(Address delivered on 8th October 2024 at the 54th Annual Conference of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria at Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja).

I sincerely appreciate the immense honour and special privilege accorded me as the Chairman of the Plenary I Session of the 54th Annual Accountants Conference of our beloved Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria [ICAN].

Please permit me to congratulate most heartily Chief Davidson Chizuoke S. Alaribe FCA, the freshly cut Diamond President of ICAN on his elevation to the position of Commander-In-Chief of Chartered Accountants in Nigeria and the diaspora. We cannot fault his choice of “GOVERNANCE REIMAGINED : MAPPING THE FUTURE” as the theme of this year’s conference.

To crown it all we have as the presenter of the lead paper the cerebral and feisty Governor of Abia State, His Excellency Dr. Alex Otti, OFR whose state was recently declared number one in the WAEC (West African Examination Council) ranking in terms of performance amongst the thirty-six State of Nigeria and the Federal Capital Territory. He certainly deserves a resounding round of applause for this most commendable achievement within his first year in office.

As Chartered Accountants, we are entitled to request confirmation/verification regarding the following report which made the front page of several newspapers and has gone viral on social media.

Headline: “ALEX OTTI VOWS TO SHOCK NIGERIANS:

   EXPOSES GOVERNORS AS THIEVES AND PROMISES

   ACCOUNTABILITY”

Perhaps that was what prompted Chief Alaribe to immediately dispatch an invitation to the Guest Speaker. Having whetted our appetite, what followed was the main course:

“I have not done 5 per cent of the 100 per cent plans I have for Aba. I am here to shock Nigerians and tell them their Governors are all thieves and by the time I am done working, you will stone your Governors anywhere you see him. Hold your governors accountable. The President is doing what he is supposed to be doing. I give him kudos. He is not our problem in Nigeria but we, the governors.”

At this juncture, I believe I am entitled to issue a disclaimer and seek the protection of other Past Presidents of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria. They are here in large numbers and the Chairman of the Body of Past Presidents, Sir Herbert A. Agbebiyi FCA has assured me of diplomatic immunity provided I stick to the title of my own address:

“THE NATION IS WAITING FOR A CEASEFIRE.”

Indeed, we are at a critical intersection of our nation’s trajectory. Some of our most eminent Chartered Accountants as well as profoundly engaging economists and brilliant political scientists insist that we are actually at the brink. Hence, we must exercise sound judgement re-inforced with a delicate balancing act. Our financial architecture is in a shambles and requires urgent re-engineering. The figures simply do not add up !!

Our Nation is clearly in crisis. Rage and distemper have engulfed our country while bandits, kidnappers, fraudsters, rapists, looters, money-launderers, and arsonists hold sway. Yet, considering the intellectual endowments of our fellow citizens (starting with the nearly seven thousand Chartered Accountants who are attending this conference physically or virtually) and the enormous natural (and unnatural !!) resources which the Almighty has lavished on us – oil and gas; gold; diamond, Lead/Zinc, Limestone, Salt, Cassiterite, Clay, Dolomite, Marble & Tantalite, Bentonite, Gypsium, Kaolin & Magnesite, Lignite, Uranium, we have no business with poverty, hunger, ignorance, deprivation, homelessness and hopelessness. We have not even factored into the

equation our vast arable land and abundant water resources as well as glorious sunshine for most of the year. Freezing cold, monsoons, hurricanes, and tsunami are not our portion.

Sadly, the recent floods in Maiduguri have wreaked havoc and led to loss of thousands of lives and devasted property which would cost billions to replace.

We are confronted with erratic data and indexes combined with intimidating climate change and perplexing algorithms.

Perhaps the intercession of a ceasefire will provide us with the breathing space and respite to reflect on the gravity of our situation. Our first hurdle is our massive bust deficit – between the Governors/rulers; and between Chartered Accountants and their clients. It is an enigmatic quadratic equation. Our salvation may well lie in our culture and history which would galvanize us on the path to restoration of mutual respect; service to our nation (which resonates with our National Anthem and the school song of King’s College, Lagos); law and order anchored on justice; and gender equality. These are the irreducible minimum as we contend with ethnic strive and religious bigotry.

