Dr Elijah Ogbuokiri, President, Chartered Institute of Development Studies and Administration of Nigeria (CIDSAN), on Saturday attributed the infrastructural deficit in Nigeria and Africa to scarcity of trained developers.
Ogbuokiri said this at a news conference after a stakeholders meeting in Abuja to announce the formation of an institute that would focus on administration and development.
According to him, the purpose of the meeting is to inform Nigerians and the world that a new institute has been chartered in Nigeria with focus on managing the totality of the nation’s administration and development.
He said the meeting discussed strategical measures to make the programmes of the institute viable enough to meet its aims and objectives.
“The stakeholders met to discuss how to handle the programmes of the institute such as examination, induction of new members and inauguration of the council.
“The Chartered Institute of Development Studies and Administration of Nigeria has come to fill critical developmental gaps.
“The board members over the years have been restless with Nigeria’s and African’s developmental failures and mis-steps. This led us into thinking out of the box for a way forward,” he said.
Ogbuokiri said the new institute was established besides corruption and poor leadership.
He said that these developmental failures and mis-steps were traceable to the paucity of professionally trained and equipped development experts that could effectively facilitate the nation’s development journey.
Ogbuokiri said that poor management of development had kept the country where it’s today.
On what motivated the establishment of the institute, the CIDSAN president said “I and the other board members found out that nations are re-thinking development approaches to ensure sustainable development.
”This can only be undertaken comfortably by professionally equipped experts in development studies and administration.
“We felt Nigeria should not be left out, hence our effort in seeking the establishment of the institute,” he said.
On qualification for membership of the institute, Ogbuokiri said CIDSAN as a multi-disciplinary institute, prospective members must go through a certification programme and must be graduates or equivalent.
He said that membership would be drawn from development studies, Social Sciences, Business Administration, Health Science, Engineering or Liberal Arts.
Source: News Agency of Nigeria