The Nation Newspaper

Tag: BUHARI

  • Why Buhari gave Ali Customs job

    Why Buhari gave Ali Customs job

    The need to get the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) to optimise its potential as the nation’s cash cow informed President Muhammadu Buhari’s appointment of Col. Hameed Ali as its Comptroller-General, the Presidency said at the weekend.

    Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the President on Media and Publicity Mallam Garba Shehu said the government believes that the Customs Service could triple its revenue target.

    Fielding questions from reporters, he said: “Do you, in all sincerity, know Col. Hameed Ali?

    “If you do know him, how many of his types do we have in this country? This is the man who many probably felt should have gone to head the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). But, looking at the critical place of the Customs in the economy of this country, you need somebody like him.

    “After oil, the next revenue spinner for the government is the Customs. In these few days we have been listening to briefings, I have seen people flying ideas that Customs revenue can be tripled and that there are ideas that can lead to the revenue being tripled on the basis that corruption is eliminated.

    “I think that Col. Ali has a rare breed of reputation that will be difficult to find. There might be a few people in the Customs, but maybe they are too low in rank to warrant this appointment.

    “I think the President has done the best thing anybody can do for the Customs and for the economy of this country. Otherwise, smuggling will ruin Nigeria.  Look at what is happening in the textile industry in Aba, Ikeja, Kaduna, Kano and Gashua.

    “There was a time when they used to employ about 400,000 people. All the textile companies in the country today can no longer employ more than 30,000 people. We have more Nigerians in need of clothing today than those so-called glorious days of the textile industry.  This is just one example.

    “Look at the issue of rice. Ebonyi,  Anambra,  Niger,  Osun,  Kebbi,  Sokoto and Kogi states have been brought together by the President and given the marching  order to produce the rice need of this country. The rice industry in this country has failed because cheap Asian rice is being dumped here. The President did not ban importation because that would have offended the World Trade organisation (WTO).

    “What he has done is to say if you want to import rice, go and source your dollars anywhere you can get it. But the CBN and the banks will always supply to manufacturers who want to bring in spare parts, equipment and employ Nigerians and for those who want to pay for medical bills abroad and maybe for school fees.

  • Tinubu: Buhari ’ll give priority to education

    Tinubu: Buhari ’ll give priority to education

    All Progressives Congress (APC) National Leader Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has described education as a top priority of the Muhammadu Buhari administration.

    He spoke also of his firm belief in education and its place in the development of man and country.

    Tinubu spoke at the weekend during the maiden convocation of Adeleke University, Ede in Osun State.

    He was awarded a honourary doctorate degree in Political Science and Diplomacy.

    Other awardees are former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Justice Alfa Belgore  – honourary doctor of law of jurisprudence; Africa’s richest man Alhaji Aliko Dangote and Senator Isiaka Adeleke, who was also installed as the pioneer chancellor of the institution.

    Among the dignitaries at the ceremony were Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola and former APC Interim National Chairman Chief Bisi Akande.

    Governing Council Chairman  Dr. Adedeji Adeleke, praised Tinubu for his vision and political mission, saying: “If not for you sir, we all could imagine what would have become of this nation.”

    He expressed gratitude to Tinubu for championing good causes and for Belgore’s and Dangote’s contributions to national development.

    The former chief justice advised Tinubu to continue to do more for the nation.

    Tinubu said: “I am a firm believer in the principle that education is the single most important ingredient in our ability to develop this nation and then to sustain that development over the generations.

    “My love for education is boundless because it is our most effective weapon against poverty and until we educate the mass of our people, Nigeria will remain at the mercy of poverty…

    “The Buhari administration holds education as a top priority. It will invest in the education of our youth from primary to the university level.”

    According to him, there can be no shortcuts or compromise in education. The nation’s effort at development will forever be crippled unless educational institutions that can train youths to be creative are established, Tinubu said.

    Noting that 1.8 million graduates are produced yearly with little hope of finding employment, the former governor of Lagos State decried the lack of adequate skills in graduates to address Nigeria’s developmental challenges.

    He said: “Too many of our youth are today unemployable. Yet this is no fault of theirs but that of the educational system in which they put their trust.

    “It is time for many institutions to re-cast their academic curricula that they may design courses and programmes in order to equip our youth with skills applicable to our needs.”

    Tinubu praised the  government’s initiative of providing meal for school pupils, noting that it would attract more kids to schools, thereby depriving unscrupulous elements from engaging them negatively.

