by Isqil najim
Yesterday, November 2, Pa (Engr) Ifedayo Akintunde turns 90. It was marked by the engineering community. I put together some of his thoughts of this engineering oracle that are still very relevant today’s engineers and Nigeria.
First of, Who is Engr Ifedayo Akintunde?
Born on November 2, 1935. Engr. Ifedayo Akintunde, a Fellow of Nigerian Society of Engineers, the British Institute of Civil Engineers, the Nigerian Academy of Engineering and Member of the American Society of Engineers. He is to Engineering what professor Wole Soyinka is to literature. He hold the honour of being the First African to win the WFEO Medal of Excellence.
Akintunde was Chairman, Nigeria Society of Engineers (NSE), Ibadan branch, and later became the National President in 1987. He was also the Vice-President of World Federation of Engineering Organisations for two terms, 1991 and re-elected in 1993. He was registered by Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria in 1974.
He practiced in the UK and later in Nigeria where spent 13 years at the Ministry of Works and Transport Western Region of Nigeria until 1974. He was Chief Engineer in Chief L.A.O. Banjoko & Co., then a leading indigenous Civil Engineering Construction Company 1974 – 1976. He later founded Profen Consultants in 1976 of which he is Chief Executive Officer till date.
As a Vice President of WFEO (1991–2003), he made outstanding and fundamental contributions, including but not limited to the revision of the WFEO constitution, drafting of the WFEO Code of Environmental Engineering Practice, the Assistant Editor of the WFEO Magazine and the Chairman of the Election Committee for many years.
In Nigeria, Pa Ife Akintunde left such indelible legacies as the President of Nigerian Society of Engineers, NSE, such that, one of its past President HR Engr Otis Anyaeji noted years ago in one of his eulogies of the Global Engineering Legend:
“..years ago, while discussing the contributions of Engr. Ifedayo Akintunde to the advancement of our profession, I did say: “…Hence it can be said that he divided in his own unique way, the history of the Nigerian Society of Engineers into two: before Akintunde, and after Akintunde…”
“Engr. Akintunde it was that engineered the “National Construction Policy”; he initiated the moves that led to the amendment of Section 137 of CAMA Decree No.1 of 1990 to include ‘engineer’ in the statutory definition of ‘valuer’. On Codes & Standards, the first NSE engineering standards viz (i) Standard for Portable Fire Extinguishers, and (ii) Standard for Fire Doors and Windows, were produced during his presidency. His struggle for Constitutional Provision for Engineering, Science & Technology was highly successful that the 1988 Constituent Assembly adopted the position he projected as the Science & Technology Objectives of the Draft 1989 Constitution of the Federal Republic. The first and only time NSE practised strategic planning was when Engr. Akintunde constituted the committee for NSE 30 YEARS AHEAD.
“The Society is still operating on the principles derived from the deliverables of the work of that committee. The NSE Group Personal Accident Insurance was introduced by President Akintunde.
“In his memorandum to President Ibrahim Babangida CFR, titled “Engineering of Nigeria’s Development Projects by Nigerian Engineers in Nigeria”, Engr. Akintunde stated clearly that he was ready to guarantee the success of any project engineering challenge given to Nigerian Engineering firms. He further asserted that he was prepared to pay the supreme penalty in event of failure. Colleagues these are just chips off the monuments of achievements and accomplishments of the man who moved on to become Vice President of the World Federation of Engineering Organisations the only Nigerian to occupy that position so far. Fellow of NSE. Fellow of ICE, Fellow of NICE, Fellow of Academy of Engineering. We continue to celebrate Ifedayo Akintunde M. Sc(Geotechnical),M. Sc(Environmental)”
Here is a man who spend many of his early years in passionate defending and representing Nigerian engineers and engineering values, home and abroad. He was fearless and courageous, yet diplomatic when speaking on the need to offer engineers a better deal in the polity.
