Nigeria Society of Engineers (NSE), at the weekend, blamed the Federal Government for the non-completion of the second Niger Bridge .

The group which made the allegation at a press conference in Abuja attributed the delay to government’s insincerity, saying the design it did has been hidden in the archives.

It urged government to also encourage the militants who established mini petroleum refineries in the jungle in the Niger Delta region, insisting that harnessing their technical capabilities was a better option rather than criminalizing them.

President of the NSE, Engineer Kashim Abdul Ali, who spoke in Abuja said the engineering drawings on the Niger bridge was ready for long, but was abandoned by government for undisclosed reasons.

"The documents have been archived in the ministry of Works far back. What we wanted was to modify the designs so that we have a rail line on it. That was started and government lost interest. That was where we stopped.

"Every time I talk to the press they repeatedly ask this question and I respond and speak out but the problem remains. So, the ball is in the court of the federal government. If they want to do the second Niger Bridge , we are ready. Luckily enough, the engineers who led the team that designed the bridge are still alive and active. They can help to actualize the objectives initially set out.

"With the Niger Bridge , we did it and it is there. They want us to go back and redesign and consolidate, we are ready. We have all the engineers who designed the bridge. Rev. King and Lawrence Aogundare and others trained more than 50 engineers in their firm.

"When corruption has taken place in an engineering project, they are not masterminded or executed by Nigerian engineers. Like the recent ones under probe, I won’t mention it, you have big companies in Europe , the names that are there are all foreign names, yet we chose to trust those people because they have white skin. They come in here, defraud the country in connivance with people at the top echelon of government, and disappear with our money," Engineer Ali said.

He insisted that rather than blame Nigerian engineers the way government is doing, it should look critically at the problem and exhibit reasonable level of patriotism, which is presently lacking in the government circles.

He explained that countries that are serious about moving forward and developing technologically, do not rely solely on foreign engineering firms as such firms only look for money.

"Shortly after independence, we were still thinking properly. Government decided to empower the indigenous technocrats. They took them from various sections of the country and gave them jobs and they performed very well.

"Now that we are in the kind of mess we have in our economy, government can decide to do what is right by asking these engineers to form a consortia and give them jobs. In fact, government had asked that some consortia be formed but no jobs were given to them. It is a pity.

"Look at the numerous refineries the JTF said they discovered in the creeks. The owners of such refineries could do it because, ab initio, they have some people with resources to invest into such refineries. We are saying, instead of dismantling them the way it was done, government should tap into their technology, invest into such activities and then, they will see the results.

"The people who did these are not necessarily engineers by training, but they use qualified engineers to do it. Once you ask an engineer, I need a design for something, they will do it and you pay him and he goes away.

"We also have the former MD of Nigeria Railway Corporation, who designed and built the rail line from Kaduna to Nguru. Nobody taught they could use them and they left them with their knowledge until they died.

"We have a lot of people who have experience from the Civil War and all that; they should be brought together and used. That’s why we have been calling on the Federal Government that the ministers to man the critical sectors should be engineers. We are not saying we should nominate them, but we are saying that any engineer to be appointed, the Nigeria Society of Engineers (NSE) should stand as sureties for them," he stressed.

He cited the NET building on Marina , Lagos ; the Faith Tabernacle, Otta, Ogun state; NCC building at Matitama District, Abuja as among few landmark structures designed by indigenous engineers, adding that "had the late Prof. Gordian Ezekwe’s intellect in the design of the Biafran Ogbunigwe been harnessed, much of what we lack today in the country would have been a thing of the past."

He said that Nigerian engineers are the pillars behind the Kennedy Space Center, Boeing Factories, General Motors, Nuclear sites, and lots more, insisting that government lacks the positive will to develop the country.