THE NEED TO RE-STRATEGIZE AND RE-POSITION ANAN IN THE GLOBAL MARKET

By Nnabugwu Chizoba

The financial and economic crisis in the globe, that came to a climax in 2008 and the uncertain path to recovery is a by-product of years of unrestrained sharp economic practices, improper business operations and worst of all, the undermining of accounting systems, amidst under valuing of natural capital (all natural assets both produced or non-produced, economic or environmental).

The modern economic crisis is not attributable to Euro-zone countries alone because of the universality of the instruments of performance measurement and the principles of consumption and growth.

The World Bank and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), recently concluded that the stage of development in the industrialized world had accentuated the lowering of environmental harmony, thereby accelerating the growth of dirty industrial output, depleted natural assets and over-exploiting of the system that powers nature.

The Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN), and her training Arm, the Nigerian College of Accountancy, in many respect, understand the changing society in context, in terms of evolution of career aspiration, dynamics of groups, institutions and organizational behaviour, as well as the fundamental synthesis of economic relations and environmental realities.

The center (ANAN), her members and other graduates of the Nigerian College of Accountancy, as the hub of accounting development, are through this medium not only reminded but of a truth, called upon to begin the process of repositioning the institution. This process will see the Association, take a wide range of reforms, policy dialogue and strategic initiatives, targeted at developing new measurement techniques, environmental inclusiveness, and methods of production, distribution and transportation with ecological footprints.

ANAN, as a body, should understand the scope of challenges bedeviling the liberal accounting culture and the conflict between sustainability and operationalization of the modern economic system. 

The time has come for ANAN to come out with wide range of innovative, robust and ecologically relevant programmes, methodologies, practices and other valuable initiatives that possess the momentum for global, regional and national transformation.

Without fear of any contradiction, I make bold to state that, Accounting plays a central role in human dynamics, societal metabolism and good governance. Public interest is the single most important objective of a Professional Accountant. At the most generic level, ANAN has played a pivotal role, a commendable impact in the development of a formidable structure, a dependable blueprint and a viable option for the training of accounting Professionals in Nigeria and Africa as a whole.  

What is left for ANAN to do, in the face of a hard biting economic situation, is to deploy the abundant resources available to her, through her excellent membership composition and spread, in order to rise up and rescue the system, as the Association has always done in the past.

It is on record that when the nation developed a blueprint, tagged Vision 20:2020, ANAN was on hand, and quickly packaged and delivered to the Federal Government of Nigeria, a roadmap, towards the realization of the noble programme, which the then President of Nigeria, appreciated immensely, and equally noted as the first time a Professional body in the country, has come up with such a package to the assistance of government.  

History today, beckons on ANAN, this time around to set out a high quality, and well-coordinated approaches and networks to achieve worthy cross-disciplinary integration, maintenance of top-of-the edge professional excellence and wholesomeness of anthropocentricity as basis of socio-economic and political evolution. 

In order for African Professional Accountants and other associated Professionals to cope adequately in the globalized world, they need to have relevant language, socio-political and inter-cultural competencies, which involves having a socio-political and erudite knowledge and skills. This is a clarion call to ANAN.

TO BE CONTD.