JUST IN: Certified Nigerians idle as foreigners takeover Trans-Sahara Pipeline welders jobs

PORT HARCOURT – STAKEHOLDERS have expressed worry over qualified Nigerians roaming the labour market while Indians and other foreign nationals takeover huge opportunities for welders as 4,000km Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline (TSGP) project to pump Nigerian gas into Europe through Algeria gets underway.

Prof Shehu Ma’aji, a metallurgist and Head, Federal University of Technology, Minna Welding Center who raised the alarm in Port Harcourt at a stakeholders meeting of the Nigerian Institute of Welding (NIW), blamed the development on failed management of the institute mandated to train and certify welders in Nigeria in global best practices.

Ma’aji, a Board of Trustee (BOT) member of the NIW said, “Late President Umar Yar’Adua who established NIW would be disappointed in his grave. In one encounter, he was presented a budget from the NNPC on issue of skilled craftsmen welders. Noticing the outrageous provision for engagement of foreign craftsmen, he had ask why. They told him because we don’t have professional welders.

“A disappointed President Yar’Adau asked, what of the numerous welders I see working by the roadsides doing amazing things? They told him those were not certified internationally because they have no certification. He immediately directed establishment of the NIW with mandate to do all it could to produce internationally certified Nigerian welders.

“He said it was improper to have teeming youths with welding skills but can’t be formally engaged because they were not certified, and we continue to engage foreigners to takeover welding jobs in Nigeria. In 2015, PTDF invested massively in NIW to train certified welders. Many were trained, gained certification, including that of highly sought after International Institute of Welders, US.

“Ironically, as Nigeria recently signed agreement with other countries on the Trans-Sahara Gas Pipeline project, who are the craftsmen, particularly welders engaged? Foreigners. A lot of the boys trained, certified are crying, no jobs, not engaged. Somebody or group of persons somewhere is responsible for making the genuine intervention of Yar’Adua not to work or succeed. There is issue with NIW management.”

Among resolutions adopted at the Port Harcourt meeting on the state of the NIW, stakeholders passed vote of no confidence on the BOT and Executives, demanding immediate dissolution of the NIW and audited accounts towards reviving the Benin, Edo state based of the body where huge training infrastructures are said to be decaying gradually.

Ayorinde Adeniyi, Chief Executive Officer, NIW Authorized National Body, the technically arm for implementation of the certification programmes of the NIW in affiliation with the International Institute of Welding and other global bodies, expressed relief at the outcome of the extraordinary stakeholders meeting, hoping it achieves much needed revival.