NIM is capable of designing performance and control tools that will enhance e-governance and plug leakages, reckons VICTOR C. ARIOLE
Dr Dakuku Peterside hit the hammer on the nail as he demonstrated in his lead presentation, at the Nigerian Institute of Management’s 65 Annual Conference in Tafawa Balewa Square recently that revenue collection alone does not fit in well into what management represents, either in federal agencies or in the governance of Nigeria. He implored NIM to adopt advocacy stance to help optimise Nigeria’s resources in enhancing both the dignity of the Nigerian person and what Nigerian manpower resource is capable to do for Africa beyond federal government requesting that agencies remit revenues. According to him, it is only the Nigeria Revenue Service that is empowered to collect revenue, and that it is also empowered to know what to collect, from wherever or whoever operating in Nigeria, that is due to Nigeria. He further stressed that as former Director General of NIMASA (Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency) charged with Maritime Safety and Security, Shipping Regulation and Registration, Cabotage Implementation, etc., NIMASA must not be limited to remitting money to the Federal coffers and that it must be NRS coming to NIMASA to seek what the outlay of resources and management acumen has enabled it, in enhancing Nigeria’s capacity as maritime Country, and the value-chain derivable from it that is beyond the $60 billion his team remitted during his exit as the manager. He came in to NIMASA as $2 billion remittance agency and left it as $60 billion one.
In effect, if NIMASA is allowed to operate at a higher capacity, it could enable value-chain that could help the federal government attain the expected $1 trillion GDP which small countries like Netherlands and Singapore have attained for long.
Stressing further on what management acumen should be doing for Nigeria, Botswana is a good example in Africa, a landlocked country enjoying over $33,000 per capita GDP. If it had been coastal and maritime country like Nigeria, it could have been in the same range like Singapore of over $107,000 per capita GDP. Currently Nigeria is at $1200 per capita GDP, a great indictment on its management ability, hence the need for Nigerian Institute of Management (NIM) to adopt advocacy stance to get Nigeria out of the pit of mismanagement.
It means that NIM must be present in all agencies and ministries, demanding that managerial capacity be enhanced with integrity, transparency, accountability, equity, fairness, efficiency and effectiveness — main core values of NIM.
Sixty five years ago, NIM was established to lead in giving direction to management performance of Nigeria and bringing up capable hands to manage Nigerian resources, and as today its members are in all professions in Nigeria.
According to the Speaker of Bauchi State House of Assembly, almost all the members of Bauchi State House of Assebly are members of NIM, and their contribution in making Bauchi State great is highly visible. The Governor himself agrees to that and pledged to support NIM in its management promotion and advocacy agenda.
To the President of NIM, Commodore Abimbola Ayuba (rtd), so far, about 200,000 individuals and 400 corporate organizations have passed through the NIM; there is no private and public organization in Nigeria where NIM members are not found. NIM is the foremost, largest and biggest multidisciplinary professional management institute in Africa.
NIM, priding itself of such membership and visibility to the extent that members are well accredited to append their signatures on Final Accounts of publicly quoted companies in Nigeria, is mandated by the Keynote Speaker, His Royal Majesty Oba Dr Olufolarin Olukayode Ogunsanwo of Ilara Kingdom in Epe, to lead Nigerian management process in adopting Artificial Intelligence (AI) responsibly and ethically, to reduce corruption and fiscal leakages to the barest minimum in Nigeria so as to make Nigeria the best in Africa. That is, before scaling up any AI processes, ensure that SWOT analysis of the value it is bringing into organization is not going to jeopardize the security, culture, values, accountability and integrity of the organization.
Nigeria must use AI to make its governance process transparent, and its management workforce must be attuned to that like Rwanda has used Irembo platform; Ukraine – ProZorro platform; Brazil – Alice AI system. Dr Babangida Albaba who presented a paper on “Governance Innovation in the Digital Era” emphasised the need for managers to engage in pilot projects that must scale successfully the AI infrastructure with strong policy and legal frameworks, citizen engagement via mobile and social platforms for transparency, accountability, cost reduction and efficient delivery of services.
Finally, all participants agreed that AI is not a threat to management practice and that it must be embraced and that human capital must be seen as the primary and greatest assets of any country the way Singapore and Botswana have done in such a way that the process of control remains still the realm of well cultured, educated and quality value-minded individuals.
So, let NIM design the performance and control tools in this digital era that must enhance e-governance towards plugging fiscal leakages and raising further Nigerian per-capita performance for the optimum use of the Nigerian workforce that could relatively match what Botswana has done — reaching at least a relative ratio of 1 to 10 that could lead to 10% of that of Botswana, $3,300 per capita GDP for Nigeria.
Ariole, FNIM is a
Professor of French and Francophone Studies,
University of Lagos