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NSE President Inaugurates Committee to Overhaul 25 Professional Institutions

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NSE President Inaugurates Committee to Overhaul 25 Professional Institutions

by Isqil Najim

The President of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Engr. Ali Alimasuya Rabiu, has inaugurated a Committee on the Strategic Review, Restructuring, Harmonisation, and Strengthening of the NSE Professional Institutions.

The inauguration, held at the NSE National Engineering Centre in Abuja, fulfils a commitment Rabiu made during his investiture and ties directly into the Society’s 10-year Strategic Document.

The committee’s work centres on reforming the 25 Professional Divisions the Society has built up since 1984.

These NSE  divisions were originally set up to deepen technical capacity, encourage information sharing, and support specialization across various engineering fields. They eventually grown into what are now known as Professional Institutions.

Over the years, however, that growth has come with costs: institutional fragmentation, mandates that overlap from one division to another, administrative bottlenecks, weak membership engagement, and pockets of outright dormancy. Collectively, these problems weakened the Society’s policy advocacy strength and its visibility within the wider industry.

Addressing attendees at the inauguration, the 35th President of the NSE described reform as a forward-looking restructuring exercise aimed at turning the Professional Divisions into genuine engines of innovation, research, policy advocacy, and technical excellence of the NSE.

“Our goal is to shift from fragmentation to cohesion and from procedural formality to meaningful, measurable impact.” he said,

Speaking on behalf of the newly inaugurated committee, Engr. Dr. Patricia Opene-Odili, FNSE, PhD, who stood in for the committee’s chairman at the event, thanked the NSE’s national executive leadership for the assignment. She gave assurances that the committee would carry out its mandate with diligence, working toward a leaner, more agile, and future-ready governance structure capable of raising industry standards and supporting national infrastructure development.

A Ten-Point Mandate

The committee’s terms of reference are detailed and wide-ranging, covering ten broad areas of work:

  1. Tracing the history, evolution, and mandate of each of the 25 Professional Institutions, reviewing their governance structures and legal alignment with the NSE constitution, and establishing how active, functional, and visible each one currently is.
  2. Measuring each Institution’s effectiveness using indicators such as membership engagement, the quality of its programming, and its technical output, while also flagging cases of duplicated mandates or structural conflict between Institutions.
  3. Studying long-term membership trends, event participation, and demographic patterns, assessing what value each Institution currently offers practitioners, and examining funding models and financial sustainability.
  4. Reviewing leadership structures, election processes, regulatory compliance, and how each Institution reports to and aligns with NSE Headquarters, with a view to spotting sources of fragmentation or bottlenecks.
  5. Comparing the NSE’s current institutional architecture with comparable groupings in peer engineering bodies, locally and abroad, to identify governance and engagement models worth adopting.
  6. Drawing up concrete restructuring scenarios, including consolidation, thematic reclassification, mergers of related fields, and reviews of dormant units, along with clear criteria for deciding which Institutions should be strengthened, merged, or wound down, and proposing an optimized governance and reporting model.
  7. Producing a realistic, step-by-step plan for rolling out approved changes, complete with timelines, resource needs, change-management processes, stakeholder communication plans, risk mitigation strategies, and key performance indicators.
  8. Engaging past and present leaders of the Professional Institutions, Divisions, and Branches, as well as practising engineers, academics, industry partners, and regulators, to keep the process inclusive and transparent.
  9. Recommending ways to boost innovation, research, policy advocacy, and capacity building within the reformed Institutions, and improving collaboration both among the Institutions themselves and with the parent NSE structure.
  10. Compiling a comprehensive master report with findings, recommendations, and an implementation roadmap for presentation to the NSE National Executive Committee and Council for consideration and approval.

Who Sits on the Committee

In assembling the committee, the NSE drew on a deliberately broad cross-section of the profession to balance institutional memory, regulatory expertise, and corporate governance know-how. The blueprint for the committee’s composition calls for representation spanning a Chairman (a Past President or senior Fellow with strong organisational leadership experience), a Vice Chairman, representatives of the NSE Executive Council and the Board of Fellows, a COREN representative, voices from academia and industry, the immediate past chair of the Forum of Professional Institutions, two past or current leaders of Professional Institutions, a legal adviser, a representative of the Strategic Planning & Implementation Committee, a financial expert, a young engineers’ representative from the Young Engineers Division, an ICT/innovation expert, an independent organisational development expert, and a secretary.

Filling these roles, the NSE Council formally appointed and inaugurated the following: Engr. Emeka M. Ezeh, FNSE, FAEng (Chairman); Engr. Kunle Ogunbayo, FNSE, FAEng; Engr. Ahmed K. Amshi, FNSE, FAEng; Engr. Dr. Patricia Opene-Odili, FNSE, PhD; Engr. Bashir A. Lawal, FNSE; Engr. Dr. Lawal Salisu, FNSE; Engr. Kam-Selem Alhaji Bukar, FNSE; Engr. Robbie James Owivry, FNSE; and Engr. Prof. Elizabeth Eterigho, FNSE, all serving as members, with Mr. Adewale Oluwalade appointed as Committee Secretary.

The committee has already begun sitting at the NSE’s national headquarters. Dates for regional stakeholder consultations are expected to be communicated to branch chairmen across the country in the coming weeks, marking the start of the committee’s nationwide engagement process.

Written by Isqil Najim

Federal Government Rolls Out FreeTV, Offering Nigerians Free Access to Over 100 TV Channels

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Federal Government Rolls Out FreeTV, Offering Nigerians Free Access to Over 100 TV Channels

By MyEngineers

The Federal Government has launched FreeTV, a new national digital television platform designed to widen access to broadcasting services across Nigeria without requiring viewers to pay monthly subscription fees.

The platform went live on June 17, and forms part of the broader push under Nigeria’s Digital Switch-Over (DSO) programme, a long-running effort to move the country’s broadcasting infrastructure from analogue to digital transmission. Officials describe the rollout as one of the practical building blocks of President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, which places emphasis on digital inclusion, job creation, and broader access to economic opportunity.

What FreeTV Offers

Under the new arrangement, viewers across the country will be able to tune into more than 100 national, regional, and state television channels at no recurring cost. The channel lineup spans news, sports, movies, music, children’s programming, and educational content, alongside dedicated channels broadcasting in Yoruba, Hausa, and Igbo.

Reach is one of the platform’s central selling points. FreeTV will be distributed through satellite transmission, terrestrial broadcast signals, and a dedicated mobile application, a combination intended to bring digital television within reach of both city dwellers and people in rural or previously underserved areas.

Importantly, the government has clarified that Nigerians will not need to buy new television sets to use the service. Existing TVs can be connected to the platform through compatible DVB-T2 or DVB-S2 decoders, and many households that already own free-to-air decoders may find they have everything they need without spending on additional equipment.

Ahead of the launch, Charles Ebuebu, Director-General of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), described FreeTV as both a consumer benefit and an economic opportunity. He said the initiative is a direct reflection of the president’s vision of expanding access and opportunity “regardless of location or income,” adding that beyond entertainment value, the platform is expected to open up new income streams for people working across Nigeria’s broadcast and creative sectors.

According to Ebuebu, households nationwide stand to gain access to quality digital television free of subscription costs, while content producers, technicians, and young creatives in the industry gain new platforms through which to showcase their work and build careers.

