the rejection of engineering practitioners in Nigeria, wondering why a non-engineer should occupy a position meant for engineers.
“We find out that engineers and engineering practitioners have been neglected in the affairs of this country. You have Minister of Communications who is very close to engineering but he is not an engineer. But why can’t you bring in somebody who is from that field who will be able to deliver.
“So let there be a round peg in a round hole. Let the government understand that everything about governance and politics centre on infrastructural development. You cannot get infrastructural development by neglecting engineers. So, if we want this country infrastructurally, we just have to get the right people. So, the engineers must be involved. Other technologies must be involved” he said.