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The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria has inaugurated Mallam Tijjani Musa Isa as the 58th President of the Institute.
Musa’s investiture as ICAN President was held on Tuesday at the Institute’s Council Chamber in Lagos.
He succeeds the outgoing President, Mrs Comfort Olu. Eyitayo who took over the helms of affairs of the Institute on June 1, 2021.
Speaking at the event, Isa promised to implement series of programmes that would reposition the institute and take it to the path of enviable heights.
He said more than ever before, the Accountancy Profession, as a body of gatekeepers, needs men and women of courage, goodwill and proven integrity, to drive the renaissance of the value system of the profession and counter society’s scathing criticisms.
While highlighting the importance of upholding the values of the accounting profession, he promised to deal with any member of the institute that wants to bring the profession into disrepute.
Isa said, “We must take on the gauntlet to redefine our values and defend the public interest. This is the surest way to redeem the profession’s credibility, rebuild its image and chart a course that will guarantee the prosperity of the Nigerian nation and indeed, the human race.
“Thus, as we strive to hold leaders at all levels to account, we will also scrupulously enforce compliance to our professional code of ethics and sanction all proven cases of misdemeanour by members without fear or favour.
“During the year, the Council will continue to give adequate publicity to the judgments of the Accountants’ Disciplinary Tribunal in order to assure the public that appropriate actions are being taken by the Institute on unethical practices by its members that are brought to its notice.
“We count on members and other stakeholders to report erring colleagues as the task of ridding the profession of any bad egg, and preserving our hard-earned image, is our collective responsibility. This is the challenge you have thrust on me by this historic election.”
He said as a nation, Nigeria is painfully at a cross-road, adding that time has come for accountants to join politics in order to assist in nation building
The ICAN Boss added, “We are at a point in our economic development race where we must address the paradox of poverty in the midst of plenty.
“Given the nation’s huge natural and human resource endowments, this is clearly an aberration. The anger of the hungry and the sense of insecurity of the helpless and vulnerable must be addressed for this narrative to change, for the sake of all of us.
“This is especially imperative as the nation stands at the threshold of a new political administration. We will continue to insist on the ideals that would enable the prosperous economy that we all desire.”
As professionals skilled in resource management, the ICAN President said the Institute must confront these “inexplicable, inexcusable and unacceptable misery indices accentuated by high rate of unemployment, poor access of the citizenry to the basic things of life, high illiteracy rate, huge number of out-of-school children, low life expectancy rate and high rate of girl-child marriages, if we are desirous of making any appreciable progress in the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals by year 2030.”
He added, “Although these challenges are not new, I’m of the opinion that, for too long, public expenditure and service have been driven by narrow personal gains rather than the common good.
“For too long, the nation has celebrated wealth without recourse to source. For too long, we have placed the cart before the horse in our developmental agenda. We must collectively right the wrong of our ages past. And also avoid policy summersaults.
“Accordingly, as a professional body, we will partner with the government to redefine national values, economic priorities and resource utilization strategies such that the mass of the citizenry can be lifted out of avoidable poverty.
“We will leverage our professional expertise to support stakeholders in the informal sector, whose unsung value-creating activities will define the position of the nation on the ladder of sustainable development.
“Above all, leadership at all levels must and will be held to account. Without accountability, development will remain a pipe dream.”
He lamented that in the last two decades, the Accountancy Profession has steadily lost its prime position in public sector governance with severe implications for resource utilization, accountability and transparency.
According to him, the 2017 and 2018 reports of the Institute’s Accountability Index revealed the significant avoidable waste by all tiers of government in the use of public resources because of deficiency in human capacity, poor financial reporting practices, internal control weaknesses and disdain for due process by most politicians in positions of trust.
To redress these accountability issues, Isa said the Council will constructively engage the three arms of government at the Federal level while the District Societies will engage their equivalents at the State and Local government levels under the direction of the Secretariat.
In her speech at the event, the outgoing ICAN President said her desire to make ICAN great again through visible impact gave her sleepless nights.”