Beyond the viewing experience, the NBC says FreeTV is structured to strengthen Nigeria’s creative economy more broadly. Regional production studios are being set up in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Enugu, Kano, and Benin, locations chosen to spread production activity beyond the traditional industry hubs.

These studios are expected to generate work for a wide range of professionals along the broadcast value chain, including content creators, video editors, camera operators, sound engineers, and broadcast technicians, effectively giving the platform a role in employment generation as well as content delivery.

What Comes Next

The NBC has reiterated that Nigeria’s complete switch-off of analogue television signals remains scheduled for December 31, 2028, meaning FreeTV’s digital rollout is one step in a longer national transition rather than an isolated event.

In the meantime, the commission is urging Nigerians to check whether their existing decoders are compatible with the new platform and to download the FreeTV mobile application ahead of wider adoption, so they can begin enjoying the expanded channel access as the service scales up across the country.

The Untold Story of NSE Kano Branch and the Influence of Late Engr. I.K. Inuwa, FNSE

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The Untold Story of NSE Kano Branch and the Influence of Late Engr. I.K. Inuwa, FNSE

NSE Kano Branch has produced three Presidents of Nigerian Society of Engineers, NSE, Three COREN President and FAEO and WFEO President. here is untold story of this great NSE Kano Branch

By Isqil Najim

Before I know of NSE Kano, Years ago, a meeting with the Engr. Anthony Oludaiye, who was then a past Chairman of NSE Ikeja Branch, at his house sparked a  curiosity in me. Despite my being a young, innocent engineer, he welcomed my inquisitive mind and inspired me to uncover his story. It took years, but I eventually discovered his remarkable legacy of leading two distinct great NSE branches: Ikeja and Kano. How come?

Determined to understand his impact in Kano, my search for answers finally led me to Engr. I.K. Inuwa. Though busy schedules kept us from speaking deeply, his daughter, who is also an amazing Engineer, Engr. Hauwa Khaleel, later gifted me his biography – The Making of a Nigerian Engineer. This book felt like talking to the man himself, finally unlocking the history I had spent years chasing. But I got more than I sought. May Allah continue to bless the soul of Engr Ibraheem Khaleel Inuwa, FNSE, FAEngr .

Today, I am unpacking the untold story of the NSE Kano branch and the lessons in leadership as exemplified by ENgr I. K Inuwa.

Contact with NSE.

Engr Inuwa documented a vivid experience many young engineers today go through. In his memoir, he wrote on his contact with NSE.

“My first contact with the Nigerian Society of Engineers was at Zaria branch, in the Engineering Faculty of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) as a student, when the Nigerian lecturers in the faculty introduced us, the students, to the society. In my final year, I was admitted as a student member of the society and my admission was signed by the General Secretary of the society, Engr. Dr F.A. Shonubi after a payment fee of five shilling six pence.”

“Before I graduated, I came to develop interest in the society. When I graduated in June 1973 and was posted to Port Harcourt, Rivers State for the one-year compulsory national service, at the camp or on posting to either place of primary or secondary assignment, there was no NSE activity. I, however, kept contact with the society. On completion of the NYSC national service, I returned to Kano and started working with Kano State Ministry of Works and Housing as Pupil Mechanical Engineer.”

The Spark of a Visionary Graduate

Every great institution we see today began with an individual who looked at a void and refused to accept it as the status quo. For Kano State, that individual was a young, enthusiastic pupil mechanical engineer returning from his NYSC primary assignment in 1974.

Upon returning to Kano and deployed to the Kano State Ministry of Works and Housing, the young Ibrahim Khaleel Inuwa looked around his environment. He saw brilliant minds in the ministry, standard parastatals like the National Electricity Power Authority (NEPA), thriving oil companies, and heavy industries bustling in the Bompai Industrial Area. Yet, despite this massive concentration of engineering talent, there was no professional community.

In his own words, Inuwa recalls:

“There was no branch of the NSE society in Kano, in fact, there were only a branch each in Kaduna and Zaria in the whole of Northern Nigeria and none in Kano. So, that began to worry me, for any NSE activity I could do was very limited.”

Where others saw a limitation, young Inuwa saw a challenge. But displayed the first lesson in leadership here: he did not break protocol, nor did he act in isolation. He went to his immediate boss, Engr. A.O. Sanni, a corporate member of the Society. Sanni didn’t dismiss the ambitious youngster. Instead, he gave him a blueprint: Go around Kano, compile a list of like-minded engineers, and find at least seven financial corporate members—the constitutional minimum to birth a branch at that time.

Armed with his notebook and a relentless spirit, the young graduate engineer hit the streets of Kano.

the second leadership lesson in the story is in exclusivity and making everyone feel important. Before he was able to meet the minimum 7 Corporate members who met the criteria set for him, he met Engr. Inuwa recognized that engineering is an interconnected family. Rather limiting his quest to established Engineers alone, he walked into workshops, technical schools, and civil service outposts, documenting the technical crew, the technicians and technologists in Kano.

They weren’t qualified to be corporate NSE members yet, but Inuwa meticulously recorded their names for posterity, acknowledging them as pioneers of the ecosystem:

“The names of those that readily come to my mind included Jafaru Kano who served in Challawa ECN undertaking, Ministry of Works and was pioneer MD of Kano Rural Electricity Board (REB), Tukur Musa, Umaru Buzu, Alhaji Sale, Inuwa Ringim, Mohammed Yusufu Gwandu, Rufa’i Mohammed, Sani Kazaure, Umaru Adamu Kazaure, Andu Kazaure, Musa Gumel, Babandi Gumel, Bala Mohammed Gumel, Yahaya Isiyaku, Ibrahim Jibrin, Ali Y.S., Baba Koki, Aminu Daneji, Alhaji Halilu, Mr Randa, Dahiru Kano, Usman Gwarzo, Aminu Abdullahi, Usman Birnin Kudu, Sule Waya, Sarki Sabo, Shehu Bala, Nagoma Usman, Bello Habib, Sani Kofar Mata, Musa Saidu, Idi Kainuwa, Salihu Balarabe and many more.”

Then came the breakthrough. In his search, Inuwa crossed paths with Engr. Anthony Oludaiye, the then District Manager of NEPA in Kano. When the young Inuwa laid out his mission, Oludaiye’s reaction was electric. He didn’t just offer a nod of approval; he eclipsed everyone else with his excitement.

On February 2, 1975, at the NEPA Club on 1B, Yakubu Gowon Street, Kano, history was made. The inaugural meeting was called, and the branch elected its very first executive committee:

  1. Engr. A.A. Oludaiye – Chairman
  2. S.A. Egberongbe – Vice Chairman
  3. I.K. Inuwa – Honourable Secretary
  4. Engr. O. Oteh – Financial Secretary/Treasurer
  5. P.H. Talreja – Auditor
  6. G.J. Dare – Publicity/Technical Secretary

The foundation corporate seven whose names were submitted to NSE office in Lagos to bring the Branch to reality were: Engr. Balarabe Isma’il, Engr. Salihu Iliasu, Engr. A.A. Oludaiye, Engr. A.O. Sanni, Engr. O. Oteh, Engr. G.J. Dare, and Engr. Gunewardina.

The Burden of Leadership and Continuity

Shortly after the branch’s formation, Inuwa proceeded on a three-month course in Japan, and then on a two-year MSc program in the UK.

