Funmi Lawrence
The Governor of Oyo State, Mr Oluwaseyi Makinde has called on Engineers across the country to venture into politics to contribute their quota to the overall development of the country.
Makinde made the call while delivering a lecture at the 13th Fellowship Conferment Lecture and Ceremony of the Nigerian Society of Engineers in Abuja.
The theme of the ceremony is ” Engineers in Politics: A Penacea for Accelerated Development”.
He said that lessons learnt in engineering can be adopted in politics.
“So I make bold to say that engineers can be the best in politics because we are concerned with problem-solving and politics has to do with problem-solving.
“The aim of engineering is to solve problems thus politics and engineering work towards the same goal.
“When more engineers get into politics we will get accelerated development and that is what is happening in Oyo State.
“However, to get Engineers into politics we need to stop thinking that Engineers are not supposed be a concern with politics. Engineers need to see themselves as problem-solvers that can do well in politics.
“We need to move Nigeria from potentials to achieving results,” Makinde said.
He said that we always refer to the Asian Tigers especially China in accelerated development discourse.
According to him, policies do not drive themselves rather they need people to drive them.
“Persons in charge of China have always been engineers. In the Chinese Education System, they introduce more Engineering Courses than Humanities.
“The future of Nigeria is engineering. It is my wish that NSE should turn out graduates of engineering to go forth and make Nigeria greater.
“With the change of mindset, it is a task that must be done,” Makinde submitted.
