Says discipline, accountability key to national development
By Abdullahi Alhassan, Kaduna
A Professor of Accounting at the Nigerian Defence Academy, NDA, Kaduna, Professor. Terzungwe Nyor, has urged Nigerians, especially micro and small business owners, to embrace record-keeping, saying accounting is critical to personal, business and national growth.
Prof. Nyor stated this on Thursday while delivering his Professional Inaugural Lecture at the Academy. The lecture was themed “Accounting is Everybody’s Business.”
The Professor of Accounting, who specializes in financial accounting and reporting, said operating without financial information leaves individuals and businesses “in the dark” and makes it impossible to measure progress or profit.
“You can’t measure the progress of your business. You don’t know how your business is moving, whether it is moving forward or not,” he said. “The major objective of commerce, which is to make profit, you cannot measure it. And that is hindering business growth.”
He noted that the lecture was targeted at small businesses, individuals and government institutions because accountability is central to development.
“Accountability involves being answerable for your actions and taking responsibility for your activities. It is core for national development. Without accountability, we are not just going anywhere in Nigeria,” Prof. Nyor said.
According to him, the choice of the theme was also informed by the fact that “everybody spends money,” and accounting provides the data needed for wise decision-making.
“Transactions involve decision-making. You make a decision to spend, and if you don’t have data for those informed decisions, you cannot be taking good and wise decisions even for yourself,” he added.
Prof. Nyor further said accounting does more than track finances. It builds character, he argued, by instilling discipline, attention to detail, probity and leadership.
“For you to be able to keep records, you have to involve a culture of discipline. If you are not disciplined, if you don’t have the aptitude for details, you cannot keep accounts. So, a person who is engaging in recordkeeping, that in itself enforces discipline into him. You need discipline to grow anything. You need discipline to be productive,” he said.
“Accounting has a way of instilling all these qualities of accountability, discipline, probity, and even leadership to an extent. Because you can’t be a leader without knowing accounting. Everywhere leadership is involved, money passes there.”
Speaking on challenges in the profession, the don lamented what he described as a growing emphasis on certificates over knowledge among students.
“My most challenging aspect in lecturing is students who are not interested in knowledge, but are just interested in certificates. That’s why students see me as a difficult lecturer. Because I want you to know. I want you to know,” he said.
He added: “Getting a certificate is important, but a certificate without knowing is useless. It cannot bring progress, it cannot even help you yourself. We have come to an age where everybody is just after certificate, certificate, and knowledge is becoming scarce. But I hope that we’re making headway.”
The inaugural lecture drew participants from the NDA community and stakeholders interested in financial literacy and accountability in public and private life.
About The Author
