The Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) has raised the alarm over the growing interference by multiple professional bodies attempting to duplicate engineering accreditation functions in Nigerian universities.
President of COREN, Prof. Sadiq Abubakar, voiced the concern during a courtesy visit to the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof. Abdullahi Ribadu, in Abuja.
Abubakar decried the trend, describing it as a duplication of responsibilities and an unnecessary burden on the universities. He stressed that COREN remains the only body legally empowered to accredit engineering programmes in the country.
“The Federal Government established COREN with the mandate to regulate and control the education, training, and practice of engineering in all its aspects since 1972,” Abubakar stated.
“The COREN Act empowers the body to accredit academic programmes for the training of engineering professionals at all levels including technologists, technicians, and craftsmen as well as to register and license them to practice in Nigeria.
“The Act also gives COREN the authority to make specific regulations and publish them for effective monitoring, compliance, and enforcement,” he added.
He expressed concern that some professional bodies, through lobbying, had obtained statutory backing and now embarked on unauthorised accreditation visits to universities.
Abubakar cited a case in which a professional body attempted to accredit the Electrical Engineering programme at the University of Jos without the knowledge of either COREN or the NUC.
He also revealed that another group was planning to license and regulate power engineers, a move COREN rejected to prevent conflict and confusion.
“Only the body with legal authority to accredit a programme can regulate it,” he said, while stressing the need to fast-track protocols for joint accreditation between COREN and NUC.
He called on the NUC to support the swift resumption of joint accreditation exercises, a collaboration that has existed for over five decades.
Abubakar warned that if left unaddressed, the overlapping roles could spark a major crisis in the education system, urging universities to acknowledge COREN as the sole accrediting body for engineering programmes.
In his response, the NUC Executive Secretary, Prof. Abdullahi Ribadu, assured COREN of the commission’s full backing and commitment to joint accreditation processes.
Ribadu, acknowledging the vital role engineering plays in national development, expressed readiness to reactivate the long-standing partnership with COREN.
He also criticised the financial and logistical pressure some professional bodies place on universities during accreditation visits.
“If you are a professional body coming to perform your duties, do not put pressure on the universities. As a former Vice Chancellor, I saw this firsthand, one body asked for two million naira. That should not happen,” Ribadu said.
He pledged the NUC’s support for COREN and lauded the council’s contributions toward the development of engineering in Nigeria.
