ENGINEERING IS DEVELOPMENT (Serialised) No 12

NSE, COREN & Other Engineering Associations In Nigeria

It’s another Tuesday; which means it is another time to continue our discussions on the role of engineering to the development of Nigeria over the years. I have enjoyed your company since we started reviewing the book, Engineering Is Development which you can get from the managing director of ACEN on (abolajiogunsanya@acen.org.ng).

Today, we shall look at other engineering associations other than ACEN. The statutory body for the regulation of engineering in Nigeria is COREN, which regulates the practice of all cadres of engineering personnel in the country. The Nigerian Society of Engineers, NSE, is the oldest and most encompassing engineering society for the graduate engineer with a large membership base. The Academy of Engineers was founded in 2003 by senior engineers to provide recognition and intellectual leadership for the profession. The Oil and Gas Design Engineers of Nigeria, OGDEN, was formed in 2004 and focuses on the oil and gas industry.

Other engineering associations include the Nigerian Association of Technologists, the Nigerian Association of Technicians, and the Nigerian Association of Craftsmen, representing three of the four cadres of engineering practitioners recognised by COREN. The Federation of Construction Industry FOCI represents the interest of indigenous contractors. A non-engineering organisation with which ACEN is closely involved is the National Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, NACCIMA. This is an umbrella organisation of businesses in Nigeria. Another one is the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, MAN, but ACEN is not involved with this.

The Nigerian Society of Engineers, NSE

The Nigerian Society of Engineers, NSE, is the national umbrella organisation for the engineering profession in the country. It was founded in the United Kingdom in 1958 by a group of Nigerian engineering students and graduate engineers who felt the need for a Nigerian voice in the development of engineering in their country. It was inaugurated on the 16th of February in London and Mr. G. O. Aiwerioba was elected president. The formal incorporation of NSE in Nigeria took place in Abeokuta on the 19th of January 1959 and G. O. Aiwerioba continued to be instrumental in the evolving Association. He was recalled to Nigeria partly on account of his role in the formation of NSE which his expatriate employers frowned upon and posted to Abeokuta. There he continued to mobilise engineers to the cause of NSE and eventually, with him as protem secretary and S. O. Fadahunsi as protem chairman, they organised the local inaugural meeting of NSE in Nigeria. The Society was later incorporated as a company limited by guarantee and not having a share capital in 1967.

The objective of the Society is to promote the advancement of engineering education, research, and practice in all its ramifications, with a view to maintaining and enhancing the professional capabilities of its members so as to better equip them to fulfil the needs of the profession for the good of the public and the nation at large. It has four categories of membership: students, graduates, corporate members and fellows. NSE does not represent firms or businesses. The fields of practice in which its members are found is very broad and varied and include the academia, consulting engineering practice, contracting, manufacturing, civil service, research and development and engineering sales and marketing. Its basic admission requirement is a university degree with at least two years of supervised apprenticeship. Holders of the Higher National Diploma qualification are required to pass a qualifying examination of the society or do an approved post-graduate course before admission.

The strength of NSE is that it is loved and identified with by most engineers. Its membership is large and can be found everywhere in the country and in all engineering disciplines. The highest policy making body of the society is its Council, which is elected by its corporate members and headed by a president. NSE’s strongest role today is as the voice and the face of the engineer to the government and the general public, often eclipsing the statutory body, COREN.

NSE is, however, much more than a professional association. It has provided a veritable platform for national integration and social networking among its members. Members from different parts of the country, tribes, religion and disciplines meet on the platform of engineering and become friends and colleagues and develop life-time relationships. The civil war, for example, was as traumatic to the Society as it was to the nation. Made up of a sizeable number of Igbos, the Society lost key officers like the secretary-general Charles Nwariaku and the president J.C. Egbuna. Several other Igbo engineers left, many of them later to form the engineering corps of the Biafran army where they played notable roles in the war efforts.

The membership of NSE is very large and organised along divisions and branches. A division is a subgroup with special professional interests. As at 2008 there were 16 divisions, inclusive of the Association of Professional Women Engineers, APWEN, and the Board of Fellows, a special group of senior and experienced engineers. Branches are located geographically, in towns and cities with the critical number of engineers. As at 2008 there were 51 branches.

The Council of NSE is made up of representatives of divisions, branches and specialist interest groups such as Committees of Deans of Engineering and Technology faculties, COREN and ACEN. As at 2008, there were 11 such organisations. The day to day activities of NSE is run by the Executive Committee of 14 members.

With a council made up of representatives of 16 divisions, 51 branches, 14 exco members, 11 special interest groups and over 20 past presidents, all totalling over a hundred, the council has become very large and perhaps unwieldy. Meaningful debate has become difficult and the effectiveness of the society might indeed be waning.

Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria, COREN

COREN was first established by Decree 55 of 1970 as the Council for the Registration of Engineers in Nigeria when Mr. Femi Okunnu was the Commissioner for Works and Housing. The formation of COREN was then delayed by two factors. The first was the protest by the Nigerian Society of Chemical Engineers that they did not consider the NSE as adequate to represent the interests of their members. The second was the lobby by other stakeholders, mainly expatriate engineers, that the decree would lead to massive exodus of foreign engineers and that Nigeria would not be able to cope, and their ability to persuade the leadership of government on this.

These two challenges are in a way fundamental to the engineering profession and remain with us today. They are: dissent among engineers themselves; and interests of other stakeholders. The number of disciplines in the profession is very large and continues to increase. Whereas in other sectors of the economy, they are classified as different professions, this is not so in engineering. For example, medicine, pharmacy, physiotherapy, and nursing are classified as different professions in the health care sector. Similarly, accounting, economics and finance are considered different professions in the finance industry.

In engineering, all related disciplines tend to be classified as engineering. There are a few exceptions such as the building sub-sector where we have architects and quantity surveyors. This diversity within the unified engineering profession often leads to misunderstanding that hurts the profession. The argument that NSE should perhaps be strengthened along disciplines is one of the consequences of this diversity. The diversity along business lines is much narrower and has been largely resolved. Core engineering businesses include consulting, contracting, manufacturing, maintenance, mining and perhaps a few others. The academics and government-employed engineers are primarily lecturers and civil servants. However, the interests of engineers in the civil service are often in conflict with those in practice.

The second challenge, the particular interests of other stakeholders in the engineering industry, is much more difficult to resolve as policies and institutional frameworks are required to address them. There are many stakeholders, including politicians, who want infrastructures for their constituencies and funding for their parties, civil servants who want control of the industry, foreign governments who want shares of the local business, international financial institutions who want regulation and standardisation, and multi-nationals companies who set impossible standards, and the local players who want active roles in their country’s development.

The main consideration from the nation’s point of view should be national development and the strategic use of engineering for this purpose. Without the national leadership recognising the distinct and peculiar role of engineering in national development, the right policies will not be made. Developed countries understand and appreciate this peculiar role of engineering to their national development. They, therefore enact laws and regulations that control the practice of engineering in their own countries, and sometimes within states and regions in the same country. When it comes to international practice, however, they want unbridled access to developing countries without any reciprocity. A major factor is the large amounts of money spent on engineering infrastructures. This makes engineering projects attractive areas for greed and corruption to thrive.

These two issues still remain the major challenges of the profession till today.

According to Decree 55 of 1970, COREN primary duty was the registration of engineers, but did not include engineering practices and businesses, or other professionals in the engineering industry. In response to this inadequate scope, a new decree was promulgated as Decree 27 of 1992 which covered all cadres of professionals in the engineering industry including engineers, technologists, technicians, craftsmen and engineering consulting firms. At the advent of democratic government in 1999, the decree became an act.

COREN is run by a 23-member Council headed by a chairman who is elected from among its members. Its day to day affairs are managed by a full time registrar. The Council reports to the Minister of Works who is empowered 'to give the Council directions of a general character or relating to particular matters (but not to any individual person or case) with regards to the exercise by the Council of its functions and it shall be the duty of the Council to comply with the directions.' There is a school of thought that thinks that this undermines the Council and places the regulation of engineering in the hands of the minister.

The Nigerian Academy of Engineering, NAEng

The Nigerian Academy of Engineering was inspired by the need felt by some senior engineers for a small, focused engineering body. It would have the narrower objective of the advancement and pursuit of excellence in engineering, and the provision of a national platform or source of competent and mature input into public and private technical policy. The idea was further encouraged by the existence of similar academies in a number of countries such as the United Kingdom, Canada, India, the United States of America, Russia and Egypt.

The Academy was subsequently inaugurated in 1997 and has been in existence since then. As at 2008 it had about 80 members, mostly very senior engineers.

Nigerian Association of Engineering Craftsmen

The Nigerian Association of Engineering Craftsmen is a professional body for the craftsmen cadre. It was established after the amendment of decree 55/70 by decree 27/92 which empowered COREN to register all cadres of the engineering family. The Association was established in 1992 and inaugurated in 1993. The objective of the Association is to bring together all engineering personnel within this cadre to promote quality and professionalism in engineering practice in Nigeria.

NACCIMA

The Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, NACCIMA, is the umbrella organization for all the city/state and Bilateral Chambers of Commerce within the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Since its inception, NACCIMA has grown into a colossus and acquired significance within and outside the country. It has become the most effective and efficient organ through which the Nigerian business class influences government on a wide range of issues affecting Commerce and Industry. During the military era, the Association was at the vanguard of the struggle for restoration of democracy in the country.

What caught your attention in this week’s article? Kindly share them through the feedback mechanisms until we meet again next week.

Bayo Adeola +234(0)8022910259; kaa@cpmslimited.com; www.cpmslimited.com