The Deputy Dean, Faculty of Management Sciences, Veritas University Abuja, Prof. Success Jibrin Musa has advised Nigerians to ensure they have at least two sources of income to enable them to seamlessly navigate the harsh living conditions in the country.
Jibrin who delivered the 7th inaugural lecture with the topic, ‘Accounting Economics, Taxation and Governance: Renewed Hope Agents for National Development,’ on Tuesday in Abuja, insisted that having two sources of income would bring stability, sustainability and growth to individuals.
Commenting on the constitution which limits civil servants from keeping two jobs, Musa noted that there were several resourceful engagements such as farming that civil servants could venture into besides government jobs.
He said: “Your job as a civil servant cannot provide everything. Farming is the best business you can take up all over the world.
“Individuals should have at least two sources of income for stability, sustainability, growth, and development. Individuals should key into the benefits derivable from several cooperative multipurpose societies and insurance policies to generate additional sources of capital for a small business venture for sustainability.
“Today, I have some of my guests here who are farmers exporting farming products out of this country to other countries and they are billionaires.
“So to all the civil servants the constitution has given them a guarantee to farm, to engage in farm businesses, nobody can sit at home alone. The farming business is also a source of income.”
Musa who is a Professor of Accounting and Taxation, urged Nigerians to make judicious use of any resources they find in their hands as agents of national development, even as he called on the government to “comply with all the requirements of IPSAS and IFRS to prove accountability and probity in the use of
public funds. Due process should be followed in the generation and disbursement of government revenue to promote good
“This inaugural lecture is all about the four elements; accounting, taxation, economies and governance as agents of the new group for national development.
“It simply means every individual in Nigeria today is an agent of national development and what it simply means is at any point in time, any allocation of resources, any resources that is in our hand we should ensure the judicious use of it for the benefit of the masses.”
Vice Chancellor Veritas University Abuja, Rev. Fr Hyacinth Ichoku affirmed that having two sources of income would help Nigerians generate greater returns on investments, and help them achieve better living conditions.
“People should because if you depend on one source of income, there’s probability that you may just lose that source of income and then that means you’ll be dried up like a steam dries up but if you have multiple sources of income flow into your family, into your personal account, even if one dries we can at least depend on the other or the others.
“So I think that is very important to have multiple sources of income. When you have different skills to be able to assess different sources of income it’s very important because that’s exactly what we doing, applying resources, efficient application of resources you generate.”
Commenting on the inaugural lecture topic, the VC noted that if taxation was properly applied in Nigeria, it could help in developing the country sustainably.
“Accounting and Taxation if properly applied, if properly implemented can actually be a resource coordination to be able to generate the required resources, all the infrastructure development we need in Nigeria.
“All the facilities we need wherever, whether in the rural or agricultural, are financed by taxation. So it is absolutely important that we pay taxes and so his point is that this is important, but how we harness the taxes of the people is also very important.
“If you don’t have taxes, if you don’t generate income, if you don’t generate resources, you can’t finance education. Education is absolutely important. Because It is one of the key issues that is financed by public finance.”
