CIPMN AND THE NEW NIGERIAN PROJECT MANAGER
BY ARC GODWIN O. OKORONKWO 18TH DECEMBER 2018
- A project is a response/solution to a conceived need – shelter, infrastructure, health, defense, plant/factory, establishment etc., while Project Management has to do with the methods/approaches of achieving the objective within a specified time and cost. Whereas the Project Manager is the distinguished performer-, resource party.
- The Chartered Institute of Project Managers of Nigeria (CIPMN) (Establishment) Act 2017, was passed by the National Assembly under the inspiring able leadership of Senator (Dr.) Abubakar Bukola Saraki and Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara and, finally signed into law by the President, Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces, Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR on the 24th January 2018.
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The CIPMN is established to regulate the standards, training (education), discipline and practice of project management as a profession in Nigeria.
- The no. 3 above implies that, any party or individual, corporate body or institution involved in project management endeavors must register with, be accredited or licensed by CIPMN or else is adjudged illegal and punishable by the laws of the Federal Government of Nigeria.
- A non –accredited party may not practice project management in Nigeria nor be engaged /employed in a project whether a foreigner or a Nigerian even with any foreign certification.
- CIPMN is in same status as ARCON, COREN, etc.
- Visit cipmn.org.ng for details.
- A good example of a defense project is the Manhattan Project. (please google this). This was the case that ended the Second World War. Atomic energy had widely been a theory until President Franklin Roosevelt commissioned the Manhattan project which produced the Atomic bomb, when a Scientist like Albert Einstein wrote him a letter supposing that German Scientists were working to achieve the atomic bomb. Defense consultants and outfits are also welcome members.
- Today there are several defense and crime challenges that need the professional project manager’s involvement. By this Act and Government encouragement, the CIPMN as a body and individuals can do the inconceivable.
- The National Assembly and the presidency should not allow the duplication of a regulatory body such as CIPMN, so that there would be a maximum focus of resources.
- To the new accredited Nigerian project managers, the scene before now was likenable to Gen. 1:1-3 KJV ‘’In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, let there be light: and there was light.’’. the Act is now, the light for the Nigerian Project Manager to operate/prform.
- With the Act, the tertiary institutions serious with running project management programmes should now be more than Federal University of Technology, Owerri. Two or so tertiary institutions are not bold enough to run project Management programmes.
- Project management is no more an ‘’import’’ item. It is now a Nigerian item and citizen. If there is a dispute between a CIPMN accredited project manager and another professional, the former has a ‘’voice’’ unlike before when a clever opponent could have sued for non-locus standi against the pre-Act Nigerian Project Manager.
- There have been conflicts between the project manager and other professionals such that the question started arising about the efficacy or need-worthiness of project manager in some construction projects. This would now be brought under control by function-defined documentations etc.
- In the past, if there were litigation issue between another professional and a project manager, the former was backed by law; whereas the pre-Act project manager was not.
- The post-Act project manager must be ‘’discipline-aholic/philic’’ and ‘’excellence-aholi/philic’’.
- By discipline excellence commitment and hard work, government may find us a standing ready RESOURCERY for any issues whatever and who knows, before you become anything worthwhile, you must have been a Nigerian project manager as time progresses in Nigeria.
- As world-class project managers, we must do things far better than we have met Nigeria.
- All existing project managers and organization should