Nigerian leaders since independence have stolen $480 billion from the treasury through corruption, the Nigerian Institute of Management (NIM), lamented on Thursday.
The NIM is the largest multi-discipline and trans-sectoral professional institute in the country.
Its President and Council Chairman, Mohammed Abubakar, made the disclosure in Lagos at a press conference on national issues and what the NIM is doing to help tackle them.
He cited report of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) on the huge loss to graft in Nigeria, which has been in the “harvest season for the many years of mismanagement sown.”
He added: “It has become an overstated fact that the Nigerian problem is that of mismanagement. In almost all the socio-economic sectors, management failure has assumed epidemic proportion.”
Abubakar cautioned that “if the management of the economy tomorrow must begin today,” the people must focus on evolving processes to define a bright future.
An NIM partnership with National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to develop entrepreneurship in graduates is in place as part of youth empowerment for wealth creation and poverty eradication.
It has internationalised some executive programmes in partnership with the Manchester Business School of the University of Manchester, England where over 140 top managers and chief executives have received training in leadership and governance to enrich the offerings of Nigerians.
Besides, it has, in Private-Public Partnership and Economic and Financial Reforms, made contributions to the Commissions on Police Reform and African Investment Banking, now African Finance Corporation.
On pension reform, Abubakar said even in developed countries, pension fund administration has encountered challenges; so, the Pension Act may not be perfect, but is crucial to the lives of retirees.
He counseled pension managers to be transparent.
The NIM�s 2006 international management conference on November 20 and 21 is open to its members and the public alike, to brainstorm with policy formulators and executives drawn from within and outside the country.