When he returned in September 1977, the landscape had shifted. Both Engr. Oludaiye and his interim successor, Sunday, had left Kano. The branch was at a crossroads. Engr. Oteh-Oteh briefly took the mantle of Chairman, with Inuwa re-elected as Secretary. When Oteh left, Inuwa’s boss, Engr. A.O. Sanni, stepped into the breach as Chairman.

Together, Sanni and Inuwa became an unstoppable duo. At the time, the North had no active examination centre for graduate engineers wanting to upgrade to corporate status. The only designated centre in Kaduna was inactive.

Inuwa, still a graduate member himself but sitting on the National Council by virtue of his branch secretary role, saw an opportunity. He and Engr. Sanni lobbied the national body fiercely. They brought the examination centre to Kano in 1978, with Sanni serving as Chief Examiner alongside Engr. Ekwunife, Engr. S.U. Alkali, and Engr. G.J. Dare.

Poetically, Inuwa was one of the first candidates to sit for the exam at the very centre he helped establish. On May 25, 1978, he became a full corporate member with registration number 00929. The Kano centre quickly became a beacon of hope for the entire region, pulling in candidates from as far as Makurdi, Ajaokuta, Abuja, Maiduguri, Yola, Sokoto, Minna, Kaduna, Katsina, and Zaria.

The Leaders of Kano

By 1982, Ibrahim Khaleel Inuwa was elected Branch Chairman, taking over from Engr. B.K. Mohammed. His central focus was to expand the membership, close the professional gap between the North and the rest of Nigeria, and drive institutional excellence.

Kano Branch didn’t just grow; it became a powerhouse that eventually midwifed the creation of ten other branches: Maiduguri, Katsina, Minna, Sokoto, Gusau, Birnin Kebbi, Yola, Dutse, Kabuga, and Wudil. It championed the establishment of the COREN zonal office and fought on the frontlines of Engineering Regulation Monitoring (ERM).

This relentless culture of excellence was steered over the decades by a succession of formidable Chairmen, whom Inuwa documented in his memoirs:

Chronology of  NSE Kano Branch Chairmen:
1974 – 1976 Engr. A.A. Oludaiye
1977 Engr. O. Oteh-Oteh
1978 – 1979 Engr. A.O. Sanni
1980 – 1981 Engr. B.K. Mohammed
1982 – 1984 Engr. I.K. Inuwa
1985 – 1986 Engr. M.H. Ibrahim
1987 – 1988 Engr. A. Umar
1989 – 1992 Engr. Dr. A. Salihi
1993 – 1994 Engr. M.B. Karaye
1995 – 1997 Engr. Bello Mohammed Kiru
1998 – 1999 Engr. O. Olayemi
2000 Engr. Dr. U.G. Danbatta
2001 – 2002 Engr. M.B. Shehu
2003 – 2005 Engr. M. Jibrin
2006 – 2009 Engr. A.A. Rabiu
2010 – 2012 Engr. Dr. O.A.U. Uche
2013 – 2016 Engr. I. Sheriff
2016 – 2018 Engr. R. Haruna
2018 – 2020 Engr. Mohammed Adamu Musa

This branch became so influential that it produced three NSE National Presidents (Engr. I.K. Inuwa, Engr. H.A. Gumel, and Engr. M.B. Shehu) and three COREN Presidents (Engr. I.K. Inuwa, Engr. H.A. Gumel, and Engr. A.A. Rabi’u). Engr Mustafa Balarabe Shehu eventually rose to lead the Federation of African Engineering Organisations (FAEO) and serving as first Black Person to lead the World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO). Even the women were not left behind, as the branch produced Engr. Mrs. Hauwa Sadiq as APWEN President.

The Ultimate Lesson in Selfless Leadership

Perhaps the most poignant lesson in this entire history is one that occurred in 2007. The Kano Branch, then under the leadership of Engr. A.A. Rabiu, wanted to immortalise Inuwa by instituting an Annual Branch Lecture in his name.

Many men would have leaped at the chance to have their name etched in gold while still alive. But Inuwa was cut from a different cloth. He declined the honour.

“I declined the offer and argued that there were more deserving engineers in Kano to be so honoured. After series of arguments, they agreed and I proposed that the Kano Branch lecture be named after Engr. Salihu Iliasu, the first graduate engineer from Kano and Jigawa, who graduated with a degree in Civil Engineering, Water Option, from University of London in 1958. My proposal was accepted and Salihu Iliasu was so honoured.”

This is the hallmark of true greatness: the ability to redirect the spotlight from yourself to those who paved the way. Though Inuwa deflected the honour then, legacy has a way of finding its rightful owner. Years later, on November 4, 2017, the newly birthed Kabuga Branch (which Inuwa himself had helped create by suggesting its name based on the settlement near the old Bayero University campus) did what Kano branch couldn’t do decades earlier. The Branch led by Prof. O.U. Uche, the current COREN Registrar, bypassed his modesty and instituted the Engr. I.K. Inuwa Annual Lecture. The inaugural event was a monumental success, chaired by the then NSE National President Engr. Otis Anyaeji, with NCC boss Engr. Prof. Umar Garba Dambatta delivering the keynote at the Coronation Hall in the Kano Government House.

Engr. I.K. Inuwa’s ascendancy to the national presidency of the NSE in 1991 wasn’t achieved by ambition or political maneuvering. It was the result of a life spent building others, establishing structures, and serving from the lowest ranks of a graduate membership to the highest level of council equity.

He left us a blueprint that is still loud and clear: if you want to build an institution that outlives you, you must be willing to walk the streets, make everyone important, honor those who came before you, and steped aside so others can lead.

NSE Kano Engr IK Inuwa, Engr Ife Akintunde and others at an NSE Conference
NSE greats: Engr Ife Akintunde, Engr I.K Inuwa former NSE president at one of NSE National Conference

Why Lagos Is Closing the Historic Iddo Bridge — And the Century-Old Story Behind It

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Why Lagos Is Closing the Historic Iddo Bridge — And the Century-Old Story Behind It

By Isqil Najim

The Lagos State Government has announced a temporary closure of the historic Iddo Bridge, located in the Ijora and Apapa Local Government Area, to allow for vital structural repairs. The decision, communicated by the State Commissioner for Transportation, Mr. Oluwaseun Osiyemi, is part of a broader, ongoing effort to rehabilitate one of the city’s oldest and most heavily used transit corridors.

Why the Bridge Is Closing temporarily

According to Osiyemi, the closure is necessary to allow the Federal Ministry of Works to safely install heavy steel bridge beams, a critical phase in the comprehensive reconstruction of Iddo Bridge. The structure has suffered significant wear over the decades, the result of constant heavy vehicular traffic, tidal forces, and marine corrosion that have gradually weakened its foundations.

Engineers say the rehabilitation project has already reached roughly 30 percent physical completion, but launching beams of this scale requires the area beneath and around the bridge to be entirely cleared of traffic for safety reasons.

To limit the disruption to commuters, the state government has split the closure into two distinct windows.

The first will take place overnight on Wednesday, 17th June 2026, running from 10:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m., a seven-hour window chosen to take advantage of lighter night traffic. The second closure is scheduled for daytime on Sunday, 21st June 2026, from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., an eight-hour stretch timed to coincide with lower weekend commuter volume.

