Nigeria’s Former President Tasks Engineers on Digital Revolution, Renewable Energy
TECHDIGEST – Former President Dr. Goodluck Jonathan has urged Nigerian engineers to key into the prospects of the digital revolution by innovating competitively to properly position the nation and the African continent to exploit the opportunities being offered by the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
The former President noted that the current industrial revolution characterized by the dominance of the Internet and a fusion of technologies is reshaping and changing the world at a fast rate.
He said that Africa cannot afford to miss out as it did in the previous technological revolutions.
Dr. Jonathan, who stated this during weekend at the investiture of Engr. Tasiu Sa’ad Gidari-Wudil as the 33rd President of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), also charged engineers to take the lead in the push for sustainable growth and development.
Describing engineering as the foundation for development, technological advancement and national transformation, the former President further stated that the nation has vast natural endowments to support the development of alternative and renewable energy sources.
He said: “I believe that our engineers hold the key to our economic and technological advancement, be it in the prevailing information technology and knowledge industry or in the conventional brick and mortar infrastructural development. Our engineers should take the lead in the push for sustainable growth in the nation’s development impetus.
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“ I made the point at the last event of NSE that the frequent collapse of buildings in the country does not speak well of the integrity and quality of our engineering, and this is happening at a time when many developing countries can boast of several secure skyscrapers standing above 100 floors.
“Having produced accomplished engineers for this long as an independent nation, we should be aiming to take the lead in the building of quality roads, rail, and other civil infrastructural development in the country.
“Ours is a nation with enormous power challenges. We need relevant engineering and creative engineers not only to revamp and boost the power supply but also to be able to diversify our power infrastructure. We need to build and consolidate a good energy mix that is required to reinvigorate the nation’s economy.
“If we diligently apply ourselves to developing alternative and renewable energy sources, we will become a force to be reckoned with in this regard, considering that we have abundant all-year-round sunshine, several kilometres of ocean coastline and different bodies of water with significant waves, currents and wind.
“These are all-natural endowments that require good engineering to make our country a champion in the development of hydro, solar and wind energy infrastructure, all of which are renewable sources.
“If our universities should serve as hubs for technological innovation and national transformation, the society of engineers should be ready to play a role to ensure that engineering is recalibrated to provide transformative solutions to the challenges of our society.
“To remain a progressive nation, we should be better positioned to deploy the capacity and ingenuity of our workforce, especially in science and technology, to innovate and improve our society.”