    On the honour bestowed on him and other eminent persons, Tinubu said it was a measure of their collective efforts to establish a just and functional political order, as well as a society in which every citizen enjoys access to basic needs.

    Tinubu, who was decorated by the Vice Chancellor as the pioneer recipient of the institution’s honorary award, expressed his profound gratitude to the Adeleke family for counting him worthy for the honorary award.

    His words: “It is sincerely a great honour for me to be the first and pioneer honorary award recipient at this maiden convocation ceremony of Adeleke University alongside the first alumni graduates of this great institution.

    “Adeleke dynasty has shown more interest in education and this has contributed tremendously to educational sector in Nigeria and entire world as thousands of helpless minds have been educated through different academic scholarships sponsored by the family.

    “ Adeleke family has reduced the rate of ignorance, poverty and destitution through its various academic programmes and life ameliorating gestures which have complemented the policies of the state government most especially on education sector.”

    Tinubu advised the graduating students to consider themselves privileged and use the education they had acquired in promoting the well-being of mankind.

    Tinubu implored them to demonstrate high sense of patriotism, honesty and fairness in their future career as parts of the values they had received from the university.

  • Buhari’s 100 days: Placing Nigeria on the path to recovery

    Buhari’s 100 days: Placing Nigeria on the path to recovery

    All Progressives Congress (APC) National Leader Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in this title salute President Muhammadu Buhari’s painstaking slow fix , which he said is meant to set a stronger foundation for economic recovery

    Three months ago, the course of Nigeria’s future changed for the better. The APC won a historic election. Tired of the broken promises and damaged public institutions wrought by sixteen years of PDP misrule, the people demanded change. By virtue of the election, the people reclaimed the primacy of their sovereign will. They demanded that government should serve them before serving itself. That proclaimed that government for the people was not only possible in this land but that its establishment was overdue. The breath of hope was restored to the body politic. On that day, we all stood more proudly and more eager to walk into the new day that had come.

    But change is not made simply by winning an election or ejecting a few bad seeds from office. Change requires the careful removal of the rotted timber that has made national governance such a rickety structure. It requires the bold articulation yet wise implementation of a vision and supporting policies, programs and projects aimed at making our country better, making our people’s lives better.

    Change does not tolerate the high rates of poverty and joblessness that insult our national potential and reduce the lives of too many Nigerians. The change we seek will revive this economy in a way that creates jobs and lifts Nigerians out of poverty that all may enjoy the dignified and secure life promised us.

    Change is not weakening our military to the point where it is too demoralized and ill-equipped to protect our people from terrorist violence.Change is energizing that military with new leadership, better war materiel and the firm mandate to rout Boko Haram. Change is establishing peace and security so that the hundreds of thousands of displaced Nigerians may return home in contemplation of rebuilding their lives in ways better than what was before. And change means fighting corruption in all of its manifestations instead of consorting with it. No longer shall the public treasury, meant for the wellbeing of the many, be treated as the private reserve of the few.

    Nigeria is now 100 days into President Buhari’s leadership. It is clear that he has begun the change Nigeria needs. He has shown the decisiveness, the incorruptibility, security acumen and progressive vision we voted for. He has brought the leadership we desperately need. I shudder to think where we might be had the prior administration been allowed to govern even 100 days more, let alone another four years.

    First, Buhari has turned the table against Boko Haram.He has not hesitated to take the fight to the terrorists, destroying their hideouts, capturing their fighters and equipment while taking the military initiative away from them.  They are on their heels and on the run. To get to this better position, he dismissed general officers who had lost heart and were too hesitant to confront Boko Haram, replacing them with new military commanders selected not on regionalism or favoritism but on the strength of their military leadership and fighting spirit. The president strengthened our security partnerships with Chad, Niger, Cameroon, and the United States to build a much stronger regional and international coalition to uproot the terrorists.  He continues to reach out to other nations to further strengthen that coalition. We are no longer a junior partner in a fight that mostly takes place on our soil. Because of President Buhari, we are at the head of this  multilateral effort, driving it forcefully to successful conclusion. We are already seeing improvements in safety across the Northeast as Boko Haram retreats and retreats. Buhari will not relent until there is no more Boko haram left to fight.

    Buhari is also tackling corruption. Hehas already shown dozens of corrupt officials the exit, demonstrating that he will not tolerate corruption in his government. He is busily plugging the loopholes in the system to prevent the wholesale thievery so common under the predecessor government.The idea of a single federal government account is one such corrective measure.  Moreover, he is studiously tracking where much of the stolen funds went. He is doing this that he may recover these public funds and bring to book those who purloined them.