During both periods, the entire section of the bridge will be shut to vehicular movement to ensure the steel beams can be installed safely. “The closure is part of the traffic management plans put in place to facilitate the launching of steel beams for the ongoing rehabilitation and reconstruction of Iddo Bridge by the Federal Ministry of Works,” Osiyemi said, adding that the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) would be fully deployed to guide motorists through the affected area.

Alternative Routes for Motorists

The commissioner outlined several diversions designed to keep traffic moving while the work is underway.

Motorists travelling from Oyingbo or Yaba toward Ijora Olopa, Apapa, and Costain are advised to reroute via Funsho Williams Avenue.

Those coming from Marina toward the same destinations should descend the ramp to access Iddo-Onigbe, connect through Oyingbo, and continue their journey via Murtala Muhammed Way.

Meanwhile, drivers moving from Ijora Olopa or Apapa toward Carter Bridge or Marina are urged to use Eko Bridge by connecting through Apapa Road, then proceed through Murtala Muhammed Way via Iddo-Onigbe to reach Carter Bridge.

Osiyemi appealed for patience, asking motorists to cooperate fully with traffic officials stationed along the diversion routes.

A Bridge Built on a Century of History

To appreciate why Iddo Bridge matters so much to Lagos, it helps to look back at the history of Iddo Island itself, a landmass that has quietly shaped the city’s transport story for more than a hundred years.

Long before Lagos Island became Nigeria’s commercial nerve centre, Iddo was already serving as the essential link between the isolated islands of Lagos and the vast Nigerian mainland. The island was originally settled by Olofin Ogunfuminire and his Awori followers as far back as the 13th century, making it one of the foundational sites in the wider story of Lagos.

Iddo’s modern significance began in earnest in 1896, when the British colonial administration started building the Nigerian Railway system. They chose the island as the site for the Lagos Terminus, popularly known as Iddo Railway Station, which quickly became the grand gateway for goods and passengers travelling down from northern and western Nigeria toward the coast.

With so much cargo and human traffic converging on the island, the colonial government recognised the urgent need for a reliable bridge network to move people and goods into Lagos Island itself.

This need gave rise to two landmark structures. The Denton Bridge, named after Sir George Chardin Denton, a former Lieutenant Governor of the Colony of Lagos, was built to connect Iddo to the mainland. Shortly after, in 1901, the original Carter Bridge was constructed to link Iddo directly to Idumota on Lagos Island.

The area’s importance was further underscored by the fact that it hosted Nigeria’s first and only steam tramway service, which carried passengers across the bridge network from 1902 until 1933.

As Lagos expanded through the 20th century, land reclamation projects gradually fused Iddo Island into the mainland, and the old colonial-era bridges could no longer cope with the demands of modern vehicular traffic. The flyovers, overpasses, and underpasses that make up today’s Iddo Bridge infrastructure emerged from major infrastructure overhauls in the 1970s, designed to feed traffic directly into the newly redesigned Carter and Eko Bridges.

Viewed against this backdrop, the current repair works are simply the latest chapter in a structure that has been central to Lagos’s growth since the colonial era. The steel beam installation due this June is intended to reinforce a transit corridor that has carried the weight of the city’s commerce for well over a century, ensuring it remains fit to serve a Lagos that has grown far beyond what its original builders ever imagined.

THE BUILDING PROFESSION: SPECIALIZATION, ENTREPRENEURSHIP, MENTORSHIP, INTEGRITY, QUALITY CONTROL AND REGULATORY COMPLIANCE AS PATHWAYS TO SUSTAINABLE NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

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THE BUILDING PROFESSION: SPECIALIZATION, ENTREPRENEURSHIP, MENTORSHIP, INTEGRITY, QUALITY CONTROL AND REGULATORY COMPLIANCE AS PATHWAYS TO SUSTAINABLE NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

The Building Profession remains one of the most critical professions within the built environment, serving as the bridge between design and construction while ensuring that projects are delivered safely, efficiently, economically, and sustainably. Builders occupy a unique position in society as custodians of the building production process, responsible for coordinating resources, managing construction activities, ensuring quality standards, protecting lives and property, and delivering value to clients and end-users.

In an era characterized by rapid urbanization, technological advancement, climate change concerns, infrastructure deficits, and increasing demands for sustainable development, the role of the Builder has become more significant than ever. Today’s Builder is not merely a site supervisor but a manager, innovator, entrepreneur, researcher, quality controller, mentor, sustainability advocate, and nation-builder.

“The true measure of a Builder is not the number of structures completed, but the lives protected, the quality delivered, the standards upheld, and the legacy of professionalism left behind. Regardless of prevailing challenges, a Builder must remain steadfast in integrity, compliance, innovation, and service to humanity.” — Bldr. Alao Abdulrazaq Ayo

This paper examines the numerous opportunities available within the Building Profession, highlights the responsibilities of young and experienced Builders, and emphasizes the importance of mentorship, integrity, quality control, and regulatory compliance in advancing sustainable national development.

Areas of Specialization in the Building Profession

The Building Profession offers a wide range of specialized fields through which professionals can develop expertise and contribute meaningfully to the construction industry. These include:

  • Construction Project Management

  • Building Production Management

  • Building Maintenance Management

  • Facilities Management

  • Building Pathology and Forensic Investigation

  • Quality Assurance and Quality Control

  • Building Information Modelling (BIM)

  • Building Materials Technology

  • Construction Health, Safety and Environmental Management

  • Sustainable and Green Building Development

  • Building Services Coordination

  • Construction Technology and Innovation

  • Housing Development and Estate Management

  • Building Inspection and Regulatory Compliance

  • Construction Contract Administration

  • Construction Claims and Dispute Resolution

  • Disaster Risk Management and Building Resilience

  • Prefabrication and Industrialized Building Systems

  • Smart Buildings and Digital Construction Technologies

  • Academic, Research and Professional Practice

These specializations provide opportunities for Builders to contribute to housing delivery, infrastructure development, environmental sustainability, and national economic growth.

Entrepreneurship Opportunities for Builders

The technical and managerial competencies possessed by Builders create numerous opportunities for entrepreneurship and wealth creation. Potential business ventures include:

  • Construction and Contracting Firms

  • Property Development Companies

  • Facilities Management Enterprises

  • Building Maintenance and Renovation Services

  • Building Materials Manufacturing

  • Construction Equipment Leasing Services

  • Project Management Consultancy

  • Building Inspection and Compliance Consultancy

  • Real Estate Development and Management

  • BIM and Digital Construction Consultancy

  • Green Building Consultancy

  • Professional Training and Capacity Development Centres

  • Construction Materials Testing Laboratories

  • Prefabrication and Modular Construction Enterprises

  • Health and Safety Consultancy

  • Affordable Housing Development Schemes

  • Construction Research and Innovation Start-ups

  • Construction Waste Recycling Services

  • Expert Witness and Claims Consultancy

Entrepreneurship among Builders should be encouraged as a means of reducing unemployment, fostering innovation, creating wealth, and contributing to economic development.

The Strategic Role of Young Builders

Young Builders are the future custodians of the profession and must position themselves to lead the industry into a new era of innovation and excellence. Young professionals should:

  • Pursue continuous professional development.

  • Acquire practical construction experience.

  • Develop competence in emerging technologies.

  • Participate actively in professional institutions.

  • Promote ethical conduct and professionalism.

  • Engage in research and innovation.

  • Embrace entrepreneurship and leadership.

  • Support sustainable construction practices.

