Former governor of Bayelsa State, and now senator representing Bayelsa West, Henry Seriake Dickson, has called for deliberate government policies that will impact positively on the economic development of Nigeria.

He said lack of total accountability with sheer impunity in Nigeria governance system have resulted to so many social vices in the country, including inefficiencies and wanton systematic corruption that has also eaten deep into the fabric of the Nigerian state.

The Senator spoke on Friday while presenting a paper at the 11th convocation lecture for courses 29 and 30 graduands of the Nigerian Collage of Accountancy in Kwall, Plateau State.

He spoke on a topic titled ‘The Impact of Governance Policies on Economic Development in Nigeria: Challenges and Sustainability,’ stressing that his presentation offers key recommendations on policy priorities to build upon Nigeria’s macro-critical reforms, and ignite growth and job creation:

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Represented by the Director Academic of ANAN University, Prof Sunday Mlanga, he said irresponsibility on the part of leaders had equally led to many social unrest, constant calls for restructuring and total overhauling of the entire architecture of the Nigerian governing system.

“Political rascality, ethnicity, lack of need assessments, corruption, religion and too many points of agenda, inability to properly identify problems, lack of continuity, lack of political will, are all factors militating against effective policy making in Nigeria with respect to economic development.”

“Others are inadequate resources, white elephant or unrealistic policy goals, lack of clarity in policy definition, weak democratic values and instructions, lack of good governance, lack of popular commitment, lack of input from the people, plaucity of data, policy instability and lack of thoroughness in policies execution,” he said.

Earlier in his remarks, the Director General of the college, Dr Friday Effiong Akpan, explained that a total number of 5,600 students of the Nigerian College of Accountancy on Saturday be certified as accountants at the institution’s 11th combined convocation scheduled for 24th and 25th of January, 2025.

According to him, 12 students out of the 5,600 bagged distinction award, and would be awarded at the convocation ceremony, adding that the graduating accountants have duly completed their training programmes for the 2022/2023 and 2023/2024 sessions, and that they graduated officially in August 2023.