Viewing subsidy from tribal, religious lenses dangerous � ICSAN president

The President of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators of Nigeria, Taiwo Owokalade, on Tuesday, said the implication of viewing subsidy from religious and tribal perspectives would �box the nation into a corner that is dangerous.�

Owokalade made the statement when he, alongside a delegation of the institute, comprising the Registrar, Taiwo Olusesi; the Chief Financial Officer, Dolapo Ajibola; Deputy Registrar, Oladunni Ogunsulire; member, Advocacy and Publicity Committee, Yvette Okwesi; Head of Research, Ketefe Kayode, and Deputy Manager, ICT, Julie Bassey, paid a courtesy visit to The Punch Place, the headquarters of Punch Nigeria Limited, in Magboro, Ogun State.

The ICSAN President explained that though there was a need to recognise tribal and religious factors, they must not be seen as the drivers of governance as the country needed a leadership that could manage all the diversities and build a nation where citizens would not see themselves from tribal or religious positions but rather as a nation.

Owokalade said, �Nigeria should not allow itself to be dragged into the issue of tribal and religious factors. When you remove the subsidy, you don�t channel it to support the Christian community or the Igbo community.

��If you allow discussions of development to dovetail into tribe and religion, you will be, unfortunately, boxing the nation into a corner that is dangerous and wrong. Now, we have the government of the day, the first day, the subsidy has been removed.

�The one issue that everybody has kept saying is that subsidy should be removed. It is either we are saying it with lip service or people are saying it without understanding the implications.

�But an average Nigerian that says he/she does not understand the implications is either the person is just mischievous because there is no way that they will remove subsidy that prices will not go up and not just petroleum prices but every other thing we use petroleum for.�

Owokalade, however, noted that there was a need for stakeholders to be looking at getting in clear terms the areas the amount to be taken from subsidy would be deployed into in a bid to hold the government accountable.

Talking about the institute, Owokalade said people usually misconstrued the conservative nature of the operations of�� ICSAN and its members as being inactive, adding that things changed through the prioritisation of publicity and advocacy.

�Most times, we say a company secretary is meant to be seen and not heard because we are just meant to be at the board, give information and speak only when encouraged to do so, and that has allowed a lot of our members to be on the quiet side just doing their thing.

�Unfortunately, as beautiful as that is, it also gave several people in the outside world an understanding that the institute is not active. So, we needed to find a balance, and that was why at my taking-off point, I said one of the things we need to do is a lot of publicity and advocacy to let people be aware that the institute is still strong and relevant to the Nigerian setting going forward,� Owokalade said.