Lagos, Dec. 14, 2023: The Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators of Nigeria (ICSAN) has urged Nigerians to exercise more patience for the various economic policies by the President Bola Tinubu led administration to gestate and have its projected impact on the society.
Mrs Funmi Ekundayo, President, ICSAN, gave the advice during a media parley on Wednesday in Lagos.
Ekundayo noted that policies must take their time to gain traction particularly given the peculiarity of where we as a nation are coming from for things to be properly cleaned up.
She said citizens must consider the rationale leading to the fuel subsidy removal and the benefits accrued to us as a nation, which may not be felt instantaneously, but would come leading to better environmental and societal satisfaction.
The ICSAN president, however, stated that hope on the part of the citizens would come from the steps government was seen to take to stimulate buoyancy and productivity to help the private sector stay in business.
“Citizens must continue to set the tone for what they want to see to put the government on their toes as it is on us all to ensure that things pick up economically.
“When government is able to meet our expectations, we must be bold enough to commend them and when there is the need to overhaul things, we must also be bold enough to address it.
“It is important that the cost of governance must be at its barest minimum; if government is tasking people to forebear, they must take the lead.
“If Nigerians are showing understanding, taking it in their strides and being extremely resilient, it is not appropriate to see any wastage on the part of government,” she said.
Addressing the 2024 budget, Ekundayo said its early presentation signified a right measure in the right direction, leading to early discussion, early approval, early implementation and the positive impact on the people.
She tasked the National Assembly to ensure adequate oversight and effective monitoring of all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA) that generate revenues to ensure that they are put on their toes to meet their respective revenue targets.
She also called for an overhaul of the public sector and build in pragmatic checks and balances to address corruption and inefficiency.
“Government must also ensure prompt and effective implementation of all executive orders while factors militating against successful implementation of governmental policies must be looked into and addressed appropriately,” she said.
The ICSAN president said government in its bid to review the national minimum wage new year, must ensure adequate and appropriate engagement with all the relevant stakeholders, including the labour unions and pensioners.
This, she explained, would enable all parties come up with a proposition that would be acceptable and fair to all.
“Once the right engagement is in place and every stakeholder represented, the position reached would be a win win with less aggravation and heated polity.
“Government must also ensure accountability and transparency in its dealings. If there’s a reason why they are unable to meet up, it should be clearly stated to avoid speculations.
“This brings us to the importance of corporate governance practices such as transparency and information dissemination when necessary to avoid these issues.
“Nigeria must strengthen her corporate governance regime to reap the benefits of economic growth and sustainable development.
“While we affirm faith in the viability of emergence of a Nigeria that is strong, self-reliant and prosperous, we daresay that one of the cogent ways of moving in this direction is by entrenching good governance in the public and private sectors,” she said.
Ekundayo, speaking on the gains of the institute in 2023, said it made a giant stride in the quest to propagate quality education and knowledge on governance matters in Nigeria by signing a Memorandum of Association (MoU).
She said the MoU was signed with the Nigerian Institute of Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS), Abuja, in conjunction with the University of Benin for Master of Science (MSc) in Governance.
Ekundayo pledged to continue to engage relevant stakeholders and government in areas of governance and capacity development for private, public and non for profit organisations as the institute looks forward to 2024 with renewed vigour.
