Nigeria ‘underutilising its economic experts’

Akinloye Oyegbola, president of Association of Professional Bodies in Nigeria (APBN), says professionals in the country are not offering enough contribution to the growth of the economy because those in charge of governance do not engage them.

Speaking at his investiture as the 17th president of APBN, Oyegbola said the present relationship between government and professionals does not give room for proffering immediate solutions to the nation’s economic problem.

He said there is the need to seek quick fix to the present economic recession.

“Irrespective of what we have on ground in terms of economy, the professionals in any country will always be there in trying to make things work,” he said.

“We on our own have taken up the challenge. All we are looking forward to is for the government to do the needful. It is for the government to actually acknowledge that it is the professionals that will do the speed work for us to develop. We are doing the advocacy on that, so that the government at different tiers will know that there is no other way out of the current challenges.

“That’s not to say we have not been having that interaction but what we have on ground is not good enough for what we need to achieve. We need to really harness the resources in a manner that we dont need to leave any loopholes or leakages and we cant afford to give excuses the way things are now.”

The new APBN president added that despite the gap in communication between government and Nigeria professionals, APBN will strive to create a bridge by seeking collaboration with government.

“We believe that we will continue to seek that cooperation and collaboration and we will get there,” he said.

“It is not just using the professionals but you have to use them at the level that you can get back to them so that whatever they are doing, there’s no infractions on the ethics of that particular profession.”