Politicians urged to study economics to govern well
Story from Emmanuel OLOGUN, Abuja.
A university lecturer has suggested that future Nigerian leaders should be people with vast knowledge of economics to enable them to understand the importance of properly harnessing and developing the nation’s huge human capital resources for accelerated growth.
Professor Oyediran Phillip Adeyinka, who is the immediate past Head of the Department of Public Administration, University of Abuja remarked that the nation’s current economic woes emanated mainly from the inability of leaders to understand and properly manage available human and natural resources in a professional manner for effective national development.
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He regretted that Nigeria still wobbles while the majority of its citizens are wallowing in abject poverty more than sixty years after its independence even though the nation was richly blessed with numerous human and natural resources, including solid minerals that should have been developed to grow the economy.
Professor Adeyinka, who is also the President of the Institute of Human Capital Management and Skills Development of Nigeria, (IHCM) made these remarks while speaking at the induction of 52 directors and deputy directors into the prestigious corporate institute as fellows and members at the weekend in Abuja.
The IHCM president urged the federal and state governments and private sector operators to partner with certified professionals in relevant fields for the development of their human capital at the recruitment, training and promotions levels, to ensure that the right calibre of personnel is engaged for greater productivity.
He stated emphatically that the development of human capital cannot be neglected by governments or private company managers while such administrations expect that the growth rate of the nation and their companies will not suffer as a result of their actions.
The professor also regretted that the nation has experienced a serious brain drain due to the exodus of highly qualified Nigerians, who have realised that the nation kills talent rather than harnessing and rewarding skilled individuals to grow their latent endowments to be channelled toward national development.
“We live in a society where talents are not appreciated or rewarded. Brain drain has been crippling the nation because of bad leadership and those who lead us do not seem to care,” he said.
In a brief interview on the vision of the institute, Professor Adeyinka said, “We are working to build the institute to the level where it will be recognized internationally so that every private and public sector actor will be willing to do business with our group.
“We are working to ensure that in the next five years, we would have an institute that will be highly recognised everywhere in the world, an institute that the governments in the federation can be proud of having as a partner.”
He advised the new fellows and members to show by their conduct that they are good ambassadors worthy to represent the institute wherever they may be doing business.
Earlier, the guest speaker, Dr Habila Amos, who is the Director, Administration and Human Resources, National Insurance Commission of Nigeria (NICON), described Nigeria as a nation far behind what other nations, with lesser resources, have achieved using their human capital.
“Great visions without the right people amount to nothing. Until we start identifying our skilled individuals and deliberately investing in them and putting them in the right places to work for the nation, little progress will be made in every sector.
“Until we get the right people in the right places and do the right things with the right people, the nation’s vision and mission will be hampered in every area. Nigeria is under-performing today because of the very problem of not getting the right people into the right positions.”
He also stated that as a nation, Nigeria has grown backwards and operates far behind its potential for several years but expressed the hope that the situation can be remedied when our leaders take positive actions targeted at redirecting the nation towards achieving real greatness.
It was gathered that the new fellows of the institute can now add the letters (FIHCM) to their names while members will use (MIHCM) after their own names.
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