By Christiana Ekpa
Deputy Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Hon. Toby Okechukwu has been awarded an honorary fellowship of the Nigeria Society of Engineers (NSE).
Presenting the award letter to the lawmaker in his office on Wednesday, President of the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), Engr. Rabiu Ali said the award was in recognition of his effort at seeing to the enactment of the Act establishing COREN.
He told Okechukwu that when he was Chairman of the House Representatives Committee on Works in the 8th assembly, “you worked so assiduously as if you are an engineer to see that the COREN Bill is passed. You transmitted it to the Senate, and influenced its passage too. You also ensure that it was assented to by the president. We appreciate what you have done”.
According to him, NSE since its 64 years of existence had less than 20 Honorary Fellows, amongst who is Hon. Okechukwu, explaining that his nomination was overwhelmingly approved without dissenting vote at the council of NSE.
“The COREN Act will go a long way in putting engineering on the front burner. We have started implementing it, and we are seeing signs that it will change engineering in Nigeria”, he stated.
Responding, Okechukwu expressed appreciation to the body on the recognition, describing the profession as a phenomenon that controls 90 percent of human life.
He however lamented the failure of two other critical Bills, the Roads Fund Bill and the Roads Authority Bill, saying they were the expected panacea to the challenges of funding roads construction in Nigeria.
“There is no way you can effectively fund roads in Nigeria. These were to cure the problem. Nobody is the problem of roads in the country”, he said, assuring that he will still follow up on the issues with every opportunity available to him.
