COREN Faults Federal Govt’s Ban On Accreditation By Professional Bodies

The President of Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), Prof. Sadiq Zubair Abubakar, has expressed concern over the federal government’s ban on accreditation by professional bodies.

He spoke at the 5th Engr. U. G. Jibrin Distinguished Annual Public Lecture with the theme “Effective Engineering Administration as Panacea for Building and Infrastructure Collapse,” held in Abuja on Saturday.

LEADERSHIP recalls that the Federal Government had last week banned some professional bodies from carrying out independent accreditation in the Nigerian University System (NUS).

In a letter, dated May 20, 2025, by the Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), to all vice chancellors in the country, the commission announced the decision of the Minister of Education.

The one-page letter signed by the acting Director, Executive Secretary’s Office, Jubril Abu Momoh, and titled: “Re: Stoppage of Multiple Accreditation of Academic Programmes by Professional Bodies in Nigerian Universities’’, asked VCs to note the directive and take necessary action.

The letter reads: “The National Universities Commission is in receipt of the letter, Ref.FME/DUE/206/T/191 and dated 9th May from the Federal Ministry of Education informing it of the ministry’s observation of the increasing trend of multiple accreditation of academic programmes in Nigerian universities by various professional bodies, independent of the NUC.”

The letter explained that the education minister has approved that, henceforth, all professional bodies would no longer be allowed to conduct independent accreditation of academic programmes in Nigerian universities.

The government, however, granted waivers to seven professional bodies to continue their regulatory activities in collaboration with the NUC.

The seven regulatory bodies exempted are the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN); Council of Legal Education of Nigeria (CLE); Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria; Pharmacy Council of Nigeria (PCN); Veterinary Council of Nigeria; Council of Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), and Architects Registration Council of Nigeria (ARCON).

But, Prof Abubakar, in a goodwill message at the programme, said it was a global best practice for professional bodies to grant accreditation to university systems.

He called on the Engineering professionals to examine the implications of such policy for the nation.

He lamented that despite having over 30 professional bodies in the University system to ensure global benchmark and mobility, they lacked the requisite funding to really perform their duties.

“The University system has been inundated all of us know by the 33 regulatory bodies that we have in the country to desist from discharging the law which is accreditation of professional courses in the University system as well as in the voc-technical system and all of us know that there has been a huge burden on them to be able to on one hand remain in line with the global best practices which is expected of us as a nation that is competitive on another hand to also ensure that we have global benchmarking and our professionals have global mobility. So these are noble ideas but then the system is not having the adequate funding to be able to do that and so last week we saw very surprisingly that the federal ministry of education has expressed concern and restricted these regulatory bodies to what they will do in the University system.

“My personal interpretation is that out of the 33 regulatory bodies,only six were given waivers to continue with that global best practice and I analysed these regulatory bodies and I came up with this.

“That Nigeria rightly or wrongly have recognised their priority in terms of professionalism,in terms of adding value to the profession both in training and practice.

“Now what is take away for us? As Engineers we have been recognised rightly or wrongly and we need to sit down and work this title “effective engineering administration” we must sit down and answer the questions of the global bench marking and how we are fairing up.I’ll like to urge our leadership to synergize and talk with one voice,” he said.

Engr. Kashim Ali, a former President of COREN, questioned the authority of the ministry of education to stop professional bodies from discharging their duties in line with global best practices.

“The day we stop accreditation, nobody will recognise us as Engineers in the world. It is a stupid thing ,it is not a waiver. They have no right to give us any waiver.

“Just now Port Harcourt Refinery has been shut down, before now people raised alarm that what they did was 419 and it has come to fruition. Warri will soon come down and Kaduna has not kick off. We must take engineering more seriously, let us pay attention to some of these things. NSE must listen to these things ,get this information ahead of everybody and report.”

He called on the engineering body to be proactive and get such reports before they happen.

“We must take engineering seriously. Port Harcourt refinery is down, Warri will soon follow and Kaduna has not even started. NSE must get these information and get it out ahead of its happening.

“We should be proactive, find out this thing is going to collapse and tell government ahead of time,” he stated.