Nigerian Firms Lack Capacity – Fashola

BEVERLY HILLS, November 2, (THEWILL) – Babatunde Fashola, former Governor of Lagos state and Minister of Power, Works and Housing, has blamed Nigerian engineers for creating the vacuum that makes the federal government patronise foreign contractors.

Fashola said this when a delegation of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) led by its president, Otis Anyaeji, paid him a courtesy visit saying that the failure of Nigerian engineering firms to bid for government projects was responsible for the patronage of foreign contractors.

“If there was no vacuum, there would not be foreign engineering consultants and contractors in Nigeria,” he said.

“Unless we honestly stand up and accept that there is a vacuum, we look in the mirror and tell ourselves that we honestly do not like what we see, it will not change.

“I can tell you from experience when I was a state governor, that when I advertised for rail project, no Nigerian firm bidded for it.

“Government will not stop the development of the country, if you are not ready.

“In a developing economy like Nigeria, I think that we have over-legislated our procurement process,” he said.

“Some of the fast track procurement systems that we need, given also our weather circle, are still in the way of project intervention to deliver infrastructure.

“Let us do a review and see what we have delivered and look back at 20 years ago when all these procurement laws were not there what we achieved and measure them.

“I think that in my personal view, we have over-legislated procurement process to our detriment.”

In his remark, Anyaeji called for patronage of local engineers and the use of indigenous materials for the execution of government projects and pledged the commitment of the society to partner the federal government to deliver on its mandate to Nigerians.

Story by Oputah David