PRESIDENT of the Chartered Institute of Administration (CIA), Prof. Ofili Ogwudioha has traced the current decay in virtually all facets of the economy to administrative incompetence, which he submitted, could only be reversed through the training of professional administrators in the country.To this end, the institute is collaborating with the Association of Professional Bodies of Nigeria to spearhead a campaign for the use of professionals in governance in Nigeria.Speaking at the institute's 21st induction ceremony held recently in Lagos, Ogwudioha asserted that the Vision 20:20-20 and the Millennium Development Goals (MGDs) projects would not be realised without the involvement of professionals.He declared: 'Nigerian economy is currently hit by lack of infrastructure, unemployment, rising wave of crime and terrorism across the country, excessive cost of running government, high profile corruption cases and inability of corruption agencies to successfully convict those who are involved and government's inability to bring the perpetrators to book.'Since CIA attained chartered status in 1992, Ogwudioha said that it had been contributing to human capital development, by breeding professionals in corporate administration, financial management and public administration, who now occupy strategic positions in public and private sectors of the economy.He said: 'Apart from training professional administrators through well articulated multi-disciplinary and multidimensional programmes, the institute organises series of workshops, conferences and seminars on regular basis. These programmes help in sharpening their skills, broadening their knowledge and repositioning members for global challenges.'He urged the Federal Government to take steps to reduce the country's recurrent expenditure by at least 50 per cent and increase the capital expenditure by the same margin to leave enough funds for infrastructural development.'Government should take remedial steps in order to revamp our ailing economy by restructuring the nation's security system because insecurity of lives and property hampers investment. The power sector should be revamped with the much required urgency and professional administrators should be integrated into key government functions,' he added.Congratulating the newly inducted administrators and those under the fellowship cadre, Ogwudioha urged them to always exhibit a high level of skill, versatile knowledge, wealth of experience and exemplary conduct in all their activities.He said: 'The institute prides itself with excellence and professionalism. Having waded through the rough routes, having come out more grounded and refined, you cannot sit on the fence. It is therefore an open challenge to you, to prove to the world, the quality you are made of by contributing meaningfully to the development of the country. Be a model that will be respected, loved, cherished and appreciated by the society at large.'The institute's Registrar, Dr. J.A Okoronkwo explained that one of the major objectives of the scheme 'is to ensure that university and polytechnic undergraduates, especially those in the management sciences all over the country, become familiar with the CIA examinations' scheme, with a view to getting them enrolled for the ACIA programme before graduation.'He noted that the institute had specifically designed a fast track Professional Certification programme tagged Accelerated Study Scheme (ACCESS), which is targeted at 300 and 400 level undergraduates in universities, and HND 1 and HND 2 undergraduates in polytechnics that are running Business Administration and related disciplines.
Click here to read full news..
