The development and sustenance of viable enterprises is no longer dependent on the size of the corporation and related factors but sound ethical practices imbibed by all stakeholders, according to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN.

Prof. Osinbajo stated this on Tuesday at the virtual 2020 Conference of the Institute of Directors.

According to him, “The frequent clashes between conscience and wrongful behavior will eventually create a toxic work environment and destroy corporate objectives and visions. There is also enough history of how cutting corners and dishonesty ultimately bring down the whole enterprise. This we have seen in the facts behind the collapse of many Nigerian financial institutions from the nineties to the more recent occurrences in 2009. Yes, it took a while for the institutions to unravel but the point is made that on the long run, unethical practices are unsustainable.

“Besides for quoted companies, the dangers of unethical behavior are much graver. Local and international investors have greater access to information and more options than ever before, the slightest whiff of scandal or malfeasance can destroy value built up over the years.

The local and especially the international examples of the collapse of companies thought to be too big to fail and brand names that had even once been associated with integrity and strong business ethics is a strong reminder of just how brittle edifices built on weak business ethics are.

“Today, every company’s stakeholders are far more than investors, management, or employees. They now include customers, clients, trade partners, suppliers, media, the general public, government and now, the environment.”

The event featured presentations personalities including Prof. Marc Le Menestrel, a professor of Decision Sciences; Chairman of Governing Council, Institute of Directors, Chief Chris Okunowo; and Dele Alimi, DG/CEO, Institute of Directors.

Below is the full text of the Vice President’s remarks:

REMARKS BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, GCON, VICE PRESIDENT, FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA AT THE 2020 CONFERENCE OF THE INSTITUTE OF DIRECTORS, ON TUESDAY NOVEMBER 3, 2020

I am honoured by your kind invitation to join you this morning at the 2020 Annual Directors’ Conference of the Institute. The Institute takes the credit for the development of Nigeria’s finest breed of business executives and directors in the fulfilment of their legal and personal responsibilities to the corporate entities they serve and of course, to Nigeria as a whole.

I am particularly excited about the recent efforts of the Institute to standardize the practice of sound ethical values and lead by example with the introduction in August this year, of the IoD Code of Ethics 2020 for members and staff of the Institute.

I, therefore, congratulate the President, Chief Chris Okunowo, who many of you know, is from the best schools in the World, Igbobi College, and the Faculty of Law University of Lagos, for steering the course of the institute towards global best practices. (I am offering no prizes for guessing that the two schools I mentioned are also the schools that I attended).

My brief remarks will centre around a question that has occupied my mind for many years and led to my co-founding the Convention on Business Integrity with my friend and brother Soji Apampa in 1997.

How do you most effectively convey the truth to corporate entities, to companies, that integrity pays, that business ethics is as crucial to the bottom line and to everything else, as the other more obvious factors in delivering profitability and recognition of success for a company?

The question is complicated by the notion that business ethics is itself an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms how can you survive in the cut-throat survival of the fittest environment of business with any kind of concern for morality?

Besides, in countries where regulatory oversight and law enforcement is weak and or slow, there would seem to be, at least, in the short term, no particular advantage in choosing ethical behavior over profit.

But the arguments in favour of business ethics are much stronger. Aside from the more obvious connection between respect for obligations, sanctity of contracts, and reliability or trustworthiness and business success, clearly unethical accounting practices, false communication to shareholders or the public, (where it is sanctioned by the leadership) results in employee cynicism and defeats the commitment to corporate visions and objectives. If the employees believes that the bosses are crooks or prepared to bend the rules, they also will seek ways of short-circuiting the rules for personal benefit.

Besides, the frequent clashes between conscience and wrongful behavior will eventually create a toxic work environment and destroy corporate objectives and visions. There is also enough history of how cutting corners and dishonesty ultimately bring down the whole enterprise. This we have seen in the facts behind the collapse of many Nigerian financial institutions from the nineties to the more recent occurrences in 2009. Yes, it took a while for the institutions to unravel but the point is made that on the long run, unethical practices are unsustainable.

Besides for quoted companies, the dangers of unethical behavior are much graver. Local and international investors have greater access to information and more options than ever before, the slightest whiff of scandal or malfeasance can destroy value built up over the years.

The local and especially the international examples of the collapse of companies thought to be too big to fail and brand names that had even once been associated with integrity and strong business ethics is a strong reminder of just how brittle edifices built on weak business ethics are.

Today, every company stakeholders are far more than investors, management, or employees. They now include customers, clients, trade partners, suppliers, media, the general public, government and now, the environment.

These additional relationships have become, especially in an age of clearly excessive information flows, as important in the accountability matrix of companies as their traditional stakeholders. This probably explains the new place of open corporate social responsibility efforts, and the strong environmental stewardship initiatives that many countries are adopting around the world. Companies must show that they are not only profitable but that they are good by measures of character and concern for the environment and society.

