The Nigerian Academy of Engineering has advised President Bola Tinubu to appoint relevant experienced professionals to head professional ministries.

The NAE president, Azikiwe Onwualu, gave the advice at the NAE Annual Lecture, Investiture of New Fellows and Life Achievement Awards held at the University of Lagos, Akoka, on Thursday.

According to him, engineering-based ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) should be headed by professional engineers or allied professionals.

The NAE president also recommended that the government involve strong institutions to implement policies and laws effectively.

“Efforts should be made to build and strengthen institutions of government as they are key in policy implementation. There is need for a systemic peer review of MDAs towards some form of ranking, rationalisation, and monitoring and evaluation to optimise performance and productivity,” the academy’s president explained.

Mr Onwualu added, “They should appropriate feedback based on monitoring and evaluation systems and the use of engineering and technology to optimise project implementation.”

An inductee, Iyiola Omisore, APC’s national secretary, urged policymakers and the president to avoid mediocrity.

“Mediocres (sic) should not be placed at the head of ministries. Rather professionals should be put at the helm of affairs in order to make the country move forward,” stated the APC chieftain.

Mr Omisore noted that the country could only progress through a functional engineering system.

He, therefore, implored engineers to scale up their skills by training and retraining so that unskilled and inexperienced engineers do not take over the administration capacity of the country. 

(NAN)