Akintunde’s view on Sustainable Economic Development
”…years ago, precisely on October 1, 1960, our country, Nigeria, wrenched her independence from her colonial master… Expectations were high on the young country. Intellectuals all over the world were predicting her position in the world affairs. Certainly She will lead Africa. Imaginative Nigerians were manufacturing in their minds the quantum, quality, variety, and sophistication of goods that will be tumbling out of Nigeria’s factories, say, ten years post independence. But sadly this was not to be so.
“There was no reason why all should not be well with Nigeria. Her forests are lush, her soil is manure itself. Her subsoil is home to various precious stones. She sits on large quantities of both black and yellow goal. She is second to none in the quality of her human resources. And the equation that formulated her weather could be accused of exhibiting divine favouritism.” he recalled.
‘Yet at 20 years post independence, Nigeria was clearly not developing to expectation. The imaginative Nigerian’s prediction as to where Nigeria should be occupying on a global national development scale was shattered. This gap, between expectation and actual, noticed as early as the first decade after independence, has continued to widen.”
Akintunde on Industrialisation:
“In 1988 a tonne of California rice produced in America cost 180 US dollars landed in Japan. At the same time Japanese farmers demanded 2, 000 US dollars per tonne of rice produced on Japanese farms. This is ratio 1.11. But the Japanese would not buy the American rice despite the huge price differential. Their government forbade anyone from importing rice and paid the heavy amount to keep the Japanese on their rice farms.
“The Japanese merchants did not smuggle rice in order to make this heavy profit. I call this self reliance per excellence- Japanese style. Put this side by side with the report cases around the same time in this country of military and police vehicles escorting convoys of smuggled goods to their safe locations. I call this self un-reliance per excellence- Nigerian Style.’
Akintunde on Foundation of Effective National Development
“In the beginning Nigeria was noted for high degree of responsibility, honesty and integrity. These now all seem to have gone with the wind. Nigeria must reinvent these good qualities, to act as good foundation for effective national development in place of the preset rush for wealth.”
NSE recommendations and cardinal principles toward national self sufficiency
“The prescription of the Nigerian Society of Engineers which has been incubating for almost six decades, if faithfully adopted and implemented, will surely deliver Nigeria safely to her safe destination.”
- Rigidly adopt Science, Engineering and technology as the language of effective national development, and back it up with correspondingly adequate budgetary provision.
- If you must use a thing, make that thing. If you cannot make it for the time being, you do not need it,
- Develop stubborn political posture will that will not yield to any opposition including foreign ones.
- Maintains this rigid self-reliance posture for at least 5 years.
“We assumed that you know what is “effective national development’, and what can make it ineffective. Development of a country is effective when it is endogenic, that is, when the nationals know it, take part in its evolution; can build it, can maintain it, and can replicate it. Outside that it is technology dumping.”
On winning WFEO Medal of Engineering Excellence, the highest Award in Engineering, outside the academic degrees, (2017)
I must make clear the medal is not for Engr Ifedayo Akintunde per se, Engr Ifedayo Akintunde has only been called upon to receive it on behalf of the real winners. There are three Winners, namely: All members of Engineering profession in Nigeria, the Nigerian Society of Engineers, and the government and people of Nigerian”
To the Nigerian Engineering professionals of all categories: “The award is encouraging Nigerian Engineers that their choice of the profession is not a mistake…Some of the potential engineering students have refused to take on engineering courses, but most enroll for medicine, accounting and Law etc. This is to tell such students that the future is not bleak for engineering; To the Nigerian Society of Engineers; The award is a clear vindication that the position of the society has taken on international issues is correct: To the Government and the People of Nigeria, The popularly held view that the Nigerian Engineer is incompetent has received international condemnation. This award is a positive prove that the Nigerian Engineer is qualified, competent and responsible within his scope of experience to be given national projects. The excuse that he is incompetent and irresponsible is a ruse. This award shows that the Nigerian engineer is in no way inferior to his counterparts all over the world”
Is Nigerian Engineer Incompetent?
If the Nigerian engineer is incompetent compare with his counterparts, all over the world, then all other Nigerian professionals, doctors, accountants, lawyers, etc. are equally incompetent compare with the respective counterparts since all Nigerians share the same environmental characteristics. … Since it is well known that the only best students in graduating from secondary schools are fit for engineering courses, it would be difficult to accept that the once best student will on graduating turn to poor professional.
