The Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), and the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), have agreed to collaborate to ensure that infrastructural development in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), adhered to the master plan.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that the two outfits arrived at the resolution when the Executive Secretary, FCDA, Mr Gambo Jubrin, paid a courtesy visit to COREN President, Mr Ali Rabiu, on Thursday 15th August, 2019 in Abuja.
NAN quotes Jubrin as telling his host that Abuja was unique as it was the only city in the country that had a master plan with all developments tailored toward conforming to it.
He said that the FCDA had the responsibility to ensure that whatever was put on ground in the city conformed with that master plan arrangement.
“Just like COREN is there to checkmate every activity of engineers and the engineering family, the FCDA is also expected to do everything to deliver infrastructure services and facilities that will be very functional and to the requirement of COREN.
“FCDA has been very professional in what we do; aside effective delivery of services to residents of FCT, we have played our role in various professional developmenst.
“I want to assure you that we will remain resolute as professionals to give service to FCT residents and to humanity,” Jubrin said.
Jubrin, however, said that numerous vices that were observed in the city were not mainly failures on the part of the services that were delivered by professionals.
“The failures result from the attitude of the citizens,” he said.
He said that there was a master plan that specified how things should be done, adding that any deviation would lead to failure in the system.
He urged citizens to be law abiding and obey regulations, especially in movement within the city, to make Abuja city habitable even as development continued.
He also called on estate developers to lay the secondary and tertiary infrastructure within the areas they wanted to develop.
Responding, Rabiu commended efforts of FCDA in actualising the core mandate of the agency which was the physical development in the FCT, and assured the outfit of the council’s support.
He noted that because the city was growing, there were bound to be challenges, such as flooding, arising from citizens’ poor attitude.
Rabiu said that it was the responsibility of FCDA to respond to such issues, and emphasised the need to resuscitate street lights in the city.
The COREN president said that the presence of light in all corners would address security challenges confronting Abuja.
He also called on the agency to curb illegal mining largely blamed for recent earth tremors experienced in the territory.
Mrs. Zalihau Ahmed, Director, Urban and Regional Planning, FCDA, in a remark, urged the COREN president to liaise with presidents of other regulatory bodies to ensure that professionals lived up to their tasks in the development of infrastructure. (NAN)
