Taiwo Owokalade, president of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators of Nigeria (ICSAN), has advised the Federal Government to engage members of the organised private sector (OPS) and other key stakeholders to come up with the right palliatives that will cushion the negative impact of fuel subsidy removal on Nigerians.
He gave the advice recently while speaking to newsmen on national governance and the activities of the institute, especially in the last two years.
Owokalade, who commended the bold initiative of President Bola Tinubu on the subsidy removal, however, said that the government must urgently roll out palliatives.
“We noticed that government has commenced discussion with labour movement. This is commendable but we say they should be able to put timelines on introduction of any palliative”
The ICSAN president said that quick introduction of right palliatives will give Nigerians confidence on how the government is reacting towards handling issues affecting them.
On the kind of palliatives to expect, he said although salary will make a difference, it should, however, not be the only option, as a large chunk of Nigerians were not in formal employment.
According to him, as subsidy removal has spiked prices across sectors, “the key stakeholders should, therefore, be able to sit down to determine the kind of palliatives to bring on board for all Nigerians”.
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On any regrets that subsidy was not removed earlier, Owokalade said subsidy should have gone long time ago, especially when people realised that it was becoming a distraction in the Nigerian space and a business enclosed in shady deals. He regretted that Nigeria failed to take a firm decision on it. He said the years of subsidy discussion were wasted years.
The outgoing ICSAN president applauded the government on various initiatives in the last one month such as removing of subsidy, unification of exchange rate, the student loan, but said these actions were just part of holistic approach needed to take Nigeria to its destination.
He advised the government not to engage on what he called ‘sprint approach’, that is taking actions in a scattered manner. He said was a need for a systematic agenda of a clear direction of the government and the steps that the government wants to take.
On his stewardship as ICSAN president, Owokalade said the institute has achieved a lot under his tenure in two years. He listed partnership between the institute, Nigerian Institute of Legislative and Democratic Studies and some universities to introduce master’s degree in corporate governance.
“We hope to cascade it down by introducing degree courses in corporate governance. We are in talk with some universities over this and with our assistance this will be a huge success,” he said.
