The Rivers State Commissioner for Information and Communications, Pastor Paulinus Nsirim, and the former Nigerian first lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, were among other personalities conferred with the fellow of the Institute of Business Administration and Knowledge Management at the 2and Annual International Conference of the institute, yesterday.
Speaking as the chairman of the conference opening at the Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Port Harcourt, Nsirim urged participants to address the value system question with a view of proffering solution to its restoration.
He noted that the basic problem facing Nigeria as a nation was the loose of its values.
“I have canvassed at different fora that what Nigeria needs urgently is restoration of our values: Values of honesty, hardwork and discipline.”
He expressed hope that such conferences would be held by different professional bodies to begin to develop a new agenda to pull the country out from the quagmire it is in now.
“The truth of the matter is that the solution to Nigeria’s problem will come from the Nigerian people. We are not going to import people outside Nigeria to bring solutions to our problem.
“If we are going to have a better Nigeria, if the leadership question is going to be properly addressed, if production issue is going to be addressed, if the followership issue will be properly addressed, then Nigerians must collectively begin to bring back our values.
“Until we build a society where everyone acts responsibly, where godfatherism is not the order of the day, where people attain heights based on merit, where tribalism, religion, ethnicity no longer form the yardstick for our leadership recruitment, we may not go far as a people,” he said.
Nsirim stated that Nigeria would be on the path of rapid development, if Nigerians could get it right with the value system.
While declaring the conference open, the former first lady of Nigeria, Dame Patience Jonathan described the conference as important and necessary to set agenda for all stakeholders towards a better society.
She charged participants to deliberate and come up with innovative ideas that would help Nigeria, Africa and the world to recover fast from the economic losses caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Presenting a paper with the theme: “Professional Business Administration and Knowledge Management: Panacea for Economic and Institutional Health and Sustainability”, Prof. Sam Otamiri, delved into the relationship between knowledge management and economic health, and how they are intertwined to amount to sustainability of gains made by an institution.
Otamiri, who is the dean of Faculty of Business Studies at the Ignatius Ajuru University, said a thesis of the paper called “Knowledge-based Economic and Institutional Development Model”, developed by the institute was being applied in some organisations.
Speaking, the Vice Chancellor of the Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Prof. Ozo-Mekuri Ndimele, noted that ideas rule the world, and that knowledge was very important for the transformation of society.
While introducing the award, the Executive Vice President of the institute, Dr. Monday Anyairo, described the institute as a unique professional body which satisfies people with skills, sufficient level of competence wrapped with act of professionalism to be able to adequately discharge their duties and responsibilities.
The conference also witnessed the conferment of a doctoral fellowship of the institute on Dame Patience Jonathan.