Nigeria Needs Devt Experts To End Infrastructure Deficit – Ogbuokiri

President of the Chartered Institute of Development Studies and Administration of Nigeria (CIDSAN) Dr Elijah Ogbuokiri, has attributed the infrastructural deficit in Nigeria and Africa to the dearth of development experts.

At a press conference after a stakeholders’ meeting at the weekend in Abuja, he said the country now has a new chartered institute with focus on managing the totality of the nation’s administration and development.

He said the meeting discussed strategic measures to make the programmes of the institute viable to meet its aims and objectives.

Ogbuokiri said, “The stakeholders met today (Saturday) to discuss how to handle the programmes of the institute such as examination, induction of new members and inauguration of council.

“The Chartered Institute of Development Studies and Administration of Nigeria has come to fill critical developmental gaps. We, the board members, over the years have been restless with Nigeria’s/Africa’s developmental failures and missteps. This led us into thinking out of the box for a way forward.

“We established that besides corruption and poor leadership, these developmental failures and mis-steps are traceable to the dearth of professionally trained and equipped development experts that can effectively facilitate the nation/continent’s development journey. Poor management of our development has kept us where we are today,” Ogbuokiri said.

On what motivated the establishment of the institute, the CIDSAN president said, “The 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.”

On the qualification for membership of the institute, Ogbuokiri said CIDSAN as a multi-disciplinary institute, prospective members who have to go through a certification programme must be graduates or its equivalent drawn from development studies, Social Sciences, Business Administration, Health Science, Engineering or Liberal Arts.