Corruption is driven by ignorance – Francis Ojaide, ICAN President
By Emma Ujah
Prof. Francis Ojaide ...when you are empowered, you will have self satisfaction.
Prof. Francis Ojaide was inaugurated the 47th President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, ICAN, two weeks after about a decade and half as Council member of the organisation. In this interview with our Abuja Bureau Chief, Emma Ujah, the new ICAN boss said that corruption I driven by ignorance of the true essence of life and must be brought down for the Nigerian society to progress. He also urged the Jonathan administration to give priority to electricity power supply and an efficient transport system. The Fellow of ICAN equally outlined some of his areas of focus as ICAN President in the next one year.
Excerpts:
Why the interest in accounting?
Account is in every facet of life. In fact, what you are doing everyday is accounting. You account for even the time you spend on earth. And you know when heaven and earth were created by God, the first thing he did was to count the first day, second day, up to the seventh day and he said, ‘look, the seventh day is the day of rest.’ He was very satisfied with what he had done. I am very interested in accounting because my elder brother thought that some people were doing well- that was immediately after the civil war- you had those people who were working in Pay & Records, even at that level, they were quite comfortable and he said that he wanted his younger brother to study accounting
What kind of president should members of the institute expect in the next one year?
A president that is proactive, a president that has vision to uplift the standard of the institute, a president that will fly the flag of the institute in and outside the country and a president that will relate directly with policymakers , stakeholders – the government, the private sector, those in commerce and industry and to ensure that the institute provides services, what I mean, value- added services that will make meaning to the generality of the people and for government to find it of great value to implement those policy initiatives to help the nation.
What is your vision for the institute?
I have a vision for the institute to be a leading global professional body. With that, you know you have to go outside the shores of the country. As of now, we are a member of the International Federation of Accountants and we are also a member of the Association of Accounting Bodies in West Africa and just last month, we were part of the people that launched the Pan-African Federation of Accountants of which the institute is the pioneer President.
In your inaugural address, you promised to revamp the institute’s Employment Bureau. How will it operate?
I think that is quiet fundamental in the sense that when you are empowered, you will have self satisfaction.
But when you don’t have a job, you lose self-esteem even among members of your family, not to talk of your friends and society at large. You yourself will start having complex. Looking at that aspect, the institute has what we call Employment Bureau unit and it has not really functioned very well. The implication here is that we said look, we are going to have a renewed/reformed employment bureau and this is how it will operate – the multinational, the main expanding and emerging industries include the big manufacturing industries, any time they need employees, the first point of call will be the institute.
There is this impression that accounting is just accounting, accounting is a wide area, it is multifaceted in the sense that as an accountant, you are also an economic adviser, you are into IT because you can’t operate accounting without Information Technology tools, and as accountant, you can also be in marketing. As an accountant, you should be able to guide the legal unit of the company because the legal unit will need to rely on the facts you have provided to be able to defend the company in court. Now, we talk about a situation where as an accountant you find yourself in every area where you would be able to advise meaningfully, that is not to say that it is jack of all trade and master of none. As accountants, we are masters in our chosen discipline.
What would you identify as the most critical economic agenda for the Jonathan administration?
Well, we will prefer infrastructure, basically that is the foundation for any growth. Let’s put it this way, infrastructure refers to the basic facilities that will enable an economy to grow. We can take power to be the first platform because the artisans use power, the people grinding tomatoes, onions all need power, but what they are using now is petrol and the cost of petrol is quite high and how much are they using to grind pepper and tomatoes? What of the artisans, they have to mend iron, car repairs and all that. So, power is very fundamental. Even in the homes we need power, and when you have power, you are more relaxed. It is a driving force.
Besides power, what other areas do you expect the Federal Government to pay particular attention to?
First and foremost food. Then you takes the issue of shelter and security, before you now talk of self-esteem and actualisation. But, apart from that, the health sector is very important. The educational sector is very fundamental because a country that is underdeveloped in the sense that people are not even aware, they cannot read, they are not literate enough to be able to know the fundamentals of what is happening in the environment. Any society that lacks knowledge, we know that, that society cannot grow. So, our educational system needs a rebirth.
The government must address transportation very urgently. Take the building traffic congestion in Abuja for example. Abuja is supposed to be a planned city, what will you do to ease traffic congestion? First, you must construct underground tube – that is what should be happening these days because land surface transportation system has its own limitations. You should go underground. For the other towns outside the main city, they should also have the rail system.
Even the city, if it is already congested, you need to decongest it. You can also talk about overhead rail system and when you have all these in place, you will see that road congestion will be a thing of the past. Look at the Abuja-Lokoja road, it is a nightmare during the public holiday, it shouldn’t be. Why should government not construct an underground route right from Abuja to Lagos for a very high speed train?
Go to London where the place is just an Island, they have all these in place and it has really decongested the transportation system. This is what we should be looking at. Look at Abuja now, what will you say about Abuja? We need to look at this thing very fast if not, in a few years to come, you will see loss of manpower and that will bring about a crisis situation. When you have this kind of congestion, you see the issue of crime coming in.
Many people have argued that Nigeria has failed to develop because of corruption. Interestingly, accountants play very pivotal roles in decisions about expenditure both in the public and private sectors, but we don’t see accountants being indicted and prosecuted for their roles in corruption cases.
Well, I will say it is a misconception to think that accountants should be held responsible for the corrupt practices of a chief executive.
If you have a clear knowledge of how an accountant functions, you will see that an accountant has his roles in an organisation. In a company where you have the Managing Director, the responsibility of the MD encapsulates every person in that organisation up to the cleaner, but on the basis of delegation of duty. These duties have been delegated down the ladder. Then also with their responsibilities and authority therefore the first person in an organisation who should drive the process or the main fighter of corruption is th chief executive not the accountant. The accountant, you can say is a whistle blower – to say, something has happened.
The accountant is not part of this corrupt activity because to the best of my knowledge, I have seen any body that had been arraigned before the investigating panel of the institute, and thereafter to the disciplinary tribunal.
So, if there have been cases where the members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, underline chartered accountants, because there is this misuse of name, when you say accountant, even the clerks are regarded as accountants, someone who keeps money is regarded as an accountant, someone who collects money is an accountant, if you say “chartered accountants” then your question becomes very relevant but when you say accountants, then the question is generalized after the concept of the profession.
