Engineers in the building environment have been urged to develop capacity for the fourth industrial revolution.
A professor of Agricultural and Food Engineering at the University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Akindele Alonge, led the charge at the Fellows’ Forum of the Nigerian Academy of Engineering held virtually in Lagos.
Alonge said personal upgrades in terms of Information Communication Technology and digitalisation, mentoring of the younger generation, and capacity building in key technologies linked to the fourth Industrial Revolution must be prioritised.
He said, “There was the need to also overhaul university and polytechnic curriculum to proffer solutions to end-users and to reflect the current event, assist the government by advising of what needs to be done in all areas of engineering as it applied to digitalisation, continuous training and enlightening the public on 4IR and its implications.
“Experts assert that it would be a tragedy for Nigeria to miss the fourth revolution because this presents a huge opportunity for Nigeria and other African countries to leapfrog into the global technology ecosystem.”
Speaking on optimising the implementation of the 25-railway master plan for efficient and effective national development, the Managing Partner, Ideas & Visions Consultancy Ltd, Nebolisa Emodi, said the Nigerian Academy of Engineering needed to reiterate the imperative to finalise the transportation reform bills and advise the Federal Government to review, update/enact the other complementary transportation bills to enhance inter-modalism and multi-modal regulation.
He noted that the urgency for the Federal and State Governments to identify, verify and secure alternative and sustainable sources for funding the development and operations of the railways modernisation programme.
Meanwhile, the Chairman Manufacturing Committee of NAEng, Otis Anyaeji, explained that to achieve sustainable industrialisation, the country must develop the capacity to produce the necessary industrial machinery.
He said, “To realise this, it will necessitate the establishment of engineering infrastructure comprising technical and managerial manpower, material and primary facilities, whose products are used in machine design and fabrication, and, therefore, inefficient and productive working of the land and the setting up of industries.”
A former President of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, Abugbo Anyaeji, stated, “A good production-engineering infrastructure would enable tools of the various trades and other equipment to be manufactured, whether they are designed by mechanical engineers or electrical engineers, or by metallurgists.”
