A two-time former Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, alongside other stakeholders in country last week clamored the need for Nigerians to uphold integrity in quarters and sphere of life saying it is the major drive of a nation’s transformation process.
Obasanjo who made this call at the 6th annual Christopher Kolade lecture on Business integrity held in Lagos last week, cited several inspirational scriptures of the bible precisely proverbs 29 vs 2 which says that ‘when the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice ; but when the wicked man rules, the people groans’.
According to him, integrity means doing the right thing and upholding what is seen as being morally right even as no one is watching while producing goods, or offering services. However, it is evident that in reality most countries fail to follow laid down rules in their day to day transaction.
He noted that corruption has been seen to be the major impediment to doing business with integrity in the country and if not checked will cause a 30 percent loss of the country’s Gross Domestic Product, according to a report by pricewaterhouseCoopers.
“The negative consequences of corruption in business are so many ranging from poor investment to rising poverty, infrastructural decay, institutional inefficiency and a wide range of socio economic crisis,”
“More recently, a survey done by PWC on the impact of corruption on the Nigerian economy and sent to the vice president shows that corruption in Nigeria will cost up to 30 percent of GDP locked up by 2030 if not properly checked. This cost was valued N1000 per person in 2014 and estimated at nearly N2000 per person in 2030,” Obasanjo said.
The former president explained that transformation or before now was measured as an increase in GDP, but today emphasis is on the content of the GDP alongside other indicators of life which includes maternal mortality, Infant mortality, employment opportunities, housing, water supply, electricity, life expectancy to mention but a few.
Transformation does not come accidentally but requires the efforts from all quarters, both the leaders and the lead for it to happen, OBJ said and as such, those who substitute mediocrity for excellence in whatever they do, always live to regret their actions sooner than later.
According to him, the relationship between an employer and an employee in a business should be such that reflect integrity and as such, those who manage funds should manage them not just for the interest of shareholders only, but the balance interest of all stakeholders ranging from the shareholders, employees, communities, creditors and even the customers of their products.
However, no matter the relationship that is being established between an employer of labour and its employees, it must not stop the employee from using the whistle blowing strategy if they find any form of unlawful act being carried out by the employer.
He said employers of labor should pay employees a “just wage”, that is commensurate or reflects what an employee contributes into the production process and anything lower than that must be seen as exploitation that is morally wrong as morality he said simply states that one must not exploit workers and one must make every stakeholder benefit from the profit made.
Obasanjo raised alarm over Nigerians who produce goods or go as far as importing goods that are perceived as substandard, to be sold in Nigeria even when they know that this singular act is harmful to the lives of the citizenry.
“Any manufacturer, importer, or marketer of such substandard item that can lead to deformity or death of Nigerians, should not just have their days in court, but should be put behind bars and also have their operations shut permanently,” OBJ said.
He noted that Nigeria is a country that is full of potentials and untapped resources, but it is becoming increasingly difficult do legit business and make clean money in the country.
He also expressed concern over millions of Nigerians who in a bid in making fast money invested and lost their hard earned money to numerous ponzi schemes rather than investing in profitable business like agriculture to mention but a few.
The former president concluded by saying that the chairperson of integrity is the people and integrity is a state of mind and not situational. Thus, if a person compromise in small situations with little consequences, then there is a high tendency that the person must compromise in big situations.
“Integrity must start at the helm and then circulate down. If an entrepreneur who runs a company does not have integrity, those who work with him will all suffer, making the society to also suffer for his misconduct,” he said.
Echoing the same line of thought, was the British commissioner to the UK government, Paul Archite, who said corruption is the major barrier challenging businesses in new market of the world.
According to him, 43 percent of UK firms indicated that their companies decided not to do business in Nigeria because of the perceived risk of corruption.
However, the British government has launched the business integrity initiative in April this year to help UK business integrate analysis and manage integrity issues into their strategy of doing business successfully in developing countries of the world.
Paul noted that if corruption is noticed in a country, it will go a long way in crippling firms in that country and unless Nigeria kill corruption, corruption will in turn kill Nigerians.
On his part also, Ojenekwu Augustine, Chief Executive Officer of Seplat, Nigeria’s indigenous oil producing firm said that lack of integrity is what is highly responsible for the high cost of doing business in Nigeria, it is the grandfather of corruption.
According to him, if a country wants to unleash its potential, then integrity is the answer, and to achieve this, integrity has to take root in the culture of an organization and the country as a whole.