Since it is common knowledge that the Nigerians who study engineering abroad usually measure up to the and quite often exceed the performance level of their international classmates it will be hard to explain why these international classmates and juniors now come to Nigeria to become better performers. Why does the Nigerian governments not appoint foreigners to run civil services, the military, the government and the politics of the country?
Nigeria’s missed Opportunities
All the advice of the NSE in its twenty-eight years of existence and eighteen years of annual conferences has fallen on virtually deaf ears of the governments. Otherwise, Nigeria would not be the huge accumulation of the technologies of others which it is today…Only the first of her steel plants and oil refineries would have been accomplished through the know-how of others; she would have been turning out her own model of cars, wagons and electric gadgets…”1987 Engr, Ife Akintunde
IBB’s National Brain Drain Commission
When the Federal Government under Gen. Ibrahim Babangida decided to constitute the National Brain-drain Commission in a bid to stem the tide of migration of the best of the Nigerian professionals abroad, Engr Ife Akintunde was the only engineer on the list that offered far reaching recommendations to the Federal Government. Others are: Professor O. Ibidapo Obe (Chairman), Professor A. O. Falase (Member), Professor, Awele Maduemezia (Member), Prof. Segun Adesina (Member), Prof. A. G. Onokerhorare (Member), Ms Nuratu Jimoh (Member), Engr. Ife Akintunde (Member), Dr. M.M. Tukur (Member), Prof. Abubakar Gwandu (Sec.)
Some of their recommendations in the 100 pages report which are still very relevant in tackling the challenges are (excerpt):
Special allowance should be paid in additional as percentage of basic salaries to medical doctors, other pertinent medical professionals, engineers, scientists, other professionals as follows: hazards/danger allowance (radiologists, microbiologists, psychiatrists), pilots, engineers, other professionals on construction, maintenance and operations—five percent, site allowance for all professionals working on sites—twenty per cent, inducement allowance (personnel in difficult specialities, remote and rural areas)—10%.
The entire public sector is entrapped within a salary structure that is uniform rigid and fairly inflexible,…. (A) Each professional group should run a separate salary structure, e.g. MSS for medical profession, ESS for engineers, USS for universities, PSS for polytechnics, etc. (B) There should be regular salary adjustments for all workers in the country to reflect price conditions. The rate of adjustment should be agreed after a tripartite discussion among the government, the private sector and workers’ representatives and should be subject to the level of productivity.
Government should seek to enhance the positive contributions of non-resident Nigerian through human capital exports to the overall benefit of the national economy. (A) A commission for non-resident Nigerians (CNRN) to: provide management information on national manpower outflow (databank on skills); facilitate income to the economy through capital expatriation and encourage inflow of non-resident investment capital; incorporate efficient information dissemination of national projects to non-resident citizens through our foreign missions; encourage participation in the formation and execution of national projects by non-resident citizens; assist in minimizing non-resident re-entry problems through customs, immigration and entrepreneurial support.
(A) Government must encourage the setting up of factories for the manufacturing of basic equipment for research and hospital care and for basic drugs. (B) Factories should be encouraged to fabricate spare parts for existing machinery and equipment through in-house machine shops so that their use can be prolonged. (C) Establishment of private sector machine tools shops should be encouraged. (D) The training of maintenance technicians should be stepped up in colleges of technology and polytechnics.
And more…
With his kind of achievements, and his track records, foresight and proven leadership legacies, and many more not listed here, it is fitting to congratulate Engr Ifedayo Akintunde the worthy winner of the WFEO Medal of Excellence. Any wonder why I thus regarded this Icon of Engineering as the Nigerian Engineering Version of Wole Soyinka. His legacies and many others truly should be in record book for all engineers to access
President Tinubu needs the services of honest and competent men and women like Ife Akintunde, an engineer, to fully domesticate our economy, create employment and boost demand. The three industries that can generate massive employments in Nigeria are today comatose or in the hands of foreigners who are indifferent to our plights. These are construction and manufacturing, entertainment and sports.
Reports compiled by isqil Najim