Honour from abroad:Excitement as Federation of African Engineering Organisations honours Edo Varsity VC, others with awards of excellence

It was yet another honour for the Vice-Chancellor, Edo University Iyamho, Prof Emmanuel Aluyor recently.
The scholar, an engineer, was honoured for his outstanding excellence in engineering education in Africa by the Federation of African Engineering Organisations (FAEO).
The honour was bestowed on him at the 2020 General Assembly and Investiture Award Ceremony of the organisation recently held virtually from Ghana, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Organisers of the event said the award was aimed at promoting greatness in the engineering profession, chart a positive direction towards the growth of the African Engineering organisations, create a platform for members to celebrate distinguished fellows and engineers across the globe who are friends of Africa for their immense contributions and efforts towards advancing engineering education in Africa, as well as the recognition of past presidents and leaders of the association.
Speaker after speaker at the online interactive session applauded the roles and efforts of the participants. Among the participants were the President of the World Federation of Engineering Organisations, industry specialists, academic and vice-chancellors of universities, among others, for lifting the engineering organisation to an enviable height.
The award presented to Prof. Emmanuel Aluyor was in recognition of “his tireless efforts and commitment to excellence in engineering education in Nigeria, as well as his distinguished service to FAEO and the larger engineering profession in Africa.”
President of the organisation, Martin Manuhwa praised Prof Aluyor and the Vice- Chancellor, Harare Institute of Technology, Zimbabwe for particularly making Africa proud in actualising their academic curriculum without interruptions or hindrance, even in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
His words: “The engineering education category was particularly touching as those two universities were very prominent in the COVID-19 interventions, in terms of modern teaching, pedagogy as well as manufacturing of intervention equipment; we must recognise these famous Vice-Chancellors, who took the challenge and went into research to assist Africa and indeed their countries to solve the problems that we faced in the pandemic.”
Manuhwa, who personally congratulated friends of Africa for their services over the years, also expressed gratitude to the Commonwealth Engineering Council, led by Prof. Paul Jowitt from the United Kingdom for attracting myriads of projects through the African catalysts projects in Africa. He noted that such projects had prompted changes in the livelihood of African engineering.
in her goodwill message, Trudy Morgan, a female engineer from Sierra Leone, gave assurances on the commitment of female engineers in joining forces with the organisation to make Africa great.
Another engineer from Egypt, Ahmed Hamdy, expressed confidence that the leadership of the federation had earned enough confidence that has attracted the contributions to engineering development in Africa.
The Chair of the Portuguese Engineering Association, Carlos Mineiro Aires, described his affinity with Africa as the greatest gift to him, even as he sued for the strengthening of the friendship and togetherness.
A number of other individuals were also honoured at the event. There were other award recipients, who got recognitions in other categories, including a Nigerian, M.B Shehu who was a one-time president of the organisation and Chairman of the 2020 awards committee.