October 19, 2023

A group under the aegis of Eastern Mandate forum EMF has commended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for appointing Anambra-born Chukwuemeka Agbasi as the 9th substantive Managing Director of the Federal Road Maintenance Agency, FERMA.

Channels television reports that at a press conference in Enugu, the Enugu state capital on Thursday, the National Coordinator of the group Chinedu Nwaorisa says this recent appointment of Chukwuemeka Agbasi is a demonstration of the President’s commitment to a united Nigeria.

According to Nwaorisa, this is the first time the South-East will be heading the agency, and this is a pointer to the fact that aside wanting improved standards on Nigerian roads, the President is also thinking that appointment of a South Easterner as the Head of FERMA will change the narratives of the road infrastructure in the region.

The group however implored Tinubu to continue to appoint round pegs in round holes just as Agbasi’s appointment as this will go a long way to develop the country irrespective of ethnicity.

According to them, what is more important is for the President to appoint professionals who will deliver on his mandate and directives in the best interest of the Nigerian people.

The group however said they are optimistic that the appointment of Agbasi will be a new dawn for road infrastructure in the country while calling on all Nigerians to support him in achieving the best.

Dr Agbasi is a Civil Engineer and holds MSc/DIC (Concrete Structures) and PhD (Civil Engineering) degrees from Imperial College, London and University of London respectively and a post graduate certificate in Engineering Management from University of Bath Management School, UK. He obtained his B.Eng (Civil Engineering) and M. Eng (Materials & Construction) degrees from University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

He is a UK certified PRINCE 2 practitioner, APMG certified PPP Professional, and has attended several courses including management and leadership course at Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA.

Before his appointment, he was a Director and Head, PPP, Multilateral & Special Duties Department at the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) where he led and pioneered development work on mainstreaming asset management, deploying new strategies for maintaining the road network and integrating climate change resilience, and managing the interface of the Agency’s programmes with DFID/FCDO, USAID, ECOWAS, JICA, Government of Japan, World Bank, AfDB amongst others.

Prior to joining FERMA, he was a Senior Structures Advisor and Project Sponsor at the Highways Agency (HA), an executive Agency of the UK Department of Transport. Other engineering roles in the UK built environment and construction sector were with Kvaerner Technology (part of Kvaerner Construction Group, now Skanska Construction), and WhitbyBird (now part of Ramboll Group).

He has been engaged as a research associate at Imperial College London, and Loughborough University where he executed fixed term commercial research contracts.

His early career was in Nigeria where he worked as a civil/structural engineer in a consulting engineering practice and a Researcher/Lecturer at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

Dr Agbasi has over 30 years local and international engineering and management (consulting and contracting) and applied research experience spanning design and construction, structural investigation, condition survey and assessment, on-site troubleshooting, materials testing at macro and micro levels, product development, and project management.