USA Africa Dialogue Series - Of Historians,Engineers and Structural Failure

Of Historians, Engineers  , and structural failures by Augustine Togonu-Bickesteth, London, England

 Strengthening  public institutions is key to driving social engineering- Falola, vanguard, January 13 2022

  The   African  elders have said ``If a man does not know about the disease  that killed his father that disease might end up killing him "  This is one reason  why we study History.  Another reason the elders have given is that if you do not know where you are going to, you would at least know where you are coming from.

     Furthermore,the Nigerian society of Engineers  and perhaps r the  larger body of those in the Built Environment may have to consult or involve  Nigerian Historians as far as unraveling the History of Building collapse in Nigeria otherwise known as structural failure

History is about  chaps  and Geography is about maps  and Akin Mabogunje tells us that all geography is Historical   

I must add that a report in the Guardian today  September 14 2022 reveals that 15 billion naira would be required to replace colonial administrative maps. This somehow gives an inkling to the nigerian problem :colonial administrative maps being used in 2021!!!. Of course we have been told where there are no maps there would be no development.

      Lastly, beyond structural failure   where it helps to make ethical choices,  engineers need to cultivate history of their discipline because research have shown it helps them to better understand classroom work in real world settings.there is a related article in  the journal, the conversation of  august 15 2016 titled why science and engineering  need to remind students of forgotten lessons from history by mohammad h,  zaman of boston university

There is Professor Ralph Augustine  writing on the importance of History to Engineers. there is also Professor Henry petroski a civil engineer and historian specializing in structural failure analysis/ which is our  main  interest in this write up

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