The Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria has urged the federal government and Nigerians to embrace dialogue as a way of resolving the country’s current challenges.

President of COREN, Prof. Sadiq Abubakar, said this at a news conference on Friday in Abuja, where he announced the council’s 32ndEngineering Assembly.

He said that the programme, earlier scheduled to hold from August 5 to August 7, would now hold from September 2 to September 4 due to the ongoing protests in the country.

According to Mr Abubakar, the postponement is in the best interest of stakeholders, considering the situation on ground.

He said the event was shifted by one month so that participants worldwide would know.

The COREN president said it was important that the council postponed the event to put some respite to the anxiety and uncertainties.

He said, “I would like to declare that first and foremost, we are Nigerians, before we are engineering practitioners. So, under such circumstances, we need to join hands with our leaders as well as the followers to ensure that normalcy returns in our dear country. In that way, COREN is declaring and informing everybody that our 32ndassembly is being shifted from August 5 to 7 to September 2 and 4. On behalf of the council and the management and the engineering practitioners in this country, we want to appeal to our brothers and sisters across the country to please listen to the word of wisdom. Please promote dialoguing and consensus on issues that bother our country in this very challenging time.”

According to Mr Abubakar, the engineering profession is focused on how to develop the country, how to enrich her democracy and improve governance in the nation.

“So, we appeal to both sides to please put heads and wisdom together in resolving this, maybe I may call it normality in democracy, people asking questions and people responding in the most logical and respectable way on both sides. We wish our country, our leaders and the followership a very peaceful and quick resolution of this situation and we wish our country the very best,’’ he said.

Mr Abubakar said that although the dates for the assembly were changed, everything including the venues remained the same.

(NAN)