    He will return that money to the people, using the funds to build schools, roads, and hospitals that Nigeria needs.

    The President is also taking steps to pull our economy from the dangerous brink where the PDP left it and then to strengthen and diversify the economy that it may provide jobs and prosperity to all who are willing to work to improve their lot.  He has fought and already cured much of the indiscipline and subterfuge that plagued the operation of our refineries and power system. Just in the first hundred days, refinery production has increased reasonably, lowering the cost of fuel importation and thus spurring greater economic activity. He also has improved electricity production by holding the power companies accountable.

    By approving a package of emergency fiscal and financial relief, he has stopped the slide of numerous states into economic depression and imminent bankruptcy. By enabling the payment of back salaries to state government civil servants, he has saved millions of Nigerians from sinking into the hunger and poverty. Moreover, the funds paid to these people will be used to purchase goods and services thus energizing local economies that were becoming flaccid due to lack of aggregate consumer demand. The former government should have taken this step months ago, even before the election. However, it let a bad situation fester into impending calamity. Had that government remained in office, it would have allowed the states to slide into bankruptcy, triggering a financial crisis that would have engulfed the banking system if not the entire economy. In his first 100 days, President Buhari staved the financial paralysis of the states and, as such, may have prevented  a sudden and crippling financial crisis. Gone are the days of rebasing falsehood and brazen theft from our treasury.

    In coming weeks, he will reveal his budget. The budget will go far toward honoring his campaign promises to boost domestic industries, improve our schools to prepare our children for the jobs of tomorrow, and invest in infrastructure that will make Nigeria a better place to run a farm, build a factory, drive your car, drink the water, construct a home, and create jobs.

    We have still a lot of work to do. While reeling, Boko Haram is not completely defeated. Ourstolen girls are not back, and too many from the North East are still unable to return home. With regard to corruption, we must not only recoup stolen money, we must rediscover lost public ethics. We need to establish the mindset that corruption is criminal and evil and do away with the mentality that has treated it as correct public etiquette. While actions have been taken to thwart imminent crisis, much needs to be done to place the economy on solid footing over the longer haul.  I look forward with great optimism and enthusiasm to the government coming forward with plans to create jobs, modernize our infrastructure and diversify the economy so that our industrial sector may attain greater prominence.

    I salute and accept the deliberate painstaking slow fix of this government which is meant to set a stronger foundation for quick economic recovery. The effort to stem the primitive pilferation of our commonwealth must attain national priority. The Buhari administration is committed to building a new country.

    Looking at the fragile vehicle they inherited and at the harsh terrain they have been able to navigate, I could not be prouder of what the President, the Vice President and their team have done thus far. If they continue in this manner, they would have done more than justify the people’s faith in them. They would have placed Nigeria on the path to its better self. We cannot ask any more from them than that.

     

  • The matter of Buhari’s appointments

    It would amount to an abdication of responsibility on a serious matter of public interest to allow obviously sectional distribution of appointments to stand unchallenged for fear of being called names or some other mundane promptings. The feeling is not new since President Buhari began his appointments that he accords scant regard to national spread and most of his appointments are skewed disproportionately in favour of the north. The response of some of his aides at those initial stages was to call for patience as the needed balance will come subsequently even as they also canvassed the issue of merit. But more of such appointments have since come with the naming of the Secretary to the Federal Government (SGF) and Chief of Staff to the president among others only to widen the gulf in earlier observations.

    Not unexpectedly, some prominent Nigerians and groups have deprecated what has been seen as the sectional tinge in those appointments. Apparently sensing danger in the growing trend, no less a person than the National Chairman of the ruling party, Chief John Oyegun, rose in defense. He told a delegation that visited him to be patient as the president will balance federal appointments across geo-political zones. For him, “we have two sets of appointments that have been taking place. One set is the personal privilege of Mr. President as far as his personal staff is concerned. The other set has to do with a few and strategic persons that are going to help him either in the fight against corruption or against insurgency in the north-east, but this is not where to play the political balancing game” He said the president has the right to appoint those he has confidence in because these are the areas he has made promises to Nigerians. Oyegun was also quick to add that there are thousands of other political appointments that are going to be made. And the balancing will come with them.

