THE former Chief of Army Staff, COAS, Gen. Azubike Ihejirika, has bagged a Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors, NIQS, award.
Ihejirika was conferred with the star Performance Award in Quantity Surveyors, QS, service for his contribution to the profession and growth of the institute.
The former army chief received the award on the occasion of the NIQS dinner and award night in commemoration of its 50th anniversary at the weekend in Abuja.
Ihejirika, who expressed his delight at the award, said: “It’s an exciting experience to be remembered for ones contributions to professional development and ultimately national development ultimately, I am happy.”
He noted that his being part of the QS aided his successful execution of projects during his tenure as the COAS. He added that the profession has great prospects to contribute to national development if there will be political will to get the professionals involved.
According to him, QS will address infrastructural deficit and ensure that the menace of abandoned projects is addressed.
“It will pay to get quantity surveyors and all forms of construction and infrastructural development. There are a lot of benefits, it will address cases of abandoned projects because the QS has knowledge of construction process. He has the ability to monitor cost trends and is in a position to forecast or foresee likely impediments in the implementation of projects.”
“Without being a QS, I wouldn’t have done the much I did in terms of project implementation, so my knowledge of this encouraged me to take on abandoned projects and ensure that no project was abandoned while I was leaving office,” he said.
The chairman Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission, ICPC), Bola Owasanoye, who spoke at the event, noted that the NIQS has collaborated with the ICPC to monitor constituency projects intended for development.
The ICPC boss decried that issues of building collapse, unnecessary upward review of contract and so on, and charged the institute to put all hands on deck, uphold its code of ethics and punish infractions. He called for more collaboration with the institute to stamp out corruption.
The President, Quantity Surveyors Registration Board of Nigeria, Murtala Aliyu, in his remarks, charged the board to draw up a strategic plan for the profession and for the institute for the next 50 years, especially as it’s the fourth industrial revolution to enable the institute be at par with modalities.
