By Dadson A. Musa
The gathering of engineers to discuss their trade, welfare and development took place at the New Brookfields hotel in Freetown from 25th to the 28th June, 2024. It was graced by sister engineering institutions from Liberia, Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya. This year’s AGM was held under the theme; “Contemporary Approach to Engineering Education and Practices.” In her opening statement, the outgone president of the Sierra Leone Institution of Engineers, Ing. Trudy Morgan thanked participants, sponsors and members for making the AGM a possibility. “I am looking back at a successful tenure as I have tried to bridge the gender gap. This is because my tenure has served as an inspiration to the shy and timid women engineers in Sierra Leone. If I have done it, they can do it.” She reminded the gathering of efforts she has made to prop up the women engineers who are few in number. Madam Trudy Morgan was proud of leaving a legacy behind and called on the new president, Festus Oba Jones “to take it from there and either maintain it or make it better.” The engineers had exhaustive discussions under the following sub themes for the past four days of the event;
- AI in Education and General Practices
- Continued Professional Development and Lifelong Learning
- Emerging Approaches to Engineering Education and General Practices- Is Africa Getting it Right?
- Diversity and Inclusion
- Addressing Climate Vulnerability
- Engineering Diplomacy- a useful tool in foreign diplomacy.
These sessions were chaired by experienced and established engineers who have been in the practice for long. And the up-and-coming engineers were encouraged to participate in academic and experience-based discussions
Ing. Andrew Karmoh Keili, Managing Director of CEMMATS stood out in his presentation among many other presenters. “As young engineers, it is okay to make mistakes as when I was like you, I made several mistakes, but today I have come out a better engineer.” His experience as an engineer span over three decades as his speciality is mining engineering, but has forayed into other fields of engineering as circumstances can force engineers to do so. Ing. Andrew Karmoh Keili encouraged engineers “to be adaptable as it can bring in economic benefits.” So many engineers became interested in his presentation that he got the most questions from the audience. He went further to encourage engineers to take up leadership in their various communities and “not to hesitate to venture into politics as he is a politician himself and has been part of so many boards and help not only to advise governments but to help form policies.
The Secretary General, Ing. Jacob Anthony Lahai Thalowoh, mechanical engineer by training read out his biennial report, in which there were successes made under the leadership of Trudy Morgan. In his report he stated that the “Sierra Leone Institute of Engineers and the Professional Engineers Registration Council emerged out of the Sierra Leone Association of Technologists.” This, according to the report started way back in the 1960s. And that it had six strategic objectives, viz;
- -demonstrate the value of membership to engineers
- -demonstrate to society the value of engineering
- -support the professional development of all engineers
- -continued international collaboration
- -support the secretariat to provide the requisite service and
- -increase the number of practising engineers in Sierra Leone registered with SLIE
At the AGM meeting for paid-up members only, elections were held and recommendations were made by members and communiqué was adopted. Climaxing the occasion was the handing over of the affairs of the Sierra Leone Institution of Engineers (SLIE) to the new executive lead by Ing. Festus Oba Jones at the biennial conference banquet which was attended by crème-de-la crème of national and international guests. In his address, the new president, Festus Oba Jones was clearly elated. “I accept this leadership with great humility and I call for inclusion, collaboration and innovation.” He called on engineers to be ready “to adapt to changes in the world to keep the profession going.” And expressed gratitude that the awaited revised PERC Act has received its assent through parliament and the name has changed from Regulation Council to Regulatory Council. That they can now boast of their own to put up their secretariat. He vowed to “continue with professional development of engineers.” And ended on a note that they “are going to ensure engineers get value in the work place” He called on all to work with him to achieve many more important things.”
Copyright –Published in print in Expo Times Newspaper on Friday, July 5th, 2024 (ExpoTimes News – Expo Media Group (expomediasl.com)