According to a study which I came across, by Nielsen, 55% of online shoppers in 60 countries would accept paying more for goods or services from companies that are focused on having a positive impact on society and the environment. And it is becoming more so. People are paying more attention to good corporate citizenship.

The empirical evidence is beginning to match our intuition more forcefully daily. However the key is leadership. Leadership that believes the evidence and realizes that business ethics are not just moral preachments but important foundations for profitable and sustainable businesses in the 21st Century.

Indeed, for Nigerian Business Leaders, the theme of this conference is a challenge to conquer in our own interest the new frontier in business ethics, ethical leadership and sustainability.

Let me thank the executives and members of the Institute of Directors for this opportunity. I wish you excellent deliberations and look forward to receiving your conclusions at the end of the conference.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama, has lamented that his ministry appears not to be a priority for the federal government.

The minister disclosed this yesterday in Abuja when he appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs to defend the 2021 budget estimates of his ministry.

Onyeama also lamented that a lot of the country’s foreign missions are eyesore, describing it as a terrible embarrassment for the country to have the foreign missions in such state.

He noted that due to poor funding, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) is trying to rationalise and cut down on the international organisations that Nigeria belongs to.

According to Onyeama, “When you look at what the ministry gets, compared to other ministries, foreign affairs ministry is underfunded, especially when you compare it to similar countries and even smaller countries like Egypt and South Africa, which have similar number of missions to our own, and you would find out that you just cannot compare (them). Ours is really much lower. And, of course, there are competing interests; we have security issues, as education takes a lot of the budget, but I think that any suggestion of collaboration between us and your committee to try to get more will be welcome.

“On the question or suggestion on how you can help, I think that at the end of the day, it is probably a question of priority of the government. Foreign Affairs, if we just look at all the ministries, we would really see that it is almost as if foreign affairs ministry is not a priority. But it should be one of the biggest consuming ministries.

“And for the size of a country, the giant Africa, we are supposed to defend the interest of Africa and the black race around the world. We have a vast network of technical assistance programme to the pacific, to the Caribbean and to other Africa countries, and we want to be a big player, which sits at the table as one of the countries running the world, and to be able to do that, we just need many resources.”

Earlier, the Chairman of the committee, Hon. Yusuf Yakub, said Nigeria remains the whipping child of the world, buffeted on all sides, while the country’s nationals still suffer the poor fate of carrying the green passport that much part of the world hates to see.

He said while the problem was not about the ministry or the House, he expressed concern that Nigeria cannot get its international image to fit into the acceptable module of the international community.

Yakub stressed that the way the ministry appears and operates today, it is hardly the contemplation of anyone that has the interest of the Nigerian at heart.

He added: “From Ghana to Gabon, South Africa to Libya, Nigerians remain at the receiving end of, most times, state-supported violence and all forms of ill-treatment in foreign jurisdictions, including Europe, the Americas and Asia.”

Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi has called on the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to shelve the seven months ongoing industrial action in the best interest of the students.

Fayemi stressed the need for urgent and holistic engagement between Federal Government and the leadership of ASUU in order to bring an end to the current impasse.

The governor made this appeal in Ado-Ekiti while playing host to members of the Board of Trustees of the Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation, led by its Chairman and former Governor of Niger State, Dr Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, in his office.

He urged the academic union to look at the hardship the students and their parents are going through in view of the strike that has kept the students at home for over seven months.

“We need to get to a point of convergence with ASUU, but I also think ASUU should begin to look at this from the position of their importance. It is the students of the ordinary Nigerians who attend the local universities. So, even if it is for the sake of ordinary Nigerians who have children in these universities and cannot afford to send their children to private universities or abroad.

“Whatever the areas are, we would like to engage them, not as Federal Government but as concerned parties at the level of government who feel that we can still work out an arrangement in which you don’t completely dictate to your employer how he pays your salaries.

“If agreement has been entered into and if it is not going to be honoured, you owe a duty to urge other party to review it consensually and then come up with something that is mutually acceptable to both sides.

Speaking further, Fayemi who posited that education remained the greatest antidote to poverty, said education should be refocused at the national level due to its importance to national development.

“Education in Nigeria should be treated nationally. It requires a national approach; it cannot just be isolated state by state, and particularly for regulatory purpose, in terms of standard of the curriculum and in terms of supervisory engagement. We really need to do things that will make us appear as if cherish the importance of education in the lives of our citizens”, he noted.

Earlier, Dr Babangida Aliyu had told the Governor that the Foundation was established as an instrument for the promotion of the ideals of Sir Ahmadu Bello and to promote the development of Northern Nigeria which prompted the foundation to commission a research in support of efforts to improve education in the region.

