Engr Olumuyiwa Alade Ajibola has successfully been sworn in as the 16th President of the Association of Professional Bodies in Nigeria. The Event which held in Federal Capital Territory Abuja attracted professionals from all varying sector of the society.
The 16th President of Association of Professional Bodies of Nigeria (APBN), Olumuyiwa Ajibola has pledged to institutionalise mentorship of young professionals in order to assure the future of the association.
Speaking at his investiture ceremony in Abuja, Ajibola, who is also a former President of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), said the involvement of young professionals across the bodies in its activities through specific innovative programmes would help engrain the ideals of the APBN in them early in their professional lives. He argued that young professionals enthusiastic dispositions and ability to innovate would enrich the gains of the constituent bodies of the association.
While stressing on the advantages of ‘disruptive ideas’, Ajibola hinted that his team would focus on programmes and initiatives that will not only create values for its member bodies, but also seek to positively impact on national socio-economic developmental activities.
He explained: “We now live in a world largely shaped by ‘disruptive ideas’, which results in innovations that transform both economies and people’s daily living though the application of technology. The beauty of this innovation is that the resulting projects and products cut across the professional divides! We must therefore readily adjust and learn this new mode of working effectively together as a team, with the best materials, sourced from each profession.”
He called on members of APBN to get ready to lead Nigeria into a new world of high performing economy, which is backed by adequate infrastructure, both hard and soft that can only be made realisable through the professionals.
He submitted that the new paradigm shift informed his team’s determination to see that it marries its physical efforts with technological advances in the articulation of its programmes designed to create both collective and unique member-specific values to the association on a sustainable basis.
Ajibola, who held that politics alone cannot solve all the problems confronting Nigeria as a country, submitted that just as many countries of the ‘next world’, professionals are largely responsible for generating solutions in a system that that engages closely with them.
He added: “Notwithstanding the natural resource endowment, the Nigerian professional without doubt may very well be the best assets of our nation and remain ready to be challenged. I assure that the genius which enables us to perform outstandingly in other climes will be brought to play in our own nation too to lift it into the realm of advanced nations if so encouraged.”
On his part, Engr. Bunu Sheriff Musa, who was the Chair of the occasion, said it is imperative that members support APBN in order to enable it proffer solution to national challenges. He explained that members should use the association to monitor and ensure compliance with set rules of conduct.
Bunu urged all professional bodies to be united and actively participate in discourse on national development and refrain from projecting an image of critic rather than builders of the nation.
He added: “Professionals need to participate actively in pre-budget and post-budget exercise, seminars, election monitoring duties, workshops and present position papers on various issues. The out-going president of APBN (Dr Idris Omede) early this year challenged the association to make its stand known on some pertinent issues such as national security, the 2018 budget, food security and fuel scarcity and crisis and national infrastructure and I think that is the way to go.
Our nation and indeed our citizenry deserve best professional conduct and services from us. Each and every one of us have great role to play in the development of our country, Nigeria. Our conduct and performance are always under watch by both our admirers and adversaries.”
-Guardian