Baring any unforeseen circumstances, the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) will soon release regulations for engineering practice.
When released it will cover all aspects of engineering practice in Nigeria.
The decision followed concerns raised by the Nigerian Institution of Structural Engineers (NISTRUCTE) on non-regulation of their practice.
President of NISTRUCTE, Dr. Kehinde Osifala, recently noted the reluctance of COREN to come out with a practice guide for all structural practice in the country, which was in line with the new (COREN) Act.
He lamented that the reluctance was in spite of a proposal sent to COREN’ s president for a practice guide for all structural practice in the country, which could help reduce incidence of building collapse.
But COREN president, Ali Rabiu, told The Guardian that the council is working on the regulations and in the next couple of weeks, some of them will be released soon.
He stressed that the new COREN act has empowered the council to make regulations and once approved would not need any other authority to give a stamp to them.
Rabiu said the council was not reluctant to come out with regulations but wants to carry all stakeholders along.
According to him, “before we make a regulation we have to ensure that all stakeholders are carried along especially, those who are going to be affected by the regulations.
“Despite the fact that the regulations are meant to safeguard the interest of the public, we have to ensure that all stakeholders are carried along, including those who are going to be affected by the regulations. We are working on the regulation and in the next couple of weeks some of these regulations will be released.”
The COREN president stressed that all engineering professionals, including NISTRUCTE are contributing to the regulations because members of the current council do not have the monopoly of knowledge on the issue.
“There are many stakeholders who had made contributions and I believe that structural engineers are one of those who made contributions and we are working on them.
We have a committee on engineering regulations and monitoring, when they have questions to ask, they will invite the proponents of those regulations, everyone has to be carried along both stakeholders and the public,” he added.