The former Governor berated the high level of out-of-school children in the North and posited that the problem of education in the North requires a national approach.

He, therefore, called on the Governor in his capacity as the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum to spearhead the formation of an endowment fund to revamp education in the North, believing that the effort would go a long way to bridge the divide and erase some acrimonious feelings.

The Lagos State Government has announced that it may impose new lockdown in the state over the reoccurrence of coronavirus cases in the state.

This was made known in a statement issued on Tuesday by the Director, Public Affairs of the Ministry of Health, Tunbosun Ogunbanwo.

The statement contains a quote from the Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, which references the new lockdown in other parts of the world.

Abayomi warned that “the continuous flagrant disregard of safety guidelines by citizens heralds’ danger and may lead to a second wave of new infections in Lagos”.

The statement read in part: “The Lagos State Government has once again stressed the need for residents to strictly adhere to precautionary measures against COVID-19 infection transmission to prevent a recurrence of the situation that led to the lockdown of the economy.

“A resurgence of cases in Lagos may lead to the reversal of the strategically calculated measures put in place by the Government to open up the economy.

“The first wave of coronavirus started in December 2019 and swept through an unprepared world. The first case of COVID-19 in Nigeria was recorded in Lagos on the 27th of February 2020. Lagos has since become the epicentre of the outbreak in Nigeria with a record of 21,107 confirmed cases and 212 deaths from the virus till date.

“The containment measures put in place at the time included COVID-19 testing, isolation and treatment, surveillance, total shutdown of the State for about 12 weeks and partial shutdown of social, economic and academic activities for over four months.”

A High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, has summoned a former governor of Imo State, Chief Ikedi Ohakim, to appear before it on November 11 for his arraignment on a three-count criminal charges filed against him by the Inspector General of Police (IG).

The summons is contained in a hearing notice issued pursuant to Order 3 rule 7 of the FCT High Court and dated October 30, 2020.

According to the notice, Ohakim was commanded to appear in court number 32 for arraignment over alleged fraud.

Court 32 is under Justice S. U. Bature of the Maitama Division of the FCT High Court.

In the charge marked, FCT/HC/CR/993/2020, the police alleged that Ohakim, who was governor of Imo State from 2007 to 2011, gave false information against Lady Chinyere Amuchienwa.

The prosecuting agency further alleged that Ohakim lied that the lady threatened him with a gun, and equally made a false claim that he had a plot of land for sale in Lagos.

The three-count charge signed by Mr. Stanley Nwodo of the Force Legal Department dated September 23, 2020, of the office of the Inspector General of Police also accused Ohakim of using the name of the Minsiter of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola (SAN), to defraud unsuspecting Nigerians.

In addition, the prosecution alleged that Ohakim claimed in his statement to the police that he gave Lady Amuchienwa the sum of N100 million for his governorship in 2019, which he could not prove in the statement.

Earlier attempts by the police to arraign the former Imo State chief executive in court, over similar charge were unsuccessful.

The three-count charge read in part are: “That you Ikedi Ohakim, on or about May 23, 2019 at Asokoro, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court did unlawfully gave false information against one Chinyere Amuchienwa, that she threatened you with gun knowing it to be false and thereby committed an offence punishable under section 140 of the Penal Code Law of the Northern Nigeria, 1968.

“That you Ikedi Ohakim, on or about May 23, 2019, at Asokoro, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court did unlawfully gave false information against one Chinyere Amuchienwa, that you have a plot of land for sale at Lagos State, knowing it to be false and thereby committed an offence punishable under section 140 of the Penal Code Law of the Northern Nigeria, 1968.”

*Raises alarm over failure of inbound Nigerians to present selves for PCR test

The Presidential Task Force on Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on Tuesday raised alarm over failure of some Nigerians who arrived from abroad to present themselves for the in-country Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test which they signed up to and paid before arrival.

It has, therefore, resolved to revoke passports of travellers that fail to conduct the mandatory COVID-19 PCR test.

According to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and chairman of PTF, Boss Mustapha, at Tuesday’s media briefing by the Task Force, only one out of three Nigerians who arrive have complied.

Recalled that as of September 18, the Government of Nigeria had announced that it requires a negative COVID-19 PCR test within five days (120 hours) before departure.

The PTF had also in September said while Nigerians will get six- month passport suspension, foreigners face outright visa cancellation.

The PTF had said Nigeria placed travel bans as part of the global lockdown measures to contain the spread of the pandemic in March 2020.

It had stressed that it was mandatory that travellers have the PCR test done on day 7th upon arrival.

It had also said all returning travelers to Nigeria must have tested negative for COVID-19 through polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing in the country of departure. The PCR test must now be administered no more than 120 hours before departure.