At the recently concluded United Nations General Assembly (……….to September 2024, His Excellency President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR delivered a passionate plea for Debt Forgiveness. Our fervent hope is that the forgiveness will not come too late. We must also work assiduously in preparation for the awkward question that would be inevitably be asked as well as our own arsenal of documentary frauds going back several decades – with Nigeria as the victim.

We must not underestimate the eloquence or gravity of a ceasefire. It comes with a genuine desire and commitment to restore justice based on conviction and reconciliation together with justice.

Here is the continuation of “CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS VERSUS ECONOMISTS” to the subject matter.

“Is it true you were once a Catholic?

No! People make mistakes. I attended a Roman Catholic school, St Aquinas College Akure, just like College of Immaculate Conception, CIC, here in Enugu. If somebody attends CIC, must he be a Roman Catholic? But you find that it was made compulsory for everybody to behave like a Roman Catholic and because of my attitude and way of life, I speak Latin, the Irish Fathers loved me and so they put me in charge of the Sacristy.

At that time, I was serving Mass, we were all made to attend the chapel, whether you are a Roman Catholic or not, it was compulsory. So, I was influenced a bit by the Roman Catholic doctrine, which was an eye-opener and my father therefore said why don’t I become a reverend father because of the way I served Mass and followed the reverend fathers for evangelism.

My father wanted me to be a lawyer and some people wanted me to be a Reverend Father. I started teaching, from teaching I was to read law in the University of Ife but I went into Theology because during the civil war I was one of those that would have been killed in the Asaba genocide but God saved my life.

In 1967 I was to be killed among those that were killed but God saved my life. When they were shooting, I fell down and in the night I escaped. So, I experienced the genocide of the Nigeria civil war. I saw war with my eyes, I saw blood with my eyes, and it was a serious genocide. Innocent people in my Asaba area were killed for nothing except that we were ‘Ajukwu’ brothers (Ojukwu brothers), that was what they were saying. My father’s first house in Asaba was burnt down, many of our houses were burnt, many of our relatives were burnt, many of our kindred were killed unnecessarily and many of our women were forcefully married by the soldiers. It was such a terrible thing that when I remember it I shed tears especially when they are doing Armed Forces Remembrance Day.

I feel that Nigeria still has to apologize to the Asaba people and to the Eastern part of Nigeria for the genocide and war. That was the reason I said that January 15, which is my birthday, Nigeria should be celebrating it as a day of mourning and forgiveness, asking God for forgiveness and thanksgiving for the end of the war. Remember that in the Bible when God destroyed the world with water Noah prayed to God and he stopped the war of water and Noah praised and thanked God for it. So if war has ended we should be able to say father thank you for the war that ended but rather than doing it what you see now is selectiveness against the Igbo. We are being neglected, sidelined and nobody is thinking about what we suffered during the civil war. This is unfortunate and I feel that President Bola Tinubu, if they could do something to MKO Abiola and honour him, the people of Asaba should be honoured with a day of forgiveness, thanksgiving and then a lot of things should be done in memory and compensation for the Eastern part of Nigeria for the civil war.

How did the Asaba genocide actually happen?

The Nigerian soldiers were to cross the River Niger and when they came they couldn’t cross. They said there was a goddess in the River called Onishee who would come out and their boat would sink because at that time the bridge had collapsed. So, the soldiers got angry and said that there were some Biafran soldiers among us. In fact, they separated us, I was about 14 years. They separated the women and said that all of us, the male, should be lined up and killed. In the course of the shooting I fell down and corpses fell on me. That was how I escaped.

When I spoke Yoruba, one of the soldiers said ‘are you a Yoruba man?’ And I said yes and that was how they rescued me. The soldiers were tall, we called them Gongola, gwodogwodo! Some of them said it was because of Chukwuma Nzeogwu, who was not from Asaba really, he was from Ika Ibo, but they still dealt with us and that’s unfortunate. To God be the glory we survived.

What do you think is the reason General Yakubu Gowon is yet to say anything about the civil war?