  • Contribute to solving housing and infrastructure challenges.

  • Serve as ambassadors of the Building Profession.

Young Builders must understand that professional success is built on discipline, competence, perseverance, integrity, and commitment to excellence rather than shortcuts and personal gain.

Mentorship: A Sacred Responsibility of Senior Professionals

No profession can thrive without a deliberate process of mentoring younger generations. Senior Builders possess invaluable practical knowledge, technical expertise, and professional experience that must be transferred to emerging professionals.

Mentorship should focus on:

  • Professional ethics and conduct.

  • Practical site management skills.

  • Leadership development.

  • Technical competence.

  • Business and entrepreneurship development.

  • Research and innovation.

  • Professional networking and collaboration.

Senior professionals must intentionally create opportunities for learning and growth, while younger Builders must demonstrate humility, commitment, and willingness to learn. A profession that neglects mentorship risks losing institutional memory, professional standards, and future relevance.

Integrity: The Cornerstone of Professional Practice

Integrity remains the foundation upon which every successful Builder must stand. The construction industry often presents challenges that test professional values. However, Builders must remain guided by honesty, accountability, transparency, and ethical conduct.

A Builder must:

  • Remain truthful in reporting project progress.

  • Reject corruption and unethical practices.

  • Protect public interest above personal interest.

  • Respect contractual obligations.

  • Uphold professional ethics.

  • Demonstrate accountability for decisions and actions.

“A Builder is a custodian of public trust. Every decision made on a project site must reflect competence, responsibility, accountability, and an unwavering commitment to safety, quality, and sustainable development.”

— Bldr. Alao Abdulrazaq Ayo

Integrity not only safeguards professional reputation but also protects lives, investments, and public confidence in the construction industry.

Quality Control and Quality Assurance

Quality is the hallmark of professional construction practice. Builders play a leading role in ensuring that projects meet required standards through:

  • Material quality verification.

  • Site inspections and monitoring.

  • Workmanship assessment.

  • Laboratory testing and evaluation.

  • Compliance verification.

  • Defect prevention and correction.

  • Documentation and reporting.

Quality must never be compromised for speed, convenience, or financial gain. Every building delivered should be safe, durable, functional, economical, and environmentally responsible.

Compliance with Laws, Regulations and Standards

The Builder is a key stakeholder in ensuring compliance with statutory requirements and professional standards. This includes adherence to:

  • National Building Codes.

  • Development Control Regulations.

  • Environmental Protection Laws.

  • Occupational Health and Safety Regulations.

  • Fire Safety Standards.

  • Construction Specifications.

  • Professional Codes of Ethics.

  • Contractual and Legal Obligations.

Compliance protects lives, safeguards investments, preserves the environment, and promotes public confidence in the built environment.

Professional Excellence and Nation Building

The Building Profession contributes directly to national development through the provision of housing, infrastructure, employment generation, environmental stewardship, and economic growth. Builders must therefore see themselves not merely as construction practitioners but as nation-builders entrusted with the responsibility of shaping the physical environment for present and future generations.

“Excellence in the built environment is achieved when professional competence is matched with ethical conduct. Quality, value, and accountability are not optional virtues; they are the foundation of successful project delivery and public confidence.”

“The future of the construction industry depends on professionals who are willing to learn, mentor others, embrace innovation, and uphold the highest standards of integrity. Every project should leave behind not only a structure, but also a positive impact on society.” — Bldr. QS Mrs. Alao Chika Yesmeen

Conclusion

The Building Profession extends far beyond the construction site. It encompasses leadership, innovation, entrepreneurship, research, sustainability, quality management, mentorship, and national development.

Young Builders must embrace continuous learning, professional competence, integrity, and innovation, while senior professionals must provide guidance, mentorship, and opportunities for growth.

Irrespective of prevailing challenges within the Nigerian environment, a Builder must always strive to perform at the highest professional standard—protecting lives, safeguarding property, preserving the environment, promoting research and innovation, ensuring compliance with laws and regulations, and delivering quality that stands the test of time.

Ultimately, the Builder is not merely a constructor of buildings but a custodian of safety, quality, ethics, sustainability, and the future of the built environment.

Bldr. Alao Abdulrazaq Ayo, FNIOB, FICA, FIMC, FCIPDM, DFAIA, GSAP

Bldr. QS Mrs. Alao Chika Yesmeen, FNIQS, FIMC, MNIOB, GSAP

Lagos hotel, three other properties forfeited by drug kingpins auctioned at N6.1billion

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…it’s a clear message that drug cartels won’t be allowed to enjoy proceeds of their criminal trade, says Marwa

A Lagos hotel and three other properties seized from drug kingpins by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and forfeited to the Federal Government through court processes have been auctioned for the sum of N6,148,964,000.

Director, Media and Advocacy NDLEA Headquarters, Abuja, Femi Babafemi, disclosed this is a statement on Monday.

Babafemi said this was the outcome of a competitive bid process for the sale of eight assets forfeited by drug barons in parts of the country.

He said while bidders who offered above reserved prices emerged winners of four of the listed properties, bids for four others failed because none offered up to the reserved prices.

Announcing the winning bids at the bid opening ceremony attended by representatives of ICPC, Civil Society Organisations, auctioneers and bidders at the NDLEA headquarters in Abuja on Monday 15th June 2026, the Head of Asset Recovery and Management Unit of the Federal Ministry of Justice, Tamarantare Francis Ali-Bozi declared Tope Ojo and Tunde Olonishakin estate firm as winner of a six-floor hotel located in Victoria Island Lagos with N5.9 billion offer.

Other winners include FSS Limited which won a property at Lekki Phase 1 Lagos for N219,500,000.00; A-BNB Global Innovations Limited which bid emerged winner of a block of flats located in Ejigbo Lagos for N104 million and Fazeen Global Link Limited which won a property in Akure, Ondo state for N29,360,000.00.

According to him, in his remarks at the ceremony, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig Gen Mohamed Buba Marwa (rtd) who was represented by the Agency Secretary, Shadrach Haruna noted that “public auctions such as this serve a broader national purpose. Beyond generating revenue for the Government, they reinforce public confidence in the rule of law, demonstrate accountability in the management of recovered assets, and send a clear message that criminal proceeds will not be allowed to remain in the hands of those who seek to profit from the misery and destruction caused by illicit drugs.”

He assured that “the Agency remains steadfast in its determination to strengthen Nigeria’s asset recovery framework and to ensure that recovered assets are managed and disposed of in a manner that is transparent, lawful and beneficial to the public interest”, adding that “We shall continue to pursue drug traffickers, dismantle criminal networks, recover the proceeds of crime and uphold the rule of law without fear or favour.”

Speaking on the integrity of the process, the NDLEA boss stated that “to further enhance transparency and public confidence in the process, representatives of sister law enforcement and regulatory agencies, civil society organisations, the media, prospective bidders and members of the public have been invited to witness the bid-opening exercise.

Read Also: NDLEA intercepts businessman with 6.10kg cocaine starched in shirts, towels from Brazil
The bids received for each lot will be evaluated against the approved reserve price, and the highest responsive bidder who satisfies all requisite conditions shall be declared the successful bidder. The entire process will be conducted openly, fairly and transparently in the presence of all attendees.”

