Nasarawa State governor, Engr Abdullahi Sule has expressed fears over university/polytechnics graduates of engineers in Nigeria with zero technical and craftsmanship knowledge.
Sule stated this yesterday in Lafia during the 27th Nigerian Association of Engineering Craftsmen (NAEC) National Engineering Conference/AGM Lafia 2022.
The conference was under the auspices of the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) with the theme: The Role of Nigerian Craftsmen in Enhancing and Sustaining Engineering Standards and Ethics.
Governor Sule, who was the Chief Host of the conference, expressed dissatisfaction with current graduates of engineering profession who have zero technical and craftsmanship knowledge to help drive the Nigerian economy.
“I don’t know where we got it wrong but from the beginning, some of us who went to technical school in the ’70s, the idea was for us to actually have craftsmanship knowledge and the certificate at a time was more than a degree or PhD Engineering.”
He said it was his craftsmanship knowledge that sustained his studies in Indiana University of America while studying for a Bsc Engineering.
“I studied Welding and Fabrication at Government Technical Collage Bukuru, Jos Plateau State in the 70s and was the best student in my set, while in America for a degree programme, I got a job at Alkowa Aluminum Company in America as a welder which sustained me to remain in school.
“We have since missed the road. Today we find graduates of engineering with zero technical or craftmanship knowledge, who has not seen an elect machine or vertical building machine before, but they call themselves engineers because they acquire the certificate.
“I have the opportunity to employ some of them in Dangote when I was the GMD; I have the opportunity to employ them in AP when I was the MD and even in Jos Steel Rolling Company when I was there”
