Former Anambra State Governor and 2023 Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has urged members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) to play an active role in holding government officials accountable for what he described as reckless borrowing and wasteful spending by the Bola Tinubu administration.
Obi made the call on Wednesday in Lagos while speaking at the investiture of Mrs. Blessing Ngozi Osakwe as the 12th President of the Society of Women Accountants of Nigeria (SWAN).
In a post shared on his official X handle after the event, Obi emphasized the need for ICAN and its members to intervene and “halt the waste, misappropriation, and mismanagement of scarce resources, which continue to deepen poverty and mass unemployment in Nigeria.”
“I urge you as a body to ensure that your members all over the country stand up to political office holders, insisting that this financial recklessness must stop—especially now that we are borrowing and spending away the future of our children,” Obi said.
Drawing from his professional and political experience, Obi recounted how accountants had played crucial roles in guiding him. “In banking, where I served as chairman, my risk manager—an accountant—remained firm in her duty and ensured the bank didn’t run into trouble. As governor, I worked with two female accountant generals and a female commissioner for finance who were equally firm and always pointed me in the right direction regarding procedures and documentation,” he noted.
Obi stressed that the accounting profession must not only serve corporate organizations but also safeguard public resources, arguing that the discipline and integrity of accountants are vital to Nigeria’s economic survival.
