Concerns as elections annulment throws NSE into crisis

Some prominent engineers are concerned that the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) may be brought into disrepute after elections into executive positions of the umbrella organisation for the engineering profession in Nigeria were annulled in December, 2021.

Sources who spoke under condition of anonymity said as one of the oldest professional bodies in the country, the society was expected to live up to expectation.

Since its inception in 1958, it the annulment of the elections was the first time the NSE was enmeshed in controversy of such.

The society’s elections held on December 9, 2021, was annulled by its then President, Babagana Mohammed, over alleged criminal cyber breach.

Mohammed cancelled the elections which were to see the emergence of a new deputy president and other national executives and ordered for rerun, alleging that the elections were marred by irregularities and criminal cyber breach as some people hacked the database of the organisation to manipulate the outcome of the elections.

 A source said the cancellation of the elections had thrown the respected society into crisis as there was vacuum in many executive positions.

Mohammed as president, as is the tradition of the NSE, handed over the affairs of the society to his Deputy, Engr Tasiu Sa’ad Gidari-Wudil, the current and 33rd president of the society, and the Executive Secretary, Engr (Dr) Okopi Alex Momoh.

NSE president’s tenure elapses every two years and the deputy automatically succeeds the president. Then a new deputy is elected alongside six vice presidents and six other executive members.

Due to the crisis, there was no inauguration of executive committee members. The outgone president only handed over to the new president.

Therefore, there are concerns that the crisis has put the integrity of the society under scrutiny, just as Nigerian engineers are waiting to see whether the new president, Wudil, will continue the elections process to its logical conclusion, because he had said new elections would be done in the first quarter of 2022 or he would reverse the cancellation.

When a former president of the society and member of its Board of Trustees, Engr Otis Anyaeji, was contacted on the crisis, he said, “I would not want to discuss this before touching base with the chairman of the Board of Trustees of the society. I am a member of the board of the society. The board had a meeting last week and this issue was one of the things discussed, but I wasn’t part of the meeting.” He, however, promised to talk about it later, saying he wanted to talk from an informed position.