    Oyegun is entitled to his opinion. But it is doubtful whether many will reason along with him on what he purports as justification for the way those appointments have come. It is correct that much of these appointments are the personal privilege of the president. It is also no less a truism that the choice of those to appoint are essentially his.

    But that is the extent to which his arguments can be pursued. Beyond these and by way of further extrapolation, those arguments are contradicted by the same reasons for which they are intended to persuade the public. There is a contradiction in the assumption that in the making of even personal appointments, only a preponderance of people from particular areas can be found qualified and well-trusted for those positions. It is difficult to sustain such a latent impression especially when we are talking of national assignments. There is nothing personal about those national appointments as we are erroneously being made to believe except they will not be subjected to any other body for approval. That is the more reason the president should have been guided by the overall national interest in arriving at them. Well-qualified and trusted people abound all over the country and the formidable coalition that saw Buhari to power was all that should have been called into action when sourcing for such people.

    If this logical flaw is not sufficient to draw the point nearer, the picture painted by Oyegun of a few strategic persons that will help the president in the fight against corruption and insurgency in the north-east as further justification, further mocks the entire issue. It not only reduces such national engagements to personal but sectional issues. Neither the fight against corruption nor that against insurgency should lend themselves to such trivialization and reductionism. And those who will aid the president in their prosecution are not and should not be limited to any particular section of the country. That is the problem we run into in an attempt to enter defence for actions that have obviously not gone done well with the people.

    Even then, this is not the first time we are passing through such situations. Obasanjo was there for eight years. We did not have cause to raise similar infractions. Neither was such personal and strategic appointments dominated by particular sections of the country as we are now being made to believe. Obasanjo had his problems but he had very trusted and dependable personal aides from other geo-political zones and they served him very dutifully. Though short-lived, the Yar’ Adua regime did not have such a baggage. And the immediate past regime of Jonathan just like Obasanjo appointed people outside his ethnic group as SGF and Chief of Staff.

    So there are good grounds to take Buhari to task as his appointments are not borne out of precedent. Those who seek to defend him on such grounds as we have seen are making no point.  So it was also when governors Rochas Okorocha and Adams Oshiomhole of Imo and Edo states respectively sought to justify the appointments. For Okorocha, the president’s appointments are in the nation’s best interest as he can appoint anyone from any part of the country. He said he is more interested in projects coming down the south-east than the appointments.

    It is hoped he has the minds of his constituents in this. But even as we wait for such projects including the Second Niger Bridge, those on whose behalf he has spoken equally need the appointments. And it cannot be claimed that sections which benefitted disproportionately from these appointments will be left out when the touted projects are being shared. So on what basis would he want his people to be left out of the sharing process even when it is generally known that he had sought for the position of the SGF for the zone without success?

    Oshiomhole trivialized the matter when he urged Nigerians to “praise Buhari for having the uncommon courage to take plausible decisions in the appointments”, whatever that means. For him, the appointments were based on merit and not political sentiments or ethnic considerations. Again, he is entitled to his opinion even when such may run at cross purposes with those of his immediate constituency. It is also instructive that the two governors that found it expedient to speak come from the south-east and south-south zones that were reputed not to have voted for Buhari during the last elections.

    It is possible they were motivated by the groundswell of public discontent against those appointments in the two zones. The extent to which their interventions can reverse these perceptions will be borne out with time.

    But more seriously, infractions as this are the greatest obstacles to the peace and unity of this country. The bitter competition for the control of the centre as witnessed in the last elections is propelled and reinforced by lack of confidence by sections about  adequate protection by leaders other than those from their ethnic stock. That is the malady that is being reinforced when we give the impression that the president’s personal appointments should have nothing to do with balance.

    So why should the struggle for power in this clime not continue to be rancorous if a president cannot take into confidence people of other zones or if he cannot find people from other zones on a high scale of merit for such appointments. At any rate, since when has merit fled the shores of more enterprising sections of this country that it has now become an issue? We need to watch the monsters we create today.

  • ‘100 days not enough to assess Buhari, others’

    One hundred days are not enough to rate the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari and other elected officials, a member of the House of Representatives, Timothy Golu has said.

    The lawmaker, who represents Pankshin, Kanam, Kanke in Plateau State while reacting on the assessment of President Buhari added that conversely, in spite of the short period the President had brought stability to the country.

    His words: “one hundred days  are not enough to measure the capacity or assess the preparedness of any government performance.  Nigerians should be fair to those given responsibilities to perform and therefore should not forced or hasten them into confusion.

