As Ikhazoboh Vacates NSE’s Management…

PERHAPS, the atmosphere at the Conference Room of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Thursday afternoon could be described as stimulated congeniality. Sitting behind the new helmsman of the foremost investment platform, Oscar Onyema, an elated Emmanuel Ikhazoboh, took time to recite the situation that brought him to the Exchange and how he achieved close to 100 per cent of his mandate.

Unlike the situation that welcomed him to the Exchange in August 2010, there was neither tensed-looking ‘members of the high table’ nor sniffing journalists. Everybody was in relaxed mood. Not many members of the media even had their midgets on during the interactive session.

But at a point, representatives of the media organisation whom the forum was to appreciate for supporting the interim administration supervised by Ikhazoboh, breached the accord. “It was not a speech-making day,” it was earlier announced, yet the journalists seized the little opportunity given for “few comments and questions” to revisit the old questions.

How the ex-Interim Administrator (IA) was ‘smuggled’ into the Council, the position of the much-publicised forensic audit of the tenure of the ex-Director General, Dr Ndi Onyiuke Okereke and the present financial position of the Exchange topped the questions. In order to sustain the friendly mood, some of the responses were, at least, accepted without further probing.

On a lighter mood, he explained that his tenure was able to remove the cobwebs in the trading centre and make it look like its counterparts in other climes.

“We have also been able to get the right management in place. I must say that this was the most challenging thing that we have done. It was not easy to get the right management team we have put in place; it took us time to convince people, who were comfortable where they were, to come to make the NSE as good as the exchanges they were operating in.

“This is why I appeal that we should give Onyema a chance because hard decisions will be taken… We will break some eggs in the process of building on the foundation we have laid to make the Exchange a world-class kind. He needs your cooperation and I believe he is going to get it,” he appealed.

One clarification the press took with a pinch of salt was that he is to remain as a member of the Council (with a new office created for him) in line with existing law, which says that an ex-chief executive of the Exchange is a member of the Council.

He said: “As IA, I was a member of the Council at a time. So, I was not smuggled into the Council; I was a member. Also the Memorandum and Article of Association (MEMAA) is clear, as it is now (though that might be looked at later), that ex-chief executives are supposed to be members of the Council for a number of years. I believe as IA, I was a chief executive for the period I served.”

He noted that his tenure was unable to complete one of its mandates — conducting a forensic audit of the financial dealings of the past administration — which was stalled by litigation. This, he said, is 70 per cent completed with the Council expected to resolve pending court issues in order to complete the process. He disclosed that the Council plans to explore out-of-court option to resolve the litigations, with caution being taken to ensure that Onyema’s management does not inherit the issues.

“Having completed most of the management mandates, we could not continue to wait to complete other things, which are majorly council’s responsibilities, before the new management comes on board. We have not completed the forensic work because of the court injections; we have a lot of court cases out there. We have put the executive management in place; restructuring is what we now try to do. I understand what the issues are; I was part of the team that carried out the forensic audit; I understand the court issues, which need to be addressed. Hence, we thought it would be better the Council is strengthened to make sure that those issues are properly addressed.

“The management team should be relieved of issues they know nothing about; issues that will not allow them to concentrate on building a world-class exchange. The Council should take that burden but they should be part of it so that they understand what is going on. The Council will resolve the court issues and carry those burdens that would have dragged the management backward to an extent.

“After that, the Council will be dissolved and a new one put in place.  I think we will be doing the country no good if we abandon the new management because we feel we have finished our job; we would have failed. So, it was thought necessary that I remain in the Council besides the MEMAA’s provision,” he reasoned.

Meanwhile, stockbrokers are still kicking against Ikhazoboh’s inclusion in the Council. The allegation is that he was drafted in to serve as a stooge to the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), which appointed him. Still, it is being argued by many that SEC over-reached its regulatory responsibility when it replaced the former DG with Ikhazoboh. The manner the change-of-guard was carried out was also protested.

Already, stockbrokers are said to be contemplating a legal action to prevail on SEC to drop the ex-administrator. However, there is also an internal wrangling and structural challenge that might affect the process. The stockbrokers are said to have been polarised along capacity classification. The high-volume dealers, it was learnt, have given their support to the decision of SEC to retain Ikhazoboh while the small ones are reconsidering their stance on the fear that they might not be able to obtain the required internal cooperation to fight through.

“The fear is that if you hold on rigidly to your rights, you might begin to lose your privileges. And to be honest, you don’t expect SEC to be shivering by threat of litigation when it has the support of those who do 80 per cent of the market volume,” said a source.

The Exchange, which used to host many stock brokering firms, was recently cleared of such occupants. While many said this was done to give way for seamless rehabilitation (which is ongoing), some affected stockbrokers insisted that it was part of the witch-hunting tactics employed by the interim administrator against them.

Another section of market argues that since Ikhazoboh did not come to the Exchange through the laid-down processes, it is puerile for him to claim membership of the Council on the ground that he was a formal chief executive.

Commenting on the intrigues trailing Ikhazoboh’s reappointment as Deputy President, Chief Executive, Forthright Securities & Investments Limited, Bode Ashogbon, said: “The role SEC is playing in the entire issue is highly disappointing. This is an institution that recently launched a code of corporate governance. If you go by the statutes, SEC does not have the power to what it is doing.

“The Exchange is a company limited by guarantee. SEC can also issue instruction to the Council to deal with a chief executive in the case of misdemeanor. IA came in with specific terms, which have expired. A substantive chief executive has been recruited so IA should go.

“There is no provision in the MEMAA of the NSE for a deputy president or deputy chairman. The law does not give SEC or any other outsider the right to appoint member into the Council. What SEC is doing now amounts to corruption. This is because corruption includes every dishonest act or illegal behaviour.”

Source : Guardian