The Minister of labour and employment, Festus Keyamo has thrown his weight behind agitation for the deployment of indigenous professionals in addressing the challenges facing the country.

Keyamo said it is imperative that for national development to be orderly, progressive and qualitative, professionals must be deployed to do what they do best especially as it concerns, programmes and projects of government. 

The Minister while speaking at the 10th annual Summit of the Association of Professional Bodies (APBN) said under normal circumstances government should employ the services of professionals to put together policies that will solve our problems and develop programmes and projects to bring the policies to life.

Mr Keyamo who was represented by his Special Assistant, Niyi Fatogun said sadly, due to political interest and corruption,  non professionals are deployed to handle government policies which usually lead to some of them failing.

He said, “In the real world, due to competing interest and the phenomenon called political patronage and perhaps corruption, non professionals are sometimes  deployed to execute programmes and projects derived from well articulated policies. As a result we have seen very good policies fail. Policies that work excellently in other climes.”

He also asked professionals in the country to position themselves strategically so as to make it easy to be called upon by the political class in their choice of leadership.

He said one of the ways to achieve this is to actively participate in the political process that bring about government. 

He said, “For decades we have heard professionals say the political process is too dirty for them. Yes, one can imagine in those days when a top notch professional will have to go to Ibadan to play the Amala and gbegiri politics and get the blessings of the strong man of Molete, in order to become an active asset in Nation Building. Most of us know what that blessing sometimes entails and are not ready to undergo it. It sounds “gross” to put it in a common slang. 

“However we must also realise that the policies and laws that drive our professional lives and make the society a better place for us and our profession is made by the politician who participates in the political process.

“The advantages to the country are also limitless. For one, the country gets at least two or more for the price of one, an administrator and a professional. It also means the professionalism deployed will make sure that the country gets value for it’s money. Policies formulated using professionals and programmes developed to bring those policies to life are better understood and better implemented. Professionalism in service will be the norm and so on and so forth.”

Earlier, the President of the APBN Surv. Akinloye Olufemi Oyegbola said the level of development of any nation depicts the extent to which her professionals have been challenged in innovation, capability and capacity. 

He said, “We, in the APBN still believe that it is the professionals of a country that will develop it. It is in furtherance of this belief that we use the Summit of Professionals as one of the avenues for advocacy on the inherent responsibilities of professionals to the nation and our readiness to collaborate with governments at the three tiers in a well-coordinated manner for the much needed sustainable development.”

He expressed optimism that the annual Summit of Professionals and other advocacy instruments being deployed by APBN will pave way for optimum utilization of the enormous potentials of the local professionals for a rapid growth. 

He said it is common knowledge that the  country is passing through trying times,  especially insecurity and the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the APBN President while it may not be fair to assume that any well-meaning government will not be working towards stemming down the challenges, the effect is taking too long to be felt by the citizenry. 

He said, “The summit avails the professionals of our country especially those of the thirty foremost professional associations which are members of the APBN to come together to do an objective assessment of the state of affairs in the country from their own perspectives and deliberate on what needs to be done to take it to the next level.”