“The process culminating in today’s auction has been conducted in strict compliance with the provisions of the Proceeds of Crime (Recovery and Management) Act, 2022, the Public Procurement Act, 2007, and all other applicable laws, regulations and guidelines. Consistent with the Agency’s commitment to transparency, accountability and due process, all assets earmarked for auction were professionally valued by the Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, the designated official valuer of the Federal Government.

“Furthermore, the Agency undertook extensive due diligence and security screening of all auctioneers pre-qualified by the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP). We are satisfied that none of the auctioneers engaged in this process has any known involvement in drug-related offences or any other criminal activity capable of compromising the objectives of the Proceeds of Crime (Recovery and Management) Act or the integrity of this exercise”, he added.

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Meet Gwynne Shotwell, the engineer-turned-COO who runs SpaceX in platform heels and is now worth over $2 billion

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Meet Gwynne Shotwell, the engineer-turned-COO who runs SpaceX in platform heels and is now worth over $2 billion

When SpaceX began trading Friday under the ticker SPCX, at a valuation of roughly $1.77 trillion, president and COO Gwynne Shotwell may very well have been wearing a little slip of paper in her shoes—a ritual she does when SpaceX launches things.

It dates back to September 2008. Shotwell was in a Glasgow hotel bathroom, with the shower running so her husband could sleep, while on the phone with her team to price SpaceX’s bid for a $1.6 billion NASA resupply contract. At the same time, the company’s fourth Falcon 1 launch, which Elon Musk believed was the last one the company could afford before going bankrupt, counted down half a world away.

The rocket reached orbit. Shotwell told Stanford Business School’s View From the Top podcast that she ran down the hotel hallway “in my yoga pants and jammy top,” knocking on her team’s doors, and they “kind of” broke into the hotel bar at two in the morning to drink warm Champagne. Ever since, she writes “Scotland” on two sticky notes and puts one in each shoe on launch days, so she is always, technically, in Scotland, and has that moonshot mindset.

Eighteen years later, that woman with paper in her shoes became a billionaire, owning 12.6 million shares of the most valuable company ever to go public. Based on Friday’s closing price, that means her stake is worth more than $2 billion.

The cheerleader who fell in love with an engineer’s shoes

Shoes, as it happens, helped guide Shotwell to where she is now. Shotwell was born in 1963, the middle child of three daughters of a brain surgeon and an artist, and raised in Libertyville, Ill. She watched the Apollo 11 landing at age five and found it boring. At Libertyville High she was a cheerleader and varsity basketball player who finished at the top of her class. But she had no idea what she wanted to do until her mother dragged her—destination undisclosed, because she wouldn’t have gone—to a Society of Women Engineers panel at the Illinois Institute of Technology.

She said the conference bored her until she saw one fabulous woman engineer. “Her shoes were marvelous, her bag matched, and she just made mechanical engineering accessible to me,” Shotwell told Marie Claire in 2017. “I left that event saying, ‘Okay, I’ll be a mechanical engineer,’ because I thought she was cool.”

What followed was a bit less glamorous. At Northwestern, she was one of three women in an engineering class of 36. She happened to interview at IBM on the day the space shuttle Challenger exploded; shaken, she didn’t get the offer, and went into Chrysler’s management training program instead. Unsatisfied, she went back for a master’s in applied math, then spent a decade at the Aerospace Corp. in El Segundo, Calif., doing thermal analysis, followed by four years running the space systems division at Microcosm, a low-cost rocketry shop.

Then in 2002, she had lunch with a former colleague who’d jumped to a startup called SpaceX. The colleague gave her a tour afterward, and Shotwell talked to Elon Musk for three or four minutes. “I wasn’t looking for a job. I didn’t have a résumé,” she said. But that afternoon, SpaceX called and asked her to apply to run business development.

After a month of hesitation that ended while pulled over on an L.A. freeway, she became employee No. 11, leaving a stable job where she held a 3% stake.

“I called him on the phone, and I said, ‘[I’m] an idiot,’” she recalled at Stanford. Musk laughed and said, “Welcome to the team.”

She had made up her mind at that point that if SpaceX failed, she was done with the industry entirely: “I’d rather sell real estate or be a barista.”

She is still not the “central casting” engineer. She likes wearing black skinny jeans and platform heels, and drinking Chardonnay. She reads Outlander novels to fall asleep and has been prepping her 1,000-acre Texas ranch to one day become a vineyard. “I drink a lot of wine,” she joked to Marie Claire. “Actually, reading is probably the thing that calms me the most.”

‘I need more data than Elon’

Her job is one that requires inordinate calm. Functionally, the task is converting Musk’s pie-in-the-sky ambitions into practical deadlines. “I need more data than Elon does to make a decision,” she said at Stanford.

The company has a tendency to hit its targets but not its deadlines, a trait she defends without apology: “We fail on timeline, but that feels like the right fail to make.” Musk’s own version, which she repeated to investors on CNBC ahead of the IPO, goes something like, “We make the impossible, we just make it late.”

Now, that doctrine is up to investors to decide. SpaceX’s prospectus promises the world and beyond; AI data centers in orbit by 2028, a Starship that turns around “like an airplane,” and a million-person Mars colony.

When CNBC’s Morgan Brennan asked when to expect that colony, Shotwell guessed 2035, then immediately qualified that she’s “so bad at predicting timelines.”

She asked retail investors to cut the company some slack, adding that she doesn’t want to focus on earnings because “What we’re doing is very futuristic.”

That might work in the short run. But as OpenAI and Anthropic also make their public debuts and swallow oxygen from the capital markets, investors will weigh SpaceX’s version of the future versus the other companies’ lofty goals. Since SpaceX absorbed xAI, it has taken on $29 billion in debt, making it a deeply unprofitable company. The company went “from those penurious Falcon 9 Dragon days to the more expensive capital-intensive Starship, and then to AI, because it is next-level expensive,” Shotwell said.

But the company is used to burning cash. After all, that was the story of its first decades; failed launch after failed launch, enough that Shotwell understands failures as an asset. “If a launch goes perfectly, all you’ve learned is that that launch vehicle on that day worked,” she told investors. “When you have failure, you actually get this treasure trove of data.”

Shotwell embodies the hedge against “key-man risk.” During Musk’s June 2025 feud with President Donald Trump—when Musk threatened to decommission the Dragon capsule—she quietly assured NASA the tensions would boil over.

She has defended him on even more personal levels. Against her press team’s advice, she sent out a companywide letter after harassment allegations surfaced in 2022: “I don’t believe he could have done what he was accused of. But he is imperfect. I’m imperfect.”

She argued Musk is “probably the best CEO in history, in my opinion, humble opinion,” and that the supermajority-voting control he holds is correct. Pressed on succession, she allowed only that “the company would not collapse obviously without Elon, but it would by no means be the same.”

But her own ambitions are more modest than Mars. Given a Starship and anywhere to go, she’d pick the moon. After all, Mars takes six months to get to, and “I don’t like to camp.”

Originally Published by Fortune.com

Dangote Refinery Makes History as Ethiopia Buys African Jet Fuel for the First Time in 40 Years

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Dangote Refinery Makes History as Ethiopia Buys African Jet Fuel for the First Time in 40 Years

By Isqil Najim

For the first time in four decades, Ethiopia has imported petroleum using its own national shipping company from the Dangote Petroleum Refinery on Lagos’s Lekki Free Zone. It is a milestone that speaks as much about Nigeria’s growing industrial muscle as it does about Ethiopia’s changing energy strategy.

