Peter Obi Urges Accountants to Confront Government Reckless Spending

The presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 elections, Peter Obi, has called on members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) to take a stand against what he described as the financial recklessness of the current administration. Obi made the appeal during his speech at the investiture of Mrs. Blessing Ngozi Osakwe as the 12th President of the Society of Women Accountants of Nigeria (SWAN) in Lagos.

Following the event, Obi took to his official X account to reiterate his message, urging ICAN members to use their professional influence to “intervene and halt the waste, misappropriation, and mismanagement of scarce resources.” He warned that the government’s alleged pattern of heavy borrowing and spending is worsening poverty and unemployment and is “spending away the future of our children.”

Obi drew on his own experience, citing how the financial probity of female accountants he worked with in the past helped him manage a bank and a state. He referenced a risk manager who “remained firm in her duty” at a bank he chaired and two female accountant-generals and a finance commissioner who kept him on the “right directions” as a governor. He urged the accountants to adopt a similar principled stance to ensure fiscal discipline in government.