February 8, 2018
Mr Akin Akintola, Chairman, Ikeja Branch of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), has solicited partnership with the Lagos State Government to enhance infrastructure development in the state.
Akintola made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Lagos.
He said that the professional body was willing and ready to collaborate with the government in order to contribute their quota to quality project delivery in the state.
Specifically, the NSE appealed to Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode to allow the body to participate in the ongoing construction of Agege Pen Cinema Flyover situated on Agege-Ogba Road to guarantee quality.
Akintola said the NSE had approached the state in the past to serve the government free at all levels to guarantee quality and safety of projects.
“The professional bodies are not being involved, which is not good enough and I am appealing to the Lagos State Government to please, for God’s sake, involve us, the professional bodies.
“Let government tell us its plans so that we would be able to give out professional input. Today, I don’t know of any professional body that is close to government.
“We are supposed to fill the gap but the unfortunate thing is that it is not happening.
“And we want to appeal to government to please involve us; we are not asking for money, we are asking for partnership. If they can give us that, I think things would go better,” he said.
Akintola also appealed to the state government to include professional engineers in the committee investigating a recent gas explosion that claimed some lives about two week ago to forestall future occurrence.
“We as professional body are not there to castigate government but to add value, we are supposed to be like their (government’s) protector,’’ he said.
