By Frank Momoh
The Accountants’ Conference of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), has urged federal government to adopt education, prevention and sanctions in its anti-corruption drive.
They also called on the government to tackle unemployment and poverty by creating start-up entrepreneurship programmes for youths and supporting them with enabling environment and funding.
Mr. Bunmi Owolabi, Head, Corporate Communications, ICAN, in a statement made available to SHARPEDGENews, said the recommendations were the outcome of resolutions of the body signed by the President and Chairman of Council, Mr. Nnamdi Okwuadigbo, at the just concluded 49th conference in Abuja.
They urged for the need to deploy education through strengthening revenue collecting agencies, the three arms of government, law enforcement agencies, regulatory agencies, political parties and electoral bodies to regularly train and retrain their employees.
Okwuadigbo, said: “Education should be given a pride of place as it creates awareness that enables citizens to easily identify where corruption exists.”
“The creation of the necessary environment to prevent “crimes of opportunity” by ensuring individuals and organisations operate within the shared fundamental traits that are grounded in law, particularly appropriate and prompt payments of remunerations.
“Some of the agencies created to fight corruption appear to be overwhelmed by the enormity of the problem and have in certain instances adopted strategies that seem to infringe on the rights of citizens.
“The sanctions to be meted out on corrupt citizens must be fair and not selective. It should not be seen to infringe on the rights of citizens. These institutions and agencies should demonstrate independence from government interference.” ICAN added.
“Government institutions are accountable to their people and should use their resources judiciously and not mismanage them. Transparent leadership and governance will allow citizens to identify indicators of under-performance on the part of political leadership and exert well-targeted pressure to put them back on track,” it noted.”
On insecurity, it urged government to create employment opportunities as a means of curbing insurgency as well as develop sustainable strategies to manage the impact of climate change in the Borno State and any other part of the nation facing security challenges.
The conference averred: “Security is evidently the pillar upon which every meaningful development could be achieved and sustained. Many had hoped that the return to democratic governance would have addressed insurgency and restiveness.”
According to the release, insecurity remains one of the major obstacles to development across the country.
“They bemoaned the case of Borno State and other parts of North-east and west where insurgency and climate change had destroyed over 75 % of developmental infrastructure and forced about 80% of livestock farmers and pastoralists to migrate from the Lake Chad Basin to the Middle Belt and other parts of the country. These have caused unfortunate clashes between herdsmen and farmers. The added.