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Buhari suspects engineers assist militants in bombing pipelines

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Buhari suspects engineers assist militants in bombing pipelines

Going by the technicality, cleverness and measures Niger Delta militants use in blowing up oil installations, President Muhammadu Buhari suspects such action have the blessing of certain experts.

President Buhari who stated this on Tuesday, after his investiture as the Grand Patron of the Nigerian Academy of Engineering (NAE), led by its President, Mrs. Joanna Maduka, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, feared that for a group to go into the sea for almost 70 kilometres to blow pipelines with ease was not ordinary.

“If I will go in the negative side, ‎how can an ordinary Nigerian go into the sea, 70 kilometres or more, go down two meters and blow up oil installations. That cannot be an ordinary Nigerian. So, I hope you will appeal to your colleagues to make sure that what we have built, they should regard it whether they are working with multi-nationals or the government,” the president said.

He nonetheless, maintained that his administration would employ talents and skills of local engineers to rebuild ailing infrastructure across the country, describing the engineers as “competent and cost effective.’’

Read also: Frustrated by militants, Nigeria turns to Niger Republic for crude oil

According to him, local engineers contributed more than 90 per cent to the design and realisation of two refineries, 2,500 km of pipelines and 20 depots in the country during his tenure as Minister of Petroleum in the mid-1970s, adding that the success of the Petroleum Trust Fund was largely hinged on their skills.

He added that individual political leaders should be blamed for Nigeria’s poor infrastructure and not the engineers who had always been willing to contribute to national development.

He said, “By insisting that we must be cost effective in building infrastructure, we will utilise Nigerian engineers. I respect them a lot, and I know it takes time to be trained as an engineer. Somehow, every time and anywhere I have served in this country, we found it cost effective to use Nigerian engineers, and we relied on their capacity to understudy, learn and deliver.

“It will be wrong to fault Nigerian engineers for the failure of refineries. You should blame the political leadership. How can you build and not know how to maintain an asset.”
By Ebere Ndukwu …

 

 

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0 Comments

  1. seyi jelili

    November 30, 2016 at 7:17 am

    So now that he has suspected engineers assisting the militants, so what did he intend doing?

    • JOHNSON PETER

      November 30, 2016 at 7:35 am

      To arrest all Nigerians engineers is what he intends doing. Mtcchewww. May be una president think we are daft the way he is. We have sophisticated engineers and tools in the Niger Delta.

  2. Roland Uchendu Pele

    November 30, 2016 at 7:36 am

    And the President once again underestimates ordinary Nigerians. He has no idea how much a Nigerian knows even without formal education. Engineers are born in Nigeria, not trained.

    • Joy Madu

      November 30, 2016 at 7:48 am

      Correct talk. You know buhari just got to office by chance . he has no formal education . he has forgotten the Niger Deltans are smart people with different skills

      • Balarabe musa

        November 30, 2016 at 8:00 am

        All presidents in Nigeria got to power by chance. So you have no point at all. Are the Niger Delta militants as skillful like the Igbos ? No, that means the avengers are employing possibly foreign engineers to aid them in their destructive acts.

  3. chichi emerue

    November 30, 2016 at 8:15 am

    His insinuations could be right. I think the soldiers need to find out so they can arrest the people aiding this Niger Delta militants.

  4. Johnson Amadi

    November 30, 2016 at 1:27 pm

    Buhari and blame games will never depart, he’s looking for who to shift the blames on again. Old man Buhari, you are simply not competent to rule a country like Nigeria!

    • Amaka Okoro

      November 30, 2016 at 8:28 pm

      Buhari is not the right person to rule this country

  5. Margret Dickson

    November 30, 2016 at 1:27 pm

    Buhari should rather focus on finding lasting solution to militancy and how to make life easier for the people of Niger/Delta instead of insinuating what is not.

  6. Animashaun Ayodeji

    November 30, 2016 at 1:28 pm

    These militants are not dumb! They are well schooled and understand what ‘destruction’ means. I won’t be surprised if some of them are engineers as well.

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