    “The 100 days phenomenon is just a political slogan for unnecessary political yardstick to compel office holders to rush their work”

    According to him,  “President Muhamadu Buhari  and all our Governors should not allow politicians to cow or rush them to impress anybody. They should take their time and work within their plans for quality and holistic assessment of what they have in focus”

    Golu said Buhari has achieved within the short period he took over as president and that though the time is too short to assess any leader or government in power, “he has stabilised the polity by creating a healthy psychology of competition among those who are seeking for political offices.”

    He further stated: “Those who are not qualified by whatever factor know and those who are ready to serve also know what is expected of them. Nigerians should give them time to work and not expect them to perfom magic.”

  • Prospect of good harvest excites Buhari

    Prospect of good harvest excites Buhari

    President Muhammadu Buhari has expressed delight at the decision of the emir and the people of his native Daura to honour him with a reception.

    He was also elated at the abundant rainfall in the country, saying with the development,  there would be abundant harvest this year.

    This, he said would represent a sharp turnaround in the fortunes of rural communities.

    President Buhari, who is a farmer and was at his farm in Daura at 7 am on Saturday, said he felt reassured about food security when he saw evidence of the good harvest on the way to his farm.

    He congratulated the emir and the subjects on the prospect of a good harvest this year.

    Alhaji Umar Faruk said the people were proud of the President and his achievements, pledging their commitment to his success.

  • Ex-NERC chair advises Buhari to sustain power sector reform

    The pioneer chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Dr. Ransome Owan has advised President Muhammadu Buhari to sustain the reform in power sector instead of trying to re-invent the wheel.

    He said sustaining the reform process and making adjustment where and when would bring the country into the club of industrialised nations.

    Owan is the Group Managing Director, Aiteo Power Limited. He spoke to The Nation at the weekend.

    He said he doesn’t subscribe to the reversion of the privatisation of the sector, saying that doing so would be unhealthy for both local and international investors. “Let us not turn back the clock because it will send the wrong signal to the domestic environment and it will send the wrong signal foreign investors,” he warned.

    He said the enabling environment has been provided by the Federal Government and people have responded in kind, investors have come adding that the way forward is to consolidate on the success story.

    He said: “Usually, when there is change, there is huge expectation but I think we should look back at the progress that have been made and programmed. The first aspect is to transit this sector to the private sector and now each distribution company, for example, has a five-year turnaround business plan. That plan in terms of performance, actually started in January, this year.

    “Nigerians are suffering from lack of power, and I am quite sympathetic about that but still I can give the investors 60 months to implement their business turnaround plans. Oftentimes, we have to make sure that our long term planning also matches our resources because there is disconnect between what is expected in terms of gas supply and power output for example.

    “The distribution companies cannot have the power they need to supply to consumers because the price is not correct, the gas suppliers are a bit reluctant to give us the maximum fuel we need.  Also because the transmission is not as capable, so our intended or installed capacity is a little bit less than what we actually supply.

    “I think for all of us, we should appreciate the fact that efforts are being made daily to make sure that the business model for generation, transmission, and distribution is perfected to the benefit of Nigerians.”

    Owan said because the country does not have a choice in terms of steady power, it is understood that power is important to economic development.

    “I am of the firm view that over the next three to five days when the power sector fully stabilises, the economy will even be much bigger than it is now and we will be comparing Nigeria with the industrialised economies of the world,” he added.

    He stressed the essence of planning, saying it is the key to making progress even if it is marginal. He said if the country had progressed from four hours supply daily to 10, 20, and 24 hours, that would be progress.

  • Buhari advised to unveil sound ecenomic policies

    Buhari advised to unveil sound ecenomic policies

    •‘Gani’s legacy intact’

    Ondo State Governor Olusegun Mimiko at the weekend urged President Muhammadu Buhari to initiate a well-defined economic policy.

    He advised the Federal Government to pursue its privatisation policy with the aim of interest to promoting the interest of the masses.

    Mimiko spoke during the sixth Gani Fawehinmi Annual Memorial Lecture and Tribute at the Cultural Centre, Akure.

    The event was attended by dignitaries and human rights’ activists who included the former Governor of Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, the National  Chairman, National Conscience Party (NCP), Dr. Tanko Yinusa and the Chairman of the Gani Fawehinmi Memorial Organisation, Comrade Ayodele Akele.

    The governor said the President should pursue his anti-corruption crusade without favouritism or intimidation.

