Gov. Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara yesterday urged accountants and other professionals to participate in partisan politics and be part of a new political elite that would take over governance.
He also said that professionals must be ready to enunciate new policies and incentives that would galvanise Nigerians in the direction of collective prosperity.
The governor made the call at the opening of the ninth edition of the Northern Zonal Districts’ Conference of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) in Ilorin.
Ahmed said that if more committed and purposeful professionals were in partisan politics, they would constitute a critical mass with the capacity to change the orientation in governance.
“They will change the direction and impact of governance in ways that will better reflect on the lives of the people and take us closer to our dreams of a better Nigeria,” he said.
According to him, when that happens, professional pedigree and entrepreneurial accomplishments rather than parochial political considerations will determine access to political office as it obtains in developed democracies.
“We must leave the sidelines and join the mainstream of politics so that the nature and character of partisanship will change for the better,” he stated.
Ahmed said that the country needed a new crop of politicians who were successful entrepreneurs and professional so as to stop the tendency of people taking to politics as a last resort.
He said that the new politicians should be accomplished professionals and technocrats with credentials and who would fashion out policies for the transformation of the country.
Ahmed also advised participants at the conference to stop seeing politics as “an abominable arena to be avoided at all cost but as a platform for contributing your quota to our country’s development.”
He said that it was imperative for people to yearn for merit as yardstick for public office, explaining that merit was a necessary for entrenching more professionals in public service.
On Monday’s bomb blast in Abuja, the governor said: “I grieve for our country as we once again mourn innocent and defenseless compatriots murdered in cold blood by those whose conscience has been anesthetised.
“I grieve for our brothers and sisters who lost their lives or were injured in a difficult quest for livelihood and I condole with their families for this sad loss.
“ We may seem powerless against this condemnable orgy of violence but I have no doubt that the indomitable Nigerian spirit will prevail and by the grace of Almighty Allah, we will overcome this evil.’’ (NAN)
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