The deal, executed by the Ethiopian Shipping and Logistics Services Enterprise, known as ESL, saw 120,000 metric tonnes of fuel shipped from the Dangote terminal in Lekki to the Horizon Oil Terminal in Djibouti, which serves as Ethiopia’s main gateway for fuel imports. The cargo consisted of 80,000 metric tonnes of aviation fuel and 40,000 metric tonnes of diesel, transported across three voyages aboard the vessels MV Kokolight, MT Mostar, and MT Explorer.

It marks the first time Ethiopia has sourced petroleum from within Africa. For most of its modern history, the landlocked country has depended on suppliers in the Middle East and, more recently, western India. That arrangement has now been disrupted and Dangote’s refinery is the beneficiary. .

Why Ethiopia turned to Nigeria

Since late February this year, a conflict involving the United States, Israel, and Iran has effectively choked the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which roughly 20 percent of the world’s oil supply passes. For Ethiopia, which imports nearly all its fuel and spends at least a quarter of its entire goods import budget on petroleum, the disruption was severe.

Ethiopian Airlines, one of the continent’s largest and most active carriers, operates out of Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa. The airline’s appetite for jet fuel is enormous, and Ethiopia’s storage infrastructure for aviation fuel is far less developed than its capacity for diesel and petrol. When Hormuz became unreliable, Ethiopia needed a different source quickly.

Lensa Geremew, head of the Chartering Division at ESL, confirmed that the Hormuz crisis created the conditions that made the Nigeria import both necessary and possible. “In response to favourable conditions created by the government, the company was able to import 120,000 metric tonnes of aviation fuel and diesel fuel for the first time in four decades,” she said.

Who is ESL, and why does this matter?

ESL is Ethiopia’s state-owned shipping and logistics company. For approximately 40 years — since around 1986 — it had not handled any petroleum imports on behalf of its customers. That responsibility had rested entirely with the Ethiopian Petroleum Supply Enterprise, EPSE, the country’s sole state oil importer until last year.

The fact that ESL has now re-entered the picture, and done so with a shipment sourced from Nigeria, represents what the company describes as a deliberate effort to correct a long-standing misperception about its capabilities.

“There was a perception that ESL lacked the capacity to handle oil imports,” said Demissew Benti, head of ESL’s Market Department. “This latest development is part of our effort to correct that misunderstanding and establish a new operational precedent.”

Dangote’s refinery at the centre of it all

The Dangote Petroleum Refinery, owned by Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote and located in the Lekki Free Zone in Lagos State, began refining operations in 2024. It currently processes approximately 650,000 barrels of crude oil per day and has announced plans to double that capacity. The refinery is the largest single-train petroleum refinery in the world.

The Dangote refinery has long been spoken about in terms of what it could mean for domestic fuel prices and Nigeria’s dependence on imported petrol. Ethiopia’s purchase adds another dimension: that the refinery is now a continental energy supplier, not merely a domestic one.

Ethiopia’s fuel import bill stood at an estimated 3.7 billion US dollars for the 2024/25 budget year and is projected to rise by nearly nine percent before the current budget year closes. The Hormuz crisis has complicated matters further. Finance Minister Ahmed Shide, presenting figures to parliament this week, said the central bank anticipates that fuel imports could reach as high as six billion US dollars in the coming budget year — an increase driven almost entirely by price pressures from the regional conflict.

In response, the Ethiopian government has moved on several fronts. It has liberalised the oil import sector, allowing private companies to participate for the first time. It has also issued a directive permitting foreign investors, diplomatic missions, and international non-governmental organisations to import fuel using their own foreign currency — a step aimed at reducing the pressure on Ethiopia’s foreign exchange reserves.

The country’s fuel subsidy, which previously covered a broader range of beneficiaries than the government intended, is also being restructured. A subsidy of 272 billion birr was spent in the current budget year, far above the 100 billion birr initially planned. For the coming year, the government has proposed a much reduced 20 billion birr subsidy, signalling a firm intention to wind the support down gradually.

What this means for Africa

Ethiopia’s purchase from the Dangote refinery is a small transaction in the context of global oil markets, but its symbolic weight is considerable. An African country facing a supply crisis did not turn to Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates. It turned to Nigeria.

That is the kind of intra-African trade that the African Continental Free Trade Area was designed to encourage. Whether it becomes a regular pattern or remains a crisis-driven anomaly will depend on the reliability of the refinery’s supply, the competitiveness of its pricing, and the willingness of African governments to build the infrastructure needed to support continent-to-continent energy trade

US vs Anthropic: Cybersecurity Expert Faults Export Ban on AI Models, Warns of Tech Balkanisation

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US vs Anthropic: Cybersecurity Expert Faults Export Ban on AI Models, Warns of Tech Balkanisation

By Isqil Najim

The global technology ecosystem was thrown into a tailspin over the weekend following a sweeping directive by the United States Department of Commerce, which slapped strict national security export controls on Anthropic’s latest artificial intelligence models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5.

The development, which has triggered intense conversation among tech analysts and policy experts globally, effectively bars the distribution of these advanced models to individuals outside the US, as well as foreign nationals living within American borders—including Anthropic’s own non-citizen workforce. Facing an enforcement bottleneck due to the sheer scope of the order, Anthropic announced it had been left with no choice but to completely disable the models for all users worldwide.

According to Anthropic, the regulatory hammer was pulled after research on a “jailbreak”—a term used to describe bypassing an AI’s built-in ethical and security safeguards—sparked panic within Washington’s policy corridors.

However, reacting to the development, Katie Moussouris, the Chief Executive Officer of Luta Security, a prominent cybersecurity firm, has heavily faulted the US government’s rationale. Speaking with the Wall Street Journal, Moussouris revealed she had reviewed the research paper in question, which was compiled by researchers at Amazon using specific prompts to identify system vulnerabilities.

‘An Own Goal’ Against National Defense

“I’ve seen the paper. It’s not a jailbreak,” Moussouris clarified in a detailed post on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday. She argued that the researchers were merely engaged in Defense Oriented Prompting (DOP)—a critical technical capability that cybersecurity defenders require to fortify digital infrastructure.

In a sharp rebuke of the Joe Biden-led administration’s knee-jerk reaction, the cybersecurity boss added: “If National defense is the goal, this just scored an own goal against us.”

Anthropic has also kicked against the sudden regulatory crackdown. In an official blog post, the frontier AI firm expressed strong reservations about the government’s approach, arguing that punishing an organization for discovering a narrow vulnerability sets a dangerous precedent for the entire tech industry.

“We disagree that the finding of a narrow potential jailbreak should be cause for recalling a commercial model deployed to hundreds of millions of people,” Anthropic stated. “If this standard was applied across the industry, we believe it would essentially halt all new model deployments for all frontier model providers.”

While conceding that the American government possesses the legal mandate to restrict unsafe AI technologies, Anthropic insisted that such interventions must follow a statutory, transparent, and fair process anchored on verifiable technical facts. “This action does not adhere to those principles,” the company lamented.

Tech Balkanisation and the Cost of Transparency

Meanwhile, the inclusion of foreign nationals inside the US in the ban has raised severe red flags among global tech policy analysts.

Ben Murphy, a scholar at the Institute for Progress think tank, described the directive as “another step on the balkanization of technology”—a term referring to the fragmentation of the global internet and tech space into isolated regional pockets based on geopolitical lines.

