Nigerian students who want to study Railway Engineering may not have to travel abroad for the course again as Ahmadu Bello University is about to start the program.
The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Ibrahim Garba announced the commencement of the new course on Monday, April 30, 2018, during the matriculation of post-graduate students for the 2017/2018 academic year.
Presently, no university is offering Railway Engineering as a course, and ABU is said to have raised and sent a team to China for engagement with partner institutions.
It will be recalled t that Railway Engineering is the cradle of engineering in Nigeria with the coming of the Nigerian Railway Corporation. Nigerian Engineers of the era performed creditably well. While most of them were initially trained as technicians at Yaba Higher College, others were trained at the Railway Training Centre.
However the railway fortune, which used to be the pride of Nigerian economy and gave birth to other sectors, soon nosedived in the aftermath of the military incursion into the Nigerian politics. The neglect that accompanied the sector by subsequent administration soon affected the engineering sector as many of the trained railway Engineers diversified.
While there are still railway engineers in the country, the younger generation do not have the opportunity to study railway Engineering as choice of career in Nigerian Universities. Currently, Railway Engineers are trained abroad as part of postgraduate professional development, while the early career railway professionals are trained on the job.
Another exercise in futility! The problem about Railway Engineering and other divisions of the Engineering profession is not dearth of specialized degree institutions but ignorance on the part of functionaries of government and policy makers. We dont need to partner any foreign institution to create an Engineering department/faculty in Nigeria. I did all my schooling in or around the borders of Nigeria and all the strategic mile stone duties I had undertaken were done without any specific prior experience on nor in consultation with any foreigner. These people insults us by advertising their level of ignorance to the whole world. We have Civil Engineers to handle Structures and Statics. Mechanical Engineers to handle Energy and Dynamics. Electrical/Electronics (along with Computer) Engineers to handle Power Transmission, Computerization, Control, and Telecommunication. System Engineers handle Conception and Engineering Design. I can go on and on. Which of these areas are we lacking in that they are going out?