ABUJA - Mr. Joseph Eke,an Engineer with the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), has said that Nigerian engineers need government’s approval and support to manufacture power spare parts.

Eke told newsmen in Abuja that Nigerian engineers had taken up maintenance challenges in the power sector over the years. “The government policy has not been there for Nigerian engineers to start manufacturing some of these parts needed for the power stations.

“There must be a government policy supporting such a programme,” he said.

He said though, there were occasions when foreign engineers would have to come in to fix some of the needed parts in the power stations because those parts were not manufactured here.

“They normally come in with those parts, fix them and then, we continue from there.

“I have been involved in the maintenance work with PHCN for more than 27 years. It is a challenge and we have been facing it.

“The PHCN is about the only Nigeria institution where Nigerian engineers are battling with the maintenance problem alone,” he said.

“We, the Nigerian engineers in PHCN, are capable of handling our maintenance programme and we have always been handling it,’’ Eke added.

“The essence of having the NIEEE conference is to come up with a communiqué which will be forwarded to the government and not just forwarding it, there is need for a follow up on it,” he said.