Nigerian engineers have been urged to live up to expectation to enhance technological development and stem the tide of rampant building collapse in the country.

This call was made on Friday by the Minister of Works, Housing and Urban Development Dr. Hassan Muhammad Lawal at the Fellowship Conferment Dinner of Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) held at Nicon Luxury Hotel in Abuja.

The Minister emphasised the importance of engineers as the bedrock of national development, but said that in discharging their duties they need to be proactive and diligent, saying the cases of building collapse indicates that somebody somewhere has done something that is not professional which must be curbed at all cost.

In his address, NSE President, Engineer Kashim Abdul Ali, noted that the fellowship status being conferred on some distinguished engineers is the highest available grade of membership of the society.

He called on indigenous engineers to demonstrate the highest level of integrity and professionalism so as to ensure that as a society they come out with stringent measures against unprofessional conduct by members.

"Daily we read in the papers of how much money government spends bringing foreign contractors to do one thing or the other to improve our power sector supply. Recently, the government was to spend 1.3 billion naira to effect repairs on the unit generator at the Shiroro Power plant, but our own engineers successfully repaired the unit for a paltry 50 million naira saving the county over a billion naira. The repair led to the injection of 150 megawatts of electricity to the National grid. This feat is a demonstration that our engineers can do it if given the opportunity and at lesser cost," he said.