“It might previously have been unthinkable to require proof-of-citizenship to access services; it’s increasingly common across new technologies and, to be honest, this attempt is not surprising in that light,” Murphy noted on X.

Policy experts are also warning that Washington’s aggressive stance could yield unintended negative consequences for the AI ecosystem. Analysts fear that AI laboratories may become highly secretive, keeping advanced models completely in-house or pulling them from public access entirely to avoid regulatory traps.

Furthermore, observers point out that Anthropic’s commitment to corporate transparency appears to have backfired spectacularly. The company was already locked in a running battle with the US government, which previously designated it a supply-chain risk for Pentagon contractors. Despite the frosty relationship, Anthropic had voluntarily granted the government early access to its Mythos model while proactively flagging its potential cybersecurity implications.

“I don’t know that the government wouldn’t have reached that conclusion themselves, but as a business matter, those pronouncements have not produced a healthy working relationship with the government,” Murphy added, highlighting the growing trust deficit between Silicon Valley and Washington DC.

As of press time, the US Department of Commerce had not responded to media inquiries regarding the sudden enforcement. On its part, e-commerce and cloud giant Amazon—a major stakeholder and cloud provider—chose to play its cards close to its chest.

“As a leading cloud provider that serves a large number of private and public sector customers, it’s not uncommon for governments to seek our counsel on potential security risks. When they occur, we don’t share the details of these discussions,” an Amazon spokesperson told Fortune.

Revealed: Can a B.Ed Graduate Register with COREN as an Engineer? Here is one Vital Fact to Know

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Revealed: Can a B.Ed Graduate Register with COREN as an Engineer? Here is one Vital Fact to Know

Can a B.Ed Graduate Register with COREN as an Engineer? This question comes up more than you would expect, and it deserves a straight answer. here is everything you need to know.

By Isqil Najim

Many graduates holding a Bachelor of Education degree in technical or engineering-related subjects have applied to the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) only to be turned away. We also get this question all the time on various platforms. Some are confused. Others are frustrated. A few believe it is bureaucratic discrimination.

It is none of those things. The answer lies in the law, and once you read it, the position becomes easy to understand. Parents sending their children to school to become engineers also need to pay attention to this so that their wards can be rightly guided.

What is COREN?

COREN is the statutory body established by the Federal Government of Nigeria to regulate engineering practice in the country. It is the sole authority empowered to register engineers, accredit engineering programmes in universities and polytechnics, and ensure that anyone who practices engineering in Nigeria meets a defined standard of competence.

Without COREN registration, you cannot legally hold yourself out as a professional engineer in Nigeria. The body derives its powers from the Engineers (Registration, etc.) Act, Cap E11, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004, which was significantly updated by the Engineers (Registration, etc.) Amendment Act of 2018.

Revealed: Can a B.Ed Graduate Register with COREN as an Engineer? The 1 Vital Fact to Know

What the law says about who can register

Section 6 of the Act is the entry point. It states that to be registered as an engineer, a person must have attended a course of training that COREN has approved, at an institution COREN has also approved. This is not flexible. If your degree programme was not accredited by COREN, registration is not possible regardless of what you studied or how well you performed.

“Section 6: Registration as engineers(1) Subject to section 16 of this Act, a person shall be entitled to be registered under this Act if—(a) he has attended a course of training approved by the Council under section 9 of this Act; (b) the course was conducted at an institution so approved…”

Section 9 gives COREN the authority to approve and withdraw approval from engineering courses and institutions. Any institution running an engineering programme without that approval is operating outside the law.

Subject to the provisions of this section, the Council may approve— (a) any course of training which is intended for persons who are seeking to become registered as engineers and which the Council considers is designed to confer on persons completing it sufficient knowledge and skill for that purpose; (b) any institution or a part of an institution which the Council considers may be properly approved for the purpose of giving a course of training…

What happens to institutions that ignore this?

The 2018 Amendment Act introduced serious penalties. Under Section 18, any institution running an unapproved engineering programme faces a fine of two million naira. An individual who practices or presents themselves as a registered engineer without authorisation faces a fine of five hundred thousand naira, six months in prison, or both.

“Offences(1) Any person who—(a) for or in expectation of a reward, practices or holds himself out to practice as such; or (b) without reasonable excuse takes any name, title, or addition or description implying that he is authorized by law to practice as a registered Engineering Practitioner, shall be guilty of an offence. (2) Where an offence under this section is committed—(a) in the case of a company, firms or institutions, a fine of ₦2,000,000.00; and (b) in the case of an individual, a fine of ₦500,000.00 or imprisonment for a term of six months, or both.”

Beyond fines, the Act established the Engineering Regulations Monitoring Department — known as the ERM — with the legal authority to enter institutions, carry out inspections, and issue enforcement orders compelling defaulting organisations to stop running illegal engineering training programmes.

Where does B.Ed stand in all of this?

A Bachelor of Education degree, regardless of the technical subject it covers, is a degree in education. It is designed and taught by a Faculty of Education, not a Faculty of Engineering. Its core purpose is to prepare people to teach technical subjects, not to design, build, or manage engineering systems.

Because of this, COREN does not accredit B.Ed programmes and will not register B.Ed holders as engineers. The acceptable undergraduate degrees for COREN registration are the B.Eng, the B.Sc in Engineering, and the B.Tech in Engineering. These are the only three categories.

This is not a policy preference — it is a direct consequence of Sections 6 and 9 of the Act

Who regulates B.Ed graduates?

A B.Ed is regulated by two bodies. The National Universities Commission handles academic standards and benchmarking for the degree. The Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria — TRCN — is the professional body that registers and licenses B.Ed graduates for practice. If an institution is running an unaccredited B.Ed programme, the violation is against NUC and TRCN regulations, not the COREN Act.

Is there any path from B.Ed to COREN registration?

Yes, but it is not a shortcut. A B.Ed Technical graduate who genuinely wants to enter the COREN register must first bridge the academic gap. The most established route is to obtain a Postgraduate Diploma in the specific engineering discipline from a COREN-accredited university, which can then lead to a Master of Engineering degree. COREN’s published guidelines also recognise a Higher National Diploma combined with a Postgraduate Diploma as an alternative entry route into the register.

The bridge is real, but it requires deliberate academic work in a COREN-accredited environment — not a reinterpretation of a B.Ed as an engineering qualification.

If you hold or are pursuing a B.Ed in a technical/engineering education discipline, the COREN Act categorizes your career path differently than a standard engineering path:

Path MetricB.Eng / B.Tech / B.Sc EngB.Ed (Technical / Vocational Education)
Primary FocusEngineering Design, Systems, and PracticeTechnical Teaching, Industrial Arts, and Training
Primary RegulatorCORENTRCN (Teachers Registration Council)
COREN RegistrationEligible as a Registered EngineerNot Eligible for mainstream engineering cadres.

The bottom line

A B.Ed degree, however technical its content, does not meet the conditions for COREN registration. The degree belongs to the education profession, regulated by TRCN. Engineers are registered by COREN, and COREN requires a recognised engineering degree from an accredited programme.

If you hold a B.Ed and want a future in professional engineering practice, the PGD bridge route is your legitimate path. It is not the easiest road, but it is the right one.

isqil Najim can be reached on Linkedin HERE

COREN: Answer to the most Frequently Asked Questions on Registration and Eligibility ( updated 2026)

 

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