Governor of Delta State , Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan, has advocated the intervention of professional managers in Nigeria’s economy to check the downward slide in the nation’s economy.

Speaking Monday at Asaba during the inauguration of five chapters of the Nigerian Institute of Management (NIM), the governor said that given the current economic down turn of the country, Nigeria deserves good managers of the economy to make progress.

As a result, he challenged NIM to be actively involved in the training and discovering of good managers to manage the nation’s economy because of the dwindling capacity available to manage the resources of the country.

“This is the time we need the NIM most in Nigeria: we have a lot of challenges with our economy, the funds are not just there, we need managers to run the economy of the states and federal government, we need NIM to impart prudent management skills to those running our economy,” he stated.

According to him, good governance entails a lot of things, including the efficient management of human and financial resources of the state, stressing that the human capacity required to manage a budget of N300 billion or more in the present day Nigeria would definitely be higher than that used to manage a budget of N10 billion in 1999.

“The challenges of management goes beyond the public sector to the private sector, the capacity used to manage the 1999 budget of N10 billion is not the same as that required to manage our present day budget of over N300 billion. The budget has risen, but has our capacity risen in the same way?” he asked.

While thanking the NIM for conferring on him the Fellowship of the Institute, Governor Uduaghan reiterated: “NIM needs to organise training programmes for members and non-members to build human capacity for good governance in our country.”

He also, called for good communication between the managers of resources and the masses on issues and challenges affecting governance noting that such would reduce suspicion, rumour mongering and mischief.

Besides conferring the governor with the Fellow of Nigeria Institute of Management (Chartered) at the ceremony, the President of NIM and Chairman of Council, Dr. Nelson Uwaga inaugurated five chapters of the NIM. The chapters are: Abraka, Edjeba, Okpe, Udu and Uvwie.

Earlier, Uwaga explained that the governor was conferred with the fellowship of the Institute because of the professionalism he has brought to the governance of Delta State and assured that Nigerians who are prudent in the management of resources would always be recognised by the Council of NIM.

•Photo by Henry Unini shows President and Chairman of Council, Nigerian Institute of Management, Dr. U. N. Uwaga (right) decorating Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State (left) as fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Management during the Inauguration of Five new chapters in Delta State held in Asaba, Monday.