Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State has described Chief Eng. Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu as a great tower in engineering and other fields of human endeavour.
The Governor did on Thursday in his remarks at the 5th Eng. Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu Lecture Series held at Rockview Hotel Owerri.
The theme of this year’s lecture was, ‘State of Infrastructure in Nigeria: An Embarrassment for Local Content Advocacy in the Construction Industry.’
It was an event where 16 young Engineers who graduated tops in different institutions in the country including those from Imo State were honoured and even assured of scholarship and employment.
Represented at the occasion by the Deputy Governor of Imo State, Prof. Placid Njoku, Governor Uzodimma congratulated Engineer Iwuanyanwu and described him as a “great tower in the engineering profession, a sport promoter, a media guru and an aviation entrepreneur who has made Nigeria proud in the profession he belongs.”
The Governor said that “the initiative by the Nigerian Society of Engineers to immortalise and institute the lecture series to acknowledge and honour Engr. Iwuanyanwu’s contributions in the engineering profession is unprecedented, considering that the lecture series is instituted during the lifetime of Engr. Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu.”
Governor Uzodimma acknowledged that “extending the celebration to the best graduating young engineers from various tertiary institutions of the federation was a conscious way of celebrating excellence, hard work and success because by so doing the young engineers have been elevated and their careers in life is being watched as they are now models to their fellow youths.”
The Governor therefore promised that each of the 16 best graduating Engineering students that were honoured at the ceremony will get a N100,000 from the State government while those of them from Imo State are to get automatic employment in addition to scholarship to do their masters degree in any University of their choice.
The Governor reminded the audience that the celebration of Eng. Iwuanyanwu as an icon is in tandem with the 3R mantra of his administration, mostly in the area of recovery.
He reiterated that his administration is “recovering and recognizing excellence in human capital development, exemplified in the recognition of Miss Confidence Chinaza Nwaozuzu who made 9As and was given scholarship by the State government to read any course of her choice in any University both in Nigeria and abroad.”
The Governor also made a donation of N3 million to the Nigerian Society of Engineers, Imo State Chapter, to enable the members sustain their good programmes in the State.
Delivering a lecture, Eng. Prof. Samuel Uchechukwu Ejezie, a Professor of civil and geotechnical engineering at the University of Port Harcourt outlined the poor state of civil engineering in Nigeria today which he said “constitutes a big embarrassment for both the indigenous construction practitioners and the advocates of local content act for the industry.”
Prof. Ejezie noted that the phenomenon of “building collapse” has been a challenge to the construction industry, stressing that “most of the cases of building collapse at construction stage in recent times has been unofficially confirmed to be owing to excess load on the foundation and the load bearing structural members.
He highlighted some major factors that influenced such occurrences to include: politics, nepotism and corruption, noting that “the factors have aided and abated the incursion of incompetent indigenous players into the industry.”
He made some recommendations – that engineering contracts should strictly be awarded to companies owned and managed by Engineers.
Expressing his gratitude to the Governor, the Government of Imo State and to the Nigerian Society of Engineers and his colleagues who gathered to honour him, Engr. Iwuanyanwu said that one of his life’s greatest joy is to be honoured by his colleagues in the same profession “as being worthy through the annual lecture series since its inception in 2016 without fail.”
He commended the guest lecturer for the lucid paper presentation and advised that issues raised and matters arising from the presentation and discussions be crystallized and a committee set up that will look into them and make recommendations for national attention.
He congratulated the 16 best graduating engineering students from different universities of the country and appreciated the government of Imo State for indentifying with him in all the lecture series.
Earlier in the day, the Nigerian Society of Engineers led by the National President, Engr. Babagana Mohammad paid a courtesy visit on the Deputy Governor who represented the Governor to inform him of their presence in Imo State and why they came.
The Deputy Governor had thanked them for coming and told them that “Imo is happy with the Society for giving honour to whom honour is due.”
He reminded them of the unique importance of engineering in the society in the area of agriculture, marine, erosion control, sports, aviation, transport, building bridges and even AVR (Assistant Video Referees) among others.