Many Nigerians have been wondering why President Muhammadu Buhari sacked Jim Obazee, executive secretary of the Financial Regulatory Council of Nigeria, FRCN, over the implementation of the controversial Corporate Governance Code 2016. Obazee was said to have been sacked for disobeying a directive of Okechuckwu Enelamah, minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, for failing to suspend the implementation of the regulation. Among others, the code stipulates 20-year tenure for heads of religious groups and civil rights organisations.
Buhari had, in a statement by Garba Shehu, his senior special assistant, Media and Publicity, on Monday, approved the immediate removal and the replacement of Obazee. The statement said the new Council now has Adedotun Sulaiman as chairman. Daniel Asapokhai replacesw Obazee as the executive secretary of the council.
Sulaiman is a former Managing Partner/Director of Arthur Anderson and later, Accenture. He is a chartered accountant and a product of the University of Lagos and Harvard Business School. Asopokhai is a partner and a Financial Reporting Specialist at the PriceWaterHouseCoopers Nigeria. He is a product of the University of Lagos and the University of Pretoria.
Shehu said Buhari had also instructed the Minister of Industry, Trade, and Investment, to invite the 19 Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the federal government and private sector organisations specified in the FRC Act to nominate members of the board of the council.
Pastor Enoch Adeboye of the Redeemed Christian Church of God had, on Saturday, stepped down as the overseer of the church in Nigeria in accordance with the governance code of the FRC. Adeboye, who made the announcement during the church’s annual ministers thanksgiving service, at the Redemption Camp in the Mowe area of Ogun State, said the new regulation would affect clergymen, including Bishop David Oyedepo of the Living Faith Church Worldwide International, aka Winners Chapel; Pastor W. F. Kumuyi of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry and Bishop Mike Okonkwo of The Redeemed Evangelical Mission.
Enelamah was said to have on October 17, 2016, written the FRC boss, directing him to suspend the operation of the controversial regulation, which the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, alleged was targeted at weakening the church. But Obazee reportedly refused to suspend the regulation because there was no gazette backing the suspension of the regulation.
Enelamah had earlier recommended to Buhari that the implementation of the regulation be suspended. The failure of Obazee to obey the directive of the minister, invariably led to his sack.