Governor  Babatunde Fashola

John Iwori

Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State has tasked the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN) on the poor performance of the 2012 budget.
Fashola, who said this in Abuja in a message to the 17thAnnual Conference of the association, spoke on ``Challenges of Governance: The Need for Transformational Leadership’’.

The governor who was represented by the State Commissioner for Finance, Mr Adetokunbo Abiru, said, ``this body (ANAN) should be asking questions why year in year out Nigeria is recording poor performance on budget.’’

He tasked the association on the need to express concern about the state of the Nigerian economy.

``How serious are you as a body in playing your auditing role? There is need for ANAN to be questioning government’s fiscal policy. What is ANAN inputs in the 2013 budget. Were your inputs sought into the budget? Can there be proper accountability in the management of the nation’s account?”,  he asked.

He also raised issues on the excess crude account, asking whether the association is agonizing as a body without any attempt to proffer solutions.
He also asked if the association talked about the far-reaching effects of the cashless policy as well as the N5, 000 note.

His words: “It is time for a wake-up call and for some self-examination. You have the clout to invite key government personalities to explain their programmes”.

He added that the passage of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill made it easier for the association to perform its accounting duty as a watchdog.
Fashola also explained that there should be national commitment to fiscal discipline, adding that accountability and transparency were critical to economic growth.

Governor Babangida Aliyu of Niger State in a keynote address, said there was no way governance could be discussed without mentioning sustainable development.

The governor spoke on Governance & Sustainable Development: Addressing the Leadership Challenge.

Aliyu, who was represented by the State Head of Service, Alhaji Ibrahim Matane, said that sustainable development is a key concept of governance.
He said that government must understand the concept of sustainable development, adding that there should be constant deliberation by the leadership of any nation on these areas.

The governor said this had to with security of lives and properties, healthcare, rule of law, infrastructural development and human development as some of the factors which could guarantee good governance.

Aliyu said that new ways of running the affairs of our country become imperative, adding that ethnicity had been a major ban and class conflict had the tendency to exacerbate the tension in the polity.

He said that a number of measures had been adopted in the state including efforts to take governance to the doorsteps of people by sending government’s supporters to back to villagers to explain government’s programmes.