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Economic Hardship: Accountants, Best To Lead A Country Out of Recession And At Other Times – Ms. Patricia Adenike Balogun

Published

2 years ago

September 20, 2024

A United Kingdom-based Nigerian accountant and investment expert, Ms Patricia Adenike Balogun, has urged Nigerians to have faith and confidence in the capacity of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to turn around the economic fortune of Nigeria.

According to her, the president is well endowed with all accounting and management tools, including the right leadership qualities to transform the Nigerian economy to a prosperous one.

Speaking from London in a Zoom interview with Nigerian journalists in Abuja, Ms. Balogun said, accountants are the best set of professionals that can lead a country out of recession and during the time of prosperity because they are visionaries, innovative and risk takers.

Ms. Patricia Balogun, an Accountant herself, also expressed confidence that the President could leverage on his background in the profession to task his professional colleagues on planning policies capable of reviving several sectors of the Nigerian economy made comatose by the harsh situation bedevilling the country.

She, additionally, asked that the government should reduce the tax burden on small businesses in order to help them navigate and survive the current economic challenges.

Ms. Balogun regarded as an advantage the background of the President as a former Accountant with Mobil Oil Producing and other establishments.

She said: “Accountants like President Tinubu are best to lead a country out of a recession. They are visionary, innovative and risk-takers. Although traditionally viewed as professionals who focus on numbers and data, their role is more dynamic. President Tinubu has been trained with the capacity to drive growth and embrace innovation. Their analytical skills as Accountants give them the capacity for data-based decision-making.”

She credited the accounting profession with facilitating the development of trail-blazing IT software currently driving innovations such as the Treasury Single Account (TSA) embraced by the Nigerian government, as well as FinTech and e-commerce platforms.

On the TSA, she said: “The accountants within the public sector put ideas together, and came up with that Treasury Single Account system to help ensure better transparency and accountability in the area of the management of funds within the country, as well as to curb corruption.”

According to her, the nation should not underrate the advantages that accountants and the accounting profession can bring to bear on the nation’s search for socio-economic solutions.

Balogun said: “Accountants have the capacity to drive growth and we are innovative. The analytical skills of accountants that make them excel in analysing data are very crucial in a time of economic uncertainty because we use the data we analyse to back the decisions we make. We have the risk assessment method of finding financial risks, along with different scenarios, to produce healthy outcomes. We have very good capacity in strategic planning.

“We know how to use multiple scenarios and models to differentiate which features will facilitate planning for risk-mitigation. We are very good at problem solving. When you have financial challenges, if you bring an Accountant, they are able to use their skills to basically adapt and find changing landscapes in implementing different corrective measures in terms of the time of economic action.

“In terms of being leaders, we create, we use data, we analyse data, and we are able to use them to bring financial health back to a business, to an organisation or to the country at large.”

Balogun recalled that accountants had been drivers behind the adoption of the Financial Reporting Standard (FRS) that has enhanced transparency and accountability within companies and within the country generally.

“During the privatisation policies of the 1990s and early 2000s, the accountants put together measures to help in ensuring that business outcomes were achieved,” Balogun said.

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Musawa Seeks Broader Significance for June 12

Published

8 hours ago

October 3, 2026

The Gleamer

Joel Ajayi

The Minister of Art, Culture, Tourism and the Creative Economy, Hannatu Musa Musawa, Esq., says June 12 must be remembered as a sacrifice that gave Nigerians democracy, beyond its status as a public holiday.

In a statement signed on Saturday by the Senior Assistant Media & Publicity to the Honourable Minister,Federal Ministry of Art, Culture, Tourism and the Creative Economy Dr Nneka Ikem Anibeze Ph.D in Abuja.

Musawa stated this at the national premiere of “MKO”, a film on Chief Moshood Abiola, held at the Wole Soyinka Centre for Culture and Creative Arts, Lagos, to mark Nigeria’s 66th Independence Anniversary.

She said 33 years after June 12, 1993, many young Nigerians know it only as a holiday, but the film turns it back into memory.

“For too many young Nigerians, June 12 is simply a public holiday. This film tells them that our democracy did not arrive by chance. It was fought for. It was defended. It was paid for. This documentary is in honour of the heroes of June 12, the men and women who gave their lives for the mandate of June 12, 1993 and for the democracy Nigeria enjoys today,” the Minister said.

Musawa hailed President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Chief Host, for his participation in the June 12 struggle and paying the price in exile, adding that Nigeria’s creative industry will keep telling the story of its democracy with courage.

“Through film and the creative economy, Nigeria will preserve its history. A nation that forgets its past loses its way to the future. Nigeria has a story and our story deserves to be told,” she said.

Earlier, the director of the investigative documentary, Ose Oyamendan, said the film was in honour and memory of heroes who fought for Nigeria’s democracy.

“There was Hope ’93 and now there is Renewed Hope. There was a man who sacrificed his life so we may have democracy and there is a man who almost lost his life fighting for democracy who is now helping build a lasting democracy.

“There was a great man called Bashorun MKO Abiola and there is now another great man called Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Democrats. Nationalists. Nation builders. Leaders of men and women. We must never forget our story. We must always honour and remember our heroes,” Oyamendan said.

Top government officials including President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the wife of the President Senator Oluremi Tinubu; Senate President Godswill Akpabio, Speaker of the House of Representatives Tajudeen Abbas, Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, Chief of Staff to the President Rt. Femi Gbajabiamila, state Governors, members of the National Assembly, Ministers and other distinguished dignitaries attended the premiere.

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