World Federation of Engineering Organizations Elects Nigerian As 1st Sub-Saharan President

History was made in Costa Rice at the World Engineering Summit 2022, as Nigeria’s Engr. Mustafa B. Shehu emerged the President Elect of World Federation of Engineering Organizations, WFEO.

He becomes the first Engineer from sub Sahara Africa to hold the position.

The World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO) is the international organization for the engineering profession.

Founded in 1968, under the auspices of UNESCO, WFEO brings together national engineering institutions from some 100 nations and represents more than 30 million engineers.

Engr MB Shehu, an electrical engineer is a former President of Nigerian Society of Engineers, Federation of African Engineering Organisations.

He is a fellow of Nigerian Society of Engineers and Nigerian Academy of Engineering.

He will be joining the new President, Prof Jose Vieira along with other council members to consolidate on WFEO achievements and take WFEO to higher level.

This election is significant in many ways for Africa and Nigeria as a whole.

Africa has become a key focus of WFEO with many actionable programmes specifically created for African sustainable development. from food security to capacity building, young engineers development and many others.

WFEO, has in the recent years, registered considerable achievements in terms of membership growths, strengthening of relationship with United Nations, UNESCO, focus on sustainable development in Africa through engineering and many international organizations.

In 2020, the organization in conjunction with UNESCO declared 4th March as World Engineering Day for Sustainable Development.

Before this election as President Elect, Shehu has served as Chairman of Awards Committee, Member of Strategic Planning, Finance Committees as well as Advisory Board for the WFEO President and Executive Vice President at WFEO.

In his policy brief, Shehu commended past presidents efforts and declared that WFEO must make effort in helping to produce more engineers with the right skills through improved Engineering Education and Capacity Building towards accreditation of many countries with the International Engineering Alliance” He wants WFEO to continuously use its national, international members as well as partners to achieve these noble objectives.

It will be recalled that a similar history was made at home , three months ago when Nigerian Society of Engineers elected, Engr. Margaret Aina Oguntala as its first female Deputy President in its 63 years history.

The new WFEO president, Prof. Dr. José Vieira is a civil engineer with extensive experience in engineering education, research and management.

He is Full Professor at University of Minho, Portugal, where he served as Pro Rector (1990-1998) and Vice Rector (1998-2002). Prof. Dr. José Vieira was President of the European Federation of National Engineering Associations (FEANI) from 2014 to 2020.

Under his leadership, strategic initiatives were launched to enhance the visibility of the value of engineers to society, stressing the relevance of promoting the UN Sustainable Development Goals in future engineering education and practice.

He has been involved in WFEO activities since 2015 as a member of the Executive Council and chair of the Strategic Planning Committee.