Constitutional Amendment: ICAN boss calls for active professional participation

 

Babajide Komolafe, Asst Business Editor 

Posted to the Web: Friday, December 23, 2005

 

President Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), Otunba Abdul-Lateef Owoyemi, said Professional groups in the country should actively participate  in the ongoing debate for the amendment of the nation’s constitution.

 

Speaking at the official book presentation of “Budget Implementation and Value for money- The Due Process experience”, written by Mr. Sam Afemikhe, held at  Abuja last week, Owoyemi noted, “With politicians having largely failed the country many times in the past and so, lost a large measure of trust and respect from the  populace, most Nigerians now look up to the nation’s professional groupings, for honest and dispassionate comments and guidance on political and strictly  non-professional matters. We must all now join in the ongoing debate in the interest of our great country.

 

Owoyemi stated that given the success of the due process and other anti corruption measures of the Obasanjo administration, Nigerians are however worried about  the sustainability of these efforts after 2007 when tenure of the administration would have ended.

 

He remarked that people ask, “will Nigeria slide back into our old bad ways? Will it once more be business as usual? Will all the pains and sufferings of the last six  years of belt tightening, having to work hard to earn every Naira, and so forth become lost investment and self imposed stakanovistic impositions, or will those  policies of bitter and necessary reform medications, as they are, be taken through full dosage, and ultimate transformation of the country? Is the continuity and  sustenance of these reform policies desirable or necessary? If so, how do we best achieve that? Should it be through an elongation of the tenure of the current  President and Commander-in-Chief? Or if not, what are the alternatives for attaining the same goal, which are of momentous national importance?

It is for these reasons therefore that one feels more saddened that the current public comments on whether or not the constitution should be amended to permit the  current Head of State to re-contest election in 2007, have been submerged entirely in greed and self interest, on the part of all those who have so far, commented on  the matter.

 

Not one of them, has given the public a reasonable and logical profile of the arguments, for and against, so that Nigerians can properly make up their minds, one way  or the other.It is therefore, the strong view of ICAN, that this issue is of such a monumental importance to the welfare and well being of all Nigerians that the public  opinion moulding work, should no longer be left solely to our politicians, almost all of who, have been speaking for or against, largely from the platform of self interest  and or personal ambition.

 

I am therefore using this opportunity, to call on each professional institute and grouping in Nigeria, to establish Committees to examine the issue clinically and  dispassionately, and make available to the public, their informed conclusions and recommendations For instance, if it is desirable that the current Head of State should  have a tenor enhancement in the country”s best interest, should the same apply to State Governors and other elected state functionaries? Nigerians are genuinely,  justifiably worried bout the possible emergence of a dictator or president for life. If the constitution should in the best national interest, be amended for a possible third  term, can the amendment not be such that it must terminate in 2011 and be thereafter foreclosed? Professional groups should speak out and as fearlessly as possible.  On momentous political debates of this type, it is not in our country”s interest, that reputable professional bodies and institutes should continue to keep aloof and  seemingly uninterested.”