The Association of Professional Bodies of Nigeria (APBN) has described the move by the National Assembly to establish the Chartered Institute of Forensic and Investigative Auditors of Nigeria (CIFIAN) as suspicious and a violation of the rights of professionals in the country.
It would be recalled that the Institute Chartered Accountant of Nigeria (ICAN) kicked against federal lawmakers’ consideration of the bill.
But CIFIAN fired back and accused ICAN of planning to scuttle establishment of the institute.
Protem President of CIFIAN, Dr Victoria Enape, described ICAN’s continual attempts to frustrate the bill as an act of “parochial interest”.
On Friday, while reacting to the second and third readings at the House of Representatives in May 21, APBN President and Chairman of Board and Council, Engr. (Chief) Olumuyiwa Alade Ajibola, stated that the urgency with which the bill was being pushed in the House, raised much suspicion.
Ajibola, in a statement, said “If passed, the bill will impair the ability of any qualified expert who is well grounded with knowledge and professional tools to participate in Forensic and Investigative matters, despite the fact that the powers to do so belong to the specialized profession.”
He warned that the establishment will at the best create confusion and confuse any genuine Investigative effort.
“The basis of this extra-ordinary urgency in processing this bill is anything but suspicious. Each professional body is reminded to note that the passage will neither be in its interest nor in that of the general public.
“Sections 9 and 10 of this bill show that there is no identifiable and recognized University learning curriculum for the acquisition of the knowledge being proposed to be ware-housed in this institution.
“Thus, it can only result in unfair usurpation of the rights of the existing professions,” the APBN boss stated.
While calling members of the association to resist the ‘spurious’ and ‘baseless’ institute, Ajibola argued that the body being created would only infringe on the rights of existing professional bodies when passed into law
Daily Post
The statement by the APBN President of no identified University degree was a prerequisite to be accepted into registration is incorrect and unacceptable. Those behind its creation could have evolved superior indices of evaluation.
A piece of paper does not and cannot do a man’s jobs. Just passing through a degree programme is no assurance for competence. At best, that might be dismissed as old testament. It is this same emphasis and focus on qualification that has made Engineering an allcomers’ affair.
We should focus on functional deliverables and attributes, not some useless piece of (toilet) paper that anybody can bribe and get.
What if the person dorning or wielding such certificate was a cultist that threatened his way through the institution? Professional evaluations should be able to isolate such deviants for genuine practitioners to have a peace of mind. The current struggle of superiority between HND and degrees won’t be if functional competence was the focus. We have successfully watered-down quality of education in the country out of ignorance.
At the 25th COREN Assembly, a newly registered candidate observed that the examination for registration was below requirement and a graduate of secondary school with computer knowledge can easily scale it. There was report that a secondary school pupil was able to scale ICAN examination during Obj and Ingeniers were able to scale thesame ICAN more than those who studied Accounting. This ought not to be. Functional competence should take precedence in every profession, including Engineering, not certificate.
One way to this is to understand the fact that professionals are needed in specifics. Theories of the various professions can be easily crammed and memorized by anybody but only competent professionals can identify how such theories vary in application as specific situation changes.
In certain situations, more than one theory or principle could be needed to unravel complications.