This year's annual dinner of the prestigious Lagos Business Alumni Association (LBSAA), held at the Eko Hotel, Victoria Island, witnessed the exchange of baton from the immediate past president, Mr. Udeme Ufot, to his successor, Mr. Demola Aladekomo. Ufot spoke to EMMA EKE on a wide range of national issues, shortly after the event. Excerpts.What is your take on the move by the National Assembly to tamper with the autonomy of the CBN'I think that it is a wrong policy. It is dangerous because when you check out what other parastatals go through in dealing with the National Assembly, you will find out that if CBN is subjected to similar manipulations, it will create more crisis for the economy than is being envisaged. The National Assembly should allow the status quo to remain, but without reducing its oversight function to all government agencies and parastatals.What is your view regarding the ongoing debate on use of cassava as bread flour'I will align myself with the Agriculture Minister on this. Let us learn to live the right habit. Why must we consume wheat that we do not produce' Nigeria is as today the biggest producer of cassava, and it has been shown that cassava flour is better than wheat flour, so why don't we put in more resources and produce enough flour as well as change our taste by consuming what we have or else, if we continue consuming foreign wheat, we will keep on deflecting our foreign reserve. Also, research has it that cassava bread is more nutritious and may, perhaps, be cheaper when fully developed into full commercial quantity.Some see LBSAA is an elitist group, how is it run'The association is run in such a way that the vice president is groomed to take over from the president after two years. And as such there are no prorgammes of the association that the vice president is not fully involved in its formulation and implementation. On assuming office, he is literally implementing policies, but he has the option to continue with the programme he inherits or otherwise. In all the dream of every member is to lift the body to another height always.How often does LBSAA meet in a forum like this'The dinner is annual social gathering, where members are to network, meet old colleagues, make new friends and recreate outside their business environments. It's been on for over 24 years. And for my two-year tenure, the major high point as contained in my hand over note, included that when we assumed office, the executive committee (Exco) made some promises to members, part of being that we would strive to boost members' zeal in identifying with the association. This, among others, we have been able to achieve. The incumbent has only to sustain the tempo by working towards re-inventing the LSBAA to be more relevant to our members; secure more commitments and create more engagements to our members. The indexes of our achievements can be seen from the fact that alumni attendance to dinner functions, in two used to hover around 39 today. This has currently grown around 1400 marking attendance in this year's gathering.Do you strongly believe that there are some impacts of LSBAA on government policy initiatives'The impact of LSBAA on government policy-initiatives is there. There is strong evidence that government at different levels have been consulting the school for most of their policy initiatives, especially on economic-related issues. For instance, an alumnus, today, sits in the board of CBN. Recently a highly rated business delegation from Britain, led a man appointed by a person no means in higher status than David Cameroon came to Nigeria and visited LBS, accompanied by the CBN Governor. So the school works closely with the government, but you know we are not a political organization as to go about shouting on the roof top on this.But was the school was consulted before the fuel subsidy removal'I wouldn't know the level of consultation as regards that, but I must say here that the fuel subsidy removal is not a bad policy; rather it is about its poor implementation that is of concern to many. It was accepted by many that we cannot continue in the manner that the sector is being run. Yes, government has to repair the refineries, but it cannot continue to dole out billons of naira the way it has been going about it in the name paying for subsidy.So, you may have a good policy but how it is implemented becomes the question.The Lagos Business School cannot run government business ' or anybody's business ' all it has to do is teach you on how to run your business and allow you to put it into practice. In the same way, the school can suggest ideas but cannot implement the policy for government.
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