News
Female Engineers Pledge to Fix Nigeria’s Refineries in One Year, Beg Tinubu for Opportunity
On Saturday, the Association of Professional Women Engineers of Nigeria (APWEN) issued an appeal to President Bola Tinubu, urging him to provide an opportunity for female engineers to undertake the task of restoring the country’s inactive refineries.
Mrs. Atinuke Owolabi, the newly-elected Chairperson of APWEN’s Lagos Chapter, conveyed this plea during the association’s public lecture and Annual General Meeting held in Ikeja.
Owolabi offered a firm assurance that female engineers spanning across diverse sectors of the profession were fully equipped to address the challenges plaguing the refineries and restore them to operational status in a span of one year.
She stated, “The entirety of women engineers stands prepared to collaborate and devise solutions, committed to the comprehensive rejuvenation of these refineries. Therefore, we beseech our president to extend a challenge to the female engineering community, enlisting them to spearhead the revitalization and rehabilitation efforts for these refineries.
I wish to affirm that, should this challenge be extended, we are resolute in our capacity to reinstate the functionality of the refineries within a year, with the divine grace guiding our endeavors.”
She said any nation aspiring for development must empower its indigenous engineers and manpower.
“It is imperative that our homegrown engineers are empowered and granted the right opportunity to showcase our competence,” she said.
She said women had inbuilt natural qualities of being good managers and being excellent, adding that their talents should also be explored in building roads and other critical infrastructure.
Owolabi said Nigeria should reduce reliance on foreign experts and give opportunity to local engineers who are equally or more competent than their imported counterparts.
“I want to also implore our leaders, especially our president and governors, to empower indigenous engineers because we are very good.
“A country without engineers cannot develop,” she said.
Owolabi, a Fellow of the Nigerian Institution of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, promised that her administration would focus on mentorship and skill development for young engineers.
She also pledged collaboration with other NGOs while reeling out planned development programmes for three Lagos communities.
“Together, we shall shatter barriers and triumph over challenges in reaffirmation of the fact that gender should never constrain one’s potential in any domain,” she said.
The guest speaker, Mrs Olayinka Abdul, speaking on the theme, “The Role of Female Engineers in Building Sustainable Infrastructure”, said rising fuel prices required urgent measures for green alternatives.
Abdul, a former APWEN President, said green buildings reduce wastes, conserve energy and ensure huge energy savings and enormous long-term benefits.
She said Lagos was investing heavily in renewable energy while listing completed and ongoing interventions in various sectors, including health, education, housing and transportation.
Abdul said the various options available were wasting because some Nigerians have a class mentality not allowing them embrace local researches.
She cited examples of viable technologies, developed by “our forefathers”, being ignored because people want to move with trending foreign technologies.
Abdul advised APWEN to adopt communities and train them on how to generate power from their wastes.
She also enumerated measures female engineers could adopt against work place discrimination and how to receive mentorship from male counterparts without bruising their ego.
Panelists at the event proffered solutions to the multifaceted problem of inadequate water supply in Lagos State.
They enumerated ways mentorship and advocacy could grow capacity of female engineers.
- Business1 week ago
How UBA Bank Plc , Used EFCC to Frustrate Jude Bela A Legitimate Techpreneur
- Business5 days ago
Nigerian court unfreezes N89 million in bank accounts previously indicted for illegal crypto dealings
- Business5 days ago
FCCPC probes GTBank, MTN and Air Peace over alleged customer rights violations
- News1 week ago
Delta Boat Accident: Speaker Guwor Among Survivors, Says Press Sec
- Business1 week ago
Ex-CEO of Federal Mortgage Bank granted N100 million bail in alleged $65 million ‘fraud case’
- Business1 week ago
Naira has been stable since June, Cardoso says
- News1 week ago
Four Arrested for Forging Govt Documents, Job Racketeering
- News1 week ago
Okpebholo Calls Obaseki’s Stella Obasanjo Hospital Commissioning ‘Sham’