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The African Leadership Group, presided over by Pastor Ituah Ighodalo, the Head Pastor, Trinity House Church, is a vision born out of passion for good governance and judicious use of human and natural resources.
A movement for leadership, integrity, transparency, accountability, inclusiveness, equitability, continuity and sustainable development, the Group on Thursday July 27, 2023, hosted cerebral cleric and social reformer, Rev. Dr Bolaji O. Akinyemi, on a zoom conference, with the theme , ‘The Cost of Corruption’.
Dr. Akinyemi is the Board of Trustees (BoT) Chairman of Project Victory Call Initiative, aka PVC-Naija as well as Convener, the Apostolic Round Table (ART), a conference of Christian leaders across all sectors, faith, public and corporate leadership, to add value to growth and development of their operating communities.
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Pastor Ighodalo’s first question to Dr. Akinyemi during the session which kicked off at 5.pm, was on the need to clarify the meaning of the word, ‘corruption’ as many people may not know the meaning.
Akinyemi, in response, defined corruption as dishonesty or fraudulent conduct particularly by those in power, the taking advantage of office to advance self, typically involving bribery.
He went further to juxtapose corruption with cost and brought in the concept of cost accounting; the reporting and analysing of a company’s cost structure.
Stressing the need to, on the discussion, arrive at reporting and analysing the nation’s corruption’s cost structure. He pleaded with Pastor Ituah to bring to bear his network and net worth as a leading and respected accounting professional to influence his colleagues in the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and other accounting professional bodies to put on paper the cost of corruption in figure from 1999 till date on paper!
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Akinyemi alluded to the school of reality when he concluded that corruption is one word every Nigerian knows its meaning, but may not necessarily know its definition, “we all are experiencing corruption in one way or the other”.
Cost in the context of the discussion, he reiterated, will simply mean: ‘At what cost is corruption to me, you, our wards, local government, states, institutions and our nation?’
Speaking to Shilly Pepper after the programme, he said cost accounting and cost analysis are both missing in the nation’s governance structure.
Reason: “Nigeria’s calamity is taken for granted while we are all minding our business. We will do well to evaluate the cost of corruption to the country and to selves!”
On the programme, he asked rhetorically; “At what cost to our country generally is illiteracy enabled by the system’s corruption?”
Citing the case of the driver of the state’s government staff bus who drove his bus and passengers into the front of a moving train, he then asked again: “At what cost is the illiteracy of a driver to his passengers?
“What is the cost of an illiterate commercial driver to me,
whether as his passenger, pedestrian or fellow driver on the road?
“We must evaluate the risks that illiterate drivers constitute on our roads; their contributions to death tolls. Until this is known, we may never be able to know the value of basic education for every Nigerian.”
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In Akinyemi’s opinion, illiteracy contributes majorly to avoidable deaths! What is the cost of a corrupt certification process to leadership and productivity?
To the elite class, he said, “You can be so rich, as to be above the influence of corruption!”
In his discussion with Shilly Pepper, he cited Aliko Dangote’s loss of his position as the richest man in Africa to a South African for no fault of his, but for the naira floating policy of the new Tinubu-led Nigerian government.
Akinyemi stressed the resolve of the African Leadership Group: “Making Nigeria great again is a task for all, very rich like Dangote, or poor and displayed in the many IDPs scattered across Nigeria, or roaming the streets as Almajiri without the hope of where the next meal will come from? We all must put our hands to the work of getting the nation up and running.”
During his time with Shilly Pepper, Akinyemi sighted Luke 14 vs 28 (Easyenglish): “Here is an example. One of you wants to build a tall building (a tower). Before he starts to build, he will sit down. He will decide how much it will cost. He needs to know if he has enough money to finish the building. Think about it!”
He stressed: “We have built for ourselves an edifice of towering embarrassment of a nation through institutional corruption. Without ever sitting down to count the cost, as ‘WE THE PEOPLE OF NIGERIA!”
He took a swipe at the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, adding, “We must sit down to evaluate the cost of corruption to our nation and to us as individual citizens enabled by the Unitarian constitution deceitfully being presented as an article of union for federating units!
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“The foundation of our tower of corruption was laid with, ‘We the people of Nigeria’, suggesting that we sat down and counted the cost of the tower of Babel, doomed for demolition that we are all dwelling in. Did we?
“What we have is a tower of insult to God and humanity but a pride to our inordinate political class. Who is more like a gang of rapists. Who are taking their turns to abuse the nation, while we watch, wail or hail depending on the guy of our fancy in the gang!
“Restructuring is our only hope of getting this country to work and its further delay will be dangerous!
“Let’s put Nigeria side by side as a nation that borrowed the concept of our 1963 Constitution; the United Arab Emirates, in comparative analysis to evaluate our loss. Let’s put Lagos side by side with Kigali and establish the need to praise Leaders of Lagos since 1999 or otherwise!
“We need to know the cost of a bad road in Naira and Kobo and in safety. The Lagos Ibadan express road has seen us through four administrations: Obasanjo, Yar’Adua, Jonathan and Buhari. It has welcomed us to the fifth Administration without completion!
“Our greatest need now is at what cost is corruption to us? Nigerians must be informed to a point where they can critically make the choice to stick with corruption, or divorce it for the marriage with honesty that can birth.
Source: Daily Independent.
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