The is a saying that Nigerians work for money but Europeans work for the love of
their jobs. The former came to play following the recall of Ms Aruma Oteh
by the Presidency as the Director General of the Securities and Exchange
Commission, SEC.
How transparent is this? Many people holding public positions in Europe and
were caught in such a horrendous financial scandal as is the case of Oteh
never allowed a minute to pass by before they resigned. But this is not the
case of Ms Oteh and the Federal Government that preferred shame to the
detriment and flouting of a House report recommending her dismissal.
How else would we know that the presidency of Mr. Goodluck Jonathan is
retrogressing worse than we assumed it would progress if the
‘transformation’ he promised Nigerians was to be playing to the gallery
with perceived corrupt and dunce people like Oteh? This is lawlessness and
impractical.
It is a known fact that Oteh was covering up her low understanding of the
capital market which collapse was caused by her inefficiency combined with
her financial recklessness. She shamelessly agreed to come back after the
Reps had accused her of wasting public funds…spent N30m on hotel bills in 8
months…N85, 000 on meals per day.
What is her joy of coming back when everybody associated to her, except the
presidency, disowned her. It could be recalled that all the commissioners
of Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, who were supposed to assist her
to stand fame claimed that she kept them out of the roadmap for a world
class Capital Market.
The Reps accused her of breaking the law in the appointment of some senior
staff of SEC, especially the staffing of three officials of Access Bank
which they described as totally vulnerable. There was even an expression of
doubts about the authenticity of her educational qualifications and the
request of the original copies of her certificates was made but we didn’t
hear about that till date.
“How can you allow Access Bank which is one of the financial institutions
that SEC regulates to second its staff to your office? This can compromise
the operations of SEC and further kill the confidence the public have in
capital market,” the Reps had asked her.
And she barefacedly responded: “Those workers were on secondment from
Access Bank. Their work has nothing to do with our regulatory functions in
SEC. By your comments, you are implying that SEC had been affected by the
secondment. This is not the case.”
What is her moral justification of accepting to come back as SEC DG when
she has been distanced by all the commissioners who were present at one of
the public hearing of her financial impropriety in office saying that Oteh
was running a one man commission at SEC.? She was later threatened with
arrest by the committee for her failure to appear, but she later tendered
an unreserved apology to the committee when she appeared after.
Was she a good person and she were disowned by all her management staff
that was to give her support publicly? Is a good visitor no longer the one
who knows when to leave? Oteh should leave now. She can find out that she
is unsellable. The headquarters of the Security Exchange Commission, SEC in
Abuja do not want her. She can see the handwriting on the wall on Wednesday
18th, July as workers staged a protest against the resumption of her
Directorship. What a shame!
