A WELCOME ADDRESS BY THE HOD ECONOMICS UNIZIK, DR. NWOKOYE, AT THE THIRD STAFF SEMINAR EVENT

PROTOCOL
Mr. Vice Chancellor, Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka: Prof. Charles Okechukwu Esimone Fas
My Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, UNIZIK: Prof, Uche C.C. Nwogwugwu
Our Special Guest of Honour, HE the Deputy CGiovernor of Anambra State: Dr. Nkemakonam C.
Okeke, Ugogbuzuo
Our Guest of Honour, the Branch Controller, Central Bank of Nigeria Awka Anambra State: Sir
Benedict 1.C. Maduagwu
The Professors of My Department: Prof, Samuel O, Okafor, Prof. Kenneth O. Obi, Prof. Uche C.
Nwogwugwu
The Senior Lecturers of My Department
My Esteemed Colleagues
My Dear Postgraduate and Undergraduate students
Members of the Press
Ladies and Gentlemen

I am immensely delighted to welcome you all to this auspicious event being the third in our Staff
Seminar Series and a Home-Coming affair organized in honour of His Excellency Dr. Nkem C.
Okeke, the Deputy Govenor of Anambra State, Light of the Nation. Today’s staff seminar is
unique because it also provides an opportunity to welcome the Branch Controller of the Central
Bank of Nigeria Awka Anambra State.

I happily welcome us all to listen to the lecture titled
Institutions, good governance and economie development: The case with Nigeria.
Economic development connotes inclusiveness in resource allocation and existing literature
documents the mechanisms through which institutional quality affects economic development:
a, It directly improves the policy environment thereby creating better situations that can
spur creativity and innovation.

b. It is instrumental to the grooming of human capital which is key to explaining country
variations in economic development outcomes (including poverty rates, unemployment,
inequality, social inclusion, etc).
C. By defining incentives and constraints on human behaviour as well as by reducing
uncertainties and information costs, institutions not only influence the conditions for the
development of economic activities but also improve multidimensional wel-being of the
citizenry. For instance enhancement of environmental quality might be achieved by an
efficient enforcing system which limits pollution, promotes energy consumption from
renewable sources, and encourages separate waste collections, leading to an improvement
in the quality of life of people in addition to enhancing food production and global food
security.
d. Less-corrupted environment encourage both domestic and foreign investments.
e. A system of stricter health rules and policies that foster disease prevention, that deters
drug consumption, and that which promote healthy nutritional behaviours, will have positive effects on health and well-being, and in turn, save public health costs by reducing illnesses. The theme of the 2017 African Economic Conference is Governance Jor Structural Transformation and the conclusion was unanimous for policymakers, private sector participants, and civil societies who urged Governments of African countries to strive for good governance as top priority for development projects within the Continent. Hence, this seminar is timely because it focuses on the criticality of institutional quality on Africa’s most populous and largest economy.

So what is institutional quality? While striving not to pre-empt the lecture, I assert that it connotes:
a. Presence of rule of law, accountability and transparency
b. Political stability
C. Absence of corruption
d. Strong government effectiveness
No doubt these indicators have non-trivial implications on development outcomes in developing countries including Nigeria.

His Excellency Sir, we are particularly happy that you are here today because for the past five
years, the staff and students of this Department have been admiring your portrait which hangs at
the HoDs office without getting to meet you physically. To tell you how serious it is, the just
graduated students are in this very hall because it is a thing of pride to say that the Deputy governor of our dear State is a part of the Academia that brought them this far. I thank you Sir, for honouring our invitation at very short notice.

I am also very excited that the Branch Controller of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Awka accepted our invitation at an cqually short notice. This is a sign of greater things to come. We
need to claim what righttully belongs to us and this gathering is a right step in the right direction.
His Excellency Sir, you have been away for seven years now and seven is very significant even
in the lives and times of God’s people as recorded in the Bible. Seven is also very symbolic in
the Christendom. Sir, you are a proverbial fig tree: You are indeed fully grown.

Your fruits are
fully ripe and we need to pluck some of them.
The Town is becoming Iarther away from the Gown and it is right that we make the right moves
in order to bridge this gap. His Excellency will come back to relate with us and to help us groom
our students in the right direction with respect to allocation of scarce resources for the upliftment
of mankind and for the development of the Nigerian economy. Indeed, Nigeria neds to take its
place as the bride of Africa because we do have full complements of natural and human
resources. The Department of Economic UNIZIK needs the Central Bank of Nigeria to provide
the industry experience which is very strategic for lifting our students higher on the
employability ladder. Yes, our students are hungry for knowledge.

They ned to be encouraged
and offered spaces for further intellectual and emotional development. It is my belief that this
gathering will provide us with the handle to the door of patriotism to our nation, Nigeria and also
provide us with assurances and of course practical experiences in the field of economic
development.

A functional State and a functional Monetary Authority is all that we need for furthering the
course of economic development because all we need are strong institutions to provide economic
agents with level playing grounds so that they can realize their respective goals. The Branch
Controller of CBN Awka, Sir, today is not a mistake. A synergy between the CBN and UNIZIK
Economics Department is our solicit. Sir, we have multitude of examination scripts to grade and
we are also struggling to publish so that we do not perish.

We may therefore skip some visits to
your establishment. Is it possible to give my colleagues and I assignments and we do them and
submit back to your office so that you would award marks to us just as we treat our students? Sir,
we know the theories; we need the practical. Could you please add us to your Corporate Social
Responsibility list so that this relationship which we have reactivated today can outlive this
position I occupy today as the head of department?
Is it possible to have a lecture room built upon the Alfred Marshall Lecture room so that we can
have an extra lecture room making it a total of four? His Excellency Sir, recall that this building
is a donation to the Department of Economics by Alhaji Ishiaku Umar: Is it possible for us to
have an extension so that it can accommodate our increased numbers of staff and students? For
now, all I can say is that we are in good hands.
As we listen to today’s lecture, let us also remember that unemployment, extreme inequality,
social exclusion, natural and man-made disasters, poverty and hunger are danger signs. A free
society which cannot care for its numerous poor citizens is a disaster waiting to happen hence the
decision of the Department of Economics to take proactive measures aimed at proltering
solutions to our welfare issues.

Thank you to our Guests for making out time to be with us. Thanks to our professors and
colleagues who will educate us today. We shall seat back and benefit from your wealth of
knowledge.
Thank you.

Ebele Nwokoye
HoD, Economics