Nigeria resumed International flights on the 5th of September and the update followed the announcement by Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA,) that the maximum number of passengers of each incoming international flight must be 200 passengers.

According to the SGF “The PTF is highlighting these issues repeatedly because we remain at risk of importation, having opened our airspace and massive spread as a result of the protests. The next week or two remain critical. The PTF has noted with sadness the failure of Nigerians who arrived from abroad to present themselves for the in-country PCR test which they signed up to and paid before arrival. Statistics emerging from our records show that only one out of three passengers have shown up for the in-country test.

“As you may recall, the PTF announced the guidelines on the reopening of the airspace and the obligations of arriving passengers. The PTF similarly announced sanctions as a consequence of any infraction. Having observed serious non-compliance to the level of 65 percent, the need has arisen to activate the sanctions which includes the suspension of the passports of such defaulting individuals for a period of six months minimum. The National Coordinator will elaborate further on this.”

Mustapha said as part of the strategy of the PTF to deepen community engagement, he addressed an emergency session of the National Executive Committee of the National Council of Traditional Rulers Tuesday.

He noted that: “The contributions of our traditional rulers to the successes so far recorded in the National Response can not be overemphasized. Accordingly, I acknowledged and thanked all our traditional rulers for their support and urged them to continue to do more especially in the areas of risk communication and community engagement. Adherence to the Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions measures and the need for people to come out for testing were emphasized.

“Finally, I wish to inform you that the PTF has revised its meeting and briefing frequency to once a week, to allow members carry out other functions and activities. This does not preclude the need to call for emergency meetings and briefings when the need arises. With effect from Thursday, 5th November, 2020 therefore, the national briefing will only hold once, weekly.”

The Federal Government on Tuesday told the Senate why there are numerous abandoned road projects across the country, saying that the processes in which appropriation is made both at the executive as well as the legislative arms of governments form part of the reasons.

Disclosing this in Abuja when she appeared before the Senator Clifford Ordia, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Edo Central led Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts, Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed said that abandonment of projects across the country will be averted if it was possible for the Federal Government to take just take one or two projects at a time and complete it before going to the next one.

The Minister said, “The current Sukuk fund is N162 billion is for 45 roads cutting across the six geopolitical zones.

“I am one person that feels that we should just do this and take one major road in one geopolitical zone and finish.

”We were not able to do that because of the processes in which appropriation is made both at the executive as well as the legislative arms of government.

“But truly, of we were able to just take one or two projects at a time and complete it before going to the next one, it will be better.

“So what the contractor does is the bit that has been cut out for him to do in that particular area. Once the fund is released and it is finished, we stop again.

”That is the consequence of these numerous projects that we put in the budget. It is not related to Sukuk-funded projects alone, it cuts across all the projects.

“You will see a road that costs, may be, N5 billion, and you will see a provision for N100m, N200m or 300m. Of course the project will never finish.

”After two years, the contractor comes back and asks for variation, and the amount keeps growing.

“I wish that we get to a point when we sit down as government and agree that let us select a few projects, finish them in 2020, and then in 2021, we select the next. So that on a geopolitical basis, those selections are done as a collective process.”

Zainab Ahmed who told the Senate Committee that work on the legacy projects, Lagos-Ibadan highway, 2nd Niger Bridge, East-West road, and Abuja-Kaduna-Kano road were ongoing without stop because funds were available and they are few, said: “The NSIA was assigned four major road projects to do. These projects are Lagos-Ibadan highway, 2nd Niger Bridge, East-West road, and Abuja-Kaduna-Kano road.

“After the President gave approval, the appropriation for that year, 2019 was remitted to the NSIA, and then added its own fund.

“The projects are going on course because there is funding on the ground and because they are few, they are concentrating on them and work is ongoing. I wish we get to a point when we narrow down project implementation to few a projects at a time.”

Speaking on the delay in releasing Sukuk funds to contractors for executed projects, the minister said, “though the fund is protected, there are procedures put in place to verify claims that will be paid.

”There is an audit process, the first batch has been released, the second batch is being released as we speak.

“There are some checks that we have to put in place to make sure that the claim that is being made is actually valid.

There are parties that have been engaged to do a second level of verification in addition to the claims the ministry of works sends as invoices due for payment.

“The batch which is about N58 billion has been released. There is another N35 billion that is under processing.

The Federal Government has said that it is seeking a loan of $1.2bn from Brazil to finance agricultural programmes in the 2021 budget.

The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, made this known during a meeting with the House of Representatives Committee on Finance in Abuja on Tuesday.

Ahmed said that a request has been sent to the National Assembly to approve the loan from the Brazilian government.

She said the loan will be used to address issues in agriculture, adding that 100,000 hectares of land will be acquired in each state for food production.

“I request for the approval for loan for the Green Imperative Programme which is for loan of $1.2bn from the Brazilian government.

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