Judith Obaze
The federal government has been called upon to borrow a leaf from the private sector and take necessary hard decisions to reduce cost of governance in order to stimulate economic growth.
The call was made by stakeholders at the Annual Corporate Governance Conference, organised by the Society for Corporate Governance in Nigeria (SCGN) in Lagos recently.
For instance, the former Chairman, Nestle Nigeria Plc, Olusegun Osunkeye, who was the guest speaker, said approximately half of the world’s sovereign states were running unicameral type of government.
Osunkeye, who spoke on “Purposeful Leadership and Governance as Pre-Requisites for National and Economic Development,” said sheer political will and strong leadership would be required to reduce cost of governance.
He said members of the National Assembly, as the representatives of the people, must show solidarity with their suffering constituents by reviewing their entitlements downward. Osunkeye, who cited instances of countries, which adopted unicameral system of government, noted that it was working for them because they are running on purposeful leadership.
He said some of the principal qualities that set great leaders from the common ones are moral conscience and moral conviction.
Also speaking, the Chief Executive, Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRC), Daniel Asapokhai, stressed the need institutions to imbibe good corporate governance and make sacrifices for the country to move forward.
According to him, as a regulator, FRC is doing more of educating institutions on corporate governance.
“What we do is to look at what has worked, telling institutions on what corporate governance should look like. We need more good role models from organisations and more education and awareness,” he said.
