NPA Presidential Inaugural Speech

INAUGURAL SPEECH BY THE PRESIDENT, NIGERIAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION (NPA), PROF. OLUKAYODE AFOLABI, FNPA ON THIS DAY 8^TH OF NOVEMBER, 2021 AT THE MERIT HOUSE ABUJA.

The Chairman Board of Trustees of our great Association, Prof. Tunde Makanju and other members of the Board.

The immediate past President, Prof. Michael Onyekachi Ezenwa.

Our dear boss and former President Prof. Andrew Zamani.

Fellows and Professors of our Association.

All Heads of various Divisions and State Chapters of the NPA here present.

Members of the Executive Council,

Our distinguished members and other invited guests including our dear Pressmen/Women,

 

Introduction

I approach today’s inauguration as President of the Nigerian Psychological Association with a sense of honour and humility. I am also pleased and honoured to accept this responsibility with a great passion for the Association. I appreciate your confidence in me to pilot the affairs of this great Association. I want to assure you that with the help and cooperation of all my Executive members and I shall work together in unity to achieve our goals.

Appreciation

I wish to appreciate the following:

1. All members of the Nigerian Psychological Association (NPA), for accepting me to pilot the affairs of our Association. This is about the first time ALL members that participated in an AGM (both physical and online) will vote YES for a candidate. This becomes my motivation to hit the ground running because of the high expectation by our members.
2. I appreciate the immediate past President (IPP), Prof Michael Ezenwa and all members of the former Executive Council where I served I served as the First Vice President (VP1) for the many things they did to support me as the immediate successor. Therefore, I will be depending on his continued support throughout my tenure.
3. I offer special thanks to our former President and leader, Prof Andrew Zamani. This is for his remarkable stewardship of this Association under which I started this journey of service to the NPA. I also appreciate him for the excellent example he had set for us here. I have no doubt that I have benefitted so much from your leadership style which was steady, assured, democratic and pragmatic.
4. I wish to use this opportunity to also thank those who nominated and recommended me for this position. They cut across the geo-political zones and NPA divisions. Thanks so much for your trust in me. By God’s grace and dedication to duty, I will not disappoint you.
5. Lastly, I appreciate all the members of the immediate past Exco for providing me the opportunity to vie for this position. I also thank them for the peaceful atmosphere for the Association to progress and move forward.

Current Challenges

There is no Association in the world without its peculiar challenges so also is the NPA. Therefore, let me quickly identify the major ones.

1. National Secretariat: I am of the opinion that NPA is overdue to have its Secretariat either in Lagos or Abuja for wider visibility. This is especially mandatory now that our bill is still being processed. For example, if the Presidency feels like contacting us for information concerning our bill or other issues, where will they go? The truth is, we are nowhere for now.
2. Psychology Bill: We all know the importance of getting this bill signed by the President. It is after this is achieved that we can reliably claim that we are recognized professionals.
3. NPA website: It will not be out of place to mention here that the Association does not have a website currently. A website is another way for the Association to be visible to the whole world. Since we do not have a National Secretariat yet, an interactive website can do the temporary magic.
4. Membership/Finance: The fourth major challenge is membership and finance. Many graduates of Psychology are outside there without being a member of the NPA. Those who registered many years ago did not pay their dues. This is seriously affecting the operations of the Association.
5. Psychology Curriculum: It is observed that many different departments of Psychology in Nigerian Universities have different course curricular. If you pick the different curricular of 3 departments of Psychology today, you will observe a lot of variations. This is not good enough for a discipline that wants to professionalize. I think it’s better if we have the same curriculum for the training of our students in Nigeria,

Future Plans

Having served in many capacities in the previous Executive (Editor-in-Chief, South West Zonal Coordinator, First Vice President, VP1, etc), my future plans are highlighted below:

1. National Secretariat: On the issue of the National Secretariat for the Association, this shall be a priority. I understand there is paucity of funds but we shall make contacts and consult some individuals/organizations that may be of help. Whatever, it takes; we shall try to achieve this during my tenure.
2. Psychology Bill: The good news is that the bill is moving progressively at the National Assembly. Recall that the same bill was passed by the 8^th Assembly but the President did not accent to it. We have started making contacts of “who is who” that can help. We have also started lobbying some powerful individuals in government that can effectively convince the President on the importance of the bill and the need for him to sign it when it is eventually passed the second time. I know with the contacts and the promises made, very very shortly our bill will become a law that will guide our activities in Nigeria.
3. NPA website: As mentioned above, the truth is that we do not have a functional website for now. My plan is to design an interactive site. If we are able to achieve this, members will be able to check their status online. They will also find it convenient to pay their dues and other fees without waiting for conference periods. It will also help to showcase our activities and those of our Divisions and State Chapters. This, I promise to achieve before the end of 2021. An area will also be created for NGOs owned by members, all our psychological journals will also be added, etc.
4. Membership/Financial Drive: I will embark on meaningful membership drive immediately by engaging those “outside” (non-members) to be registered and be involved in NPA activities. With the interactive website in place, members will be able to pay the required dues without any hindrance and generate receipts without any stress. We shall also work with State Chapters and Divisions on this membership drive.
5. During my tenure as President, I will work with the stakeholders to work on our curriculum to see how it can be unified for the benefit of our students. This is also important when we come to professionalization of Psychology especially after the Psychology Bill would have been passed by the National Assembly and accented to the by the President. This will also help our graduate programmes and the problem of licensing psychology practitioners.
6. Besides these, I have already developed a strategic plan on collaboration and fund-raising. By this, as a professional Association, NPA will work for the involvement of Nigerian stakeholders in prisoner re-integration programme in the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCS). Secondly, we shall be involved in drug rehabilitation using multi-drug screening tests, mental health services, education training and re-training programmes, etc. We shall henceforth involve the State Chapters and Divisions in these tasks. In addition to all these, we shall focus on what we are good at and how we can contribute to the innovation economy here in Nigeria and throughout the Sub-Saharan African region. We need not to be only a relevant Association but an important contributor training and motivation of our workforce. We shall also sustain and strengthen the current partnerships with other International bodies such as PAPU, APA etc.
7. Lastly, We would mentor the National Association of Nigerian students (NAPS) and involve them in some of the activities of the Association. They are our students, they are our children and they are our hope for the future.

Conclusion

Standing before you today, I am confident that with resilience and renewal, we can weather the winds of change and emerge smarter and stronger. Nigerian Psychological Association is passionate, hopeful, proud, pragmatic and intensely focused on her mission and vision. Therefore, I am pledging my loyalty and dedication to service for my professional body which I have no doubt in me, I shall deliver. May God help me.

Thank you for your attention.