Gowon is very apologetic and that was why he started Nigeria Prays and we have to commend him for that. That Nigeria Prays was to revive the spirit of the people back from the civil war and to reconcile people back to God and to go on with one Nigeria.”

Another illustration of the need for ceasefire as a pre-requisite for:

 “GOVERNANCE REIMAGINED : MAPPING THE FUTURE”

Is provided by the following vignette courtesy of Festus Adedayo of “Sunday Tribune” newspaper.

“In 2019, investigative journalist Fisayo Soyombo, adopting the pseudonym, Ojo Olajumoke, spent five days in a police cell and eight days as an inmate in Ikoyi Prison. It was in the bid to crack corruption in Nigeria’s criminal justice system. There was no single whimper from the Nigerian establishment (including the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria !!). After Soyombo’s arrest and detention in police custody, he was arraigned in court and ultimately got a remand in prison. He emerged with very distressing stories of illegitimate arrests, extrajudicial killings, bribery and corruption and a criminal justice system that is in a sorry case. He even claimed that a prison official asked him for money to remove his name from jailbirds’ roster.”

Yet another case in point was the order by a then military Head of State that university lecturers and professors who were about to launch a protest against their salaries and conditions of service should vacate staff quarters/accommodation provided by the universities. The consequences were disastrous. The lecturers and professors were running helter skelter. It has not occurred to them that they needed to own their own houses. Some ended up squatting (along with their families) with friends (sometimes in their Boys’ Quarters which were meant for their domestic staff). Others resigned to take up lucrative jobs in Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Britain and United States of America. The brain drain was massive. It heralded the “JAPA” syndrome – exodus of critical manpower.

I suspect that the older generation of Chartered Accountants in our midst would readily recall that in year 2000, the Nigerian Government budgeted the hefty sum of N10 billion in anticipation of the threat that at the stroke of midnight on 31st December 2000, all computers would cease to function !! It was going to be an apocalypse of monumental dimensions. Actually, 31st December 2000 came and went seamlessly. Nothing happened. To the best of my knowledge, nobody was ever asked to account for the N10 billion booty and the frantic sharing of money that preceded the non-event.

As matters stand, the hornet’s nest has been stirred. Chartered Accountants are sufficiently concerned and energized (without relying on steroids). It is time to turn a new chapter. To the more discerning, the crisis within our own profession are as myriad as those bedeviling our nation. Hence, we must not only get our priorities right, we must tread carefully – with cautions optimism as our guidepost. It was not so long ago that the Minister of Finance (Chief A.A. Ani); Governor of Central Bank (Mr. Paul Ogwuma; and Chief Joseph O. Sanusi); Minister of Industries (Chief Kola B. Jamodu); and Head of (civil) Service (Mr. Steve O. Oronsaye) and the Director-General of Budget and Planning (Pastor Ken Akabueze) were all Chartered Accountants. The power structure and influence landscape have undergone change that is almost beyond recognition. If we are not careful Chartered Accountants would be pushed to the middle rank or right to the back of the surging queue. Clearly, we have lost a lot of ground.

In seeking restitution or redress, we must adhere to the ethics of our profession and our commitment to the enduring principles of accuracy and integrity within the ambit of “true and fair.” What stares us in the face are harsh realities. More and more of our members are in distress.

Many are merely surviving as best as they can while others settle for menial jobs (e.g. as cab or Uber drivers). On a recent trip to London, the guy who checked me in at the check-in desk was a Chartered Accountant !!. There is not enough time or space to dwell on the plight of Chartered Accountants who are in practice but are forced to accept meagre fees for their professional services at a time when inflation is officially34 per cent and the exchange rate of the naira has nose-dived.

No matter how pushed to the wall we are, we must remain steadfast and faithful to the tradition of our noble profession. We are the conscience of the nation. If there is any iota of doubt, the least we can do is call for a CEASEFIRE.

When debt service escalates to 96 per cent of revenue and is four times what we are spending on education or health, ordinary folks (our fellow citizens) are entitled to ask what future are the Chartered Accountants postulating about at their conference. We shall soon find out.