Nigeria’s Engineering Achilles’ Heel: Why Practical Experience is Non-Negotiable

By Engr. Olatunde Olagunju

In the aftermath of our critical review published in the Nigerian Journal of Engineering Education, it has become increasingly clear that Nigeria is facing a silent crisis, one that lurks behind every prematurely deteriorating road and structurally compromised building. This crisis isn’t rooted in a lack of academic intelligence but rather in an unsettling deficiency of applied engineering competence.

Graduates from our top engineering faculties possess knowledge on paper. They can recite equations, reference standards, and explain complex thermodynamic cycles in theory. But ask many of them to design a resilient culvert system, draft a comprehensive technical proposal for a power distribution grid, or evaluate the structural integrity of a bridge in the field and silence often follows.

The failure is not just academic. It’s systemic. The absence of national mechanisms to reinforce practical, real-world engineering skills has produced a workforce that too often operates in abstraction. Infrastructure isn’t built with theory alone; it demands calculation, intuition, and above all,experience.

It’s time we shifted our paradigm. Engineering, especially civil and structural engineering, is both science and art. To produce engineers who can safeguard the nation’s development, we must institute a compulsory, hands-on post-graduate industrial training program. Not a voluntary internship or a tick-box attachment but a rigorous, monitored, and standardized curriculum that engineers must complete before professional licensure.

Let us not wait for another disaster to underline the urgency of reform. Our bridges, buildings, and roads should be monuments of precision not tombstones of incompetence.