By Henry Uche
Amuwo and District Chairman of Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), Mr. Olamide Balogun, has urged President Bola Tinubu to listen to the plight of Nigerians as a huge number of citizens wallow in excruciating economic deprivation.
Shortly after his investiture yesterday in Ikeja, Lagos, as the 11th Chairman of the Institute under the aforementioned District, Mr. Balogun, who made the plea, expressed optimism in the coming years, however said the president must remain focused, empathize with the people and do the right things at right time.
He assured that the welfare and well-being of members under his District as well as a conscientious support to its cooperative society among others are his top priorities. “We shall make our District more visible, promote many entrepreneurship schemes, engage in training and retraining of members and other development programs to boost the capacity of our members,” he said.
Given his wealth of experience in the accounting world, transparency, accountability and inclusive leadership would characterise his administration.
He said, “One major plan we have is to explore the Accounting Technicians Scheme West Africa (ATSWA) to help our young and future accountants to gain admission from second year into any university in Nigeria.
“This is part of our ‘Catch Them Young’ programme aimed to accelerate their journey to the accounting world. Even the indigents ones among them would also benefit from the programme.”
Balogun who decried the adverse effects of the Japa syndrome implored Nigeria’s president to come up with policies and programs that would reverse the negative economic indices before he mark second year in office.
“The Japa syndrome is not helping us at all. I don’t think the general people can be wrong, he should try and listen to the people. I expect president Tinubu to sit up and churn out policies and programs that would bring down inflation, interest rate, create jobs, strengthen our naira and improve the macro economy, we believe he can do it, but he has to do it fast, because the people are not finding it funny” he maintained.