    Mimiko, who enjoined the President Buhari-led government to fashion out a clearly defined  economic policy said his administration would fight poverty through its Caring Heart programmes of qualitative education, healthcare and urban renewal.

    He extolled the virtues of Fawehinmi, saying he left behind an indelible legacy.

    According to him, Fawehinmi’s core essence was to uphold human rights, liberate the masses and use the instrumentality of power to lift them from poverty.

    He said his administration embarked on programmes aimed at liberating the people from poverty by giving equal access to the children and wives of the rich and the poor.

    The governor said: “The children of the privileged and the less privileged learn under the same roof in our mega schools. People have transferred their children and wards from private primary schools to our public mega schools.

    “The wives of the privileged lie side by side in the same ward with the wives of the poor because they cannot get such better service elsewhere.”

    He stressed the need for public servants to demonstrate capacity and reinvent themselves for service delivery.

    In his lecture, entitled: ‘Socio-economic Challenges in the Contemporary Nigeria’ a human rights activist, Mr. Femi Aborisade, attributed poverty to politics.

    He said: “Poverty can only be abolished by politics. Buhari needs to fulfil his campaign promises as encapsulated in his ‘covenant with Nigerians’”.

    Aborisade urged the Federal Government to rename the headquarters of the National Human Rights Commission after Gani Fawehinmi and establish a Freedom Square in Abuja in his honour.

    The chairman of the occasion, Musa, described the late legal icon as an energetic and a patriotic Nigerian, who devoted his life to the Nigerian project and liberty of the masses.

  • Peterside hails Buhari, Osinbajo on assets declaration

    Peterside hails Buhari, Osinbajo on assets declaration

    The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State Dr. Dakuku Peterside has hailed President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice PresidentYemi Osinbajo for declaring their assets in public.

    Peterside, who spoke in Abuja, said the president and the Vice President’s actions were consistent with the philosophy of their party.

    The former lawmaker also praised the duo for setting worthy examples that are not only unprecedented but also definitive of their agenda in public office.

    “These are indeed interesting times in Nigeria. In just one hundred days in office, we are already seeing signs and manifestations of better days ahead.

    “This asset declaration, certainly has rekindled hope, even in the minds of some of our country men and women who had lost hope in government and its officials. It is therefore gratifying to note that Nigerians across zones, class, age and even political affiliations have commended this move. This asset declaration, no doubt, has set the tone in very unmistakable terms, on what to expect in the coming years.

    ‘I am very confident that the APC government will not disappoint Nigerians who voted massively for the on-going change that is sweeping across the nation. Those who voted against impunity, corruption and incompetence are already seeing in very concrete terms, the dividends of their votes at the last general elections.

    “I therefore wish to use this medium to call on Nigerians to continue to lend their support to this government as it continues to demonstrate accountability and vision in its match towards a new Nigeria”.

  • Buhari’s anti-corruption crusade ‘commendable’

    The President and Chairman of Council of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators of Nigeria (ICSAN), Dr. Nat Ofo, has described as commendable the anti-corruption war of President Muhammadu Buhari, saying it will greatly reduce the wanton looting of the treasury.

    He also said Nigeria should not be the poorest country because of its vast resources, adding however, that the impact of these resources are not felt “because they are mismanaged”.

    Dr. Ofo stated these while briefing newsmen on this year’s annual conference and dinner awards of the institute slated for  September 10 and 11, at the Lagos Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja.

    The ICSAN president also said that the corruption war of the present administration would not only bring to the barest minimum the rate of the scourge which has eaten deep into the fabrics of the society, but also go a long way in letting the resources of the country go round.

    “Nigeria should not be the poorest country because of our resources- oil and others. But because these resources are mismanaged, their impacts are not felt. We should have a system to ensure prudency in financial resources. By having this, the impact will be widely felt.

    “President Buhari’s fight against corruption is okay and it will make our resources have impact on the people. Corruption is a major issue that should be dealt with so that the people will feel the impact of the resources we have in the country.

    “Government should be accountable to the people so that more dividends of democracy will be felt from the little resources we get”, Ofor stated.

    He also stated that: “Disclosure and Transparency: A Paradigm Shift in Corporate Nigeria” is the theme of this year’s conference, which has as its sub-themes: “Responsibility of independent Non-Executive Directors in Corporate Nigeria”; “Duality of Audit Committees in Nigeria: A critical Appraisal” and “Opportunities for Chartered Secretaries and Corporate Governance Auditors”.