{"id":2247,"date":"2013-04-16T18:41:32","date_gmt":"2013-04-16T18:41:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/disnaija.com\/nigeria-news\/lawmakers-should-not-wreck-sec\/"},"modified":"2013-04-16T18:41:32","modified_gmt":"2013-04-16T18:41:32","slug":"lawmakers-should-not-wreck-sec","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disnaija.com\/lawmakers-should-not-wreck-sec\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawmakers Should Not Wreck SEC"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A new attempt by the House of Representatives to further stifle activities at the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, by preventing it from spending revenues generated internally should be resisted by all those with stakes at the Nigerian capital market.<\/p>\n

Recently, the House through its Chairman, House Committee on Legislative Compliance, Moruf Akinderu-Fatai, advised the apex capital market regulator to refrain from making any expenditure, adding that all revenue, including fees received, fines, grants, budgetary provisions generated internally and externally shall not be spent by SEC for recurrent, capital purposes except with prior approval by the National Assembly.<\/p>\n

This latest step by the lawmakers is coming on the heels of their refusal to appropriate money for SEC in the 2013 budget. All these steps were taken just to incapacitate the capital market regulator simply because the government rejected their resolution calling for the removal of the head of SEC, Arunma Oteh, whom they accused of being incompetent to run the organisation.<\/p>\n

Trouble started for Oteh last year when she accused the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Capital Market, Herman Hembe, and his deputy, Ifeanyi Azubuogu of collecting $ 5,000 each from SEC as travel allowance for a capacity building workshop in the Dominican Republic but which they failed to attend and also failed to refund the money.<\/p>\n

Apart from this, Oteh who was earlier excoriated by the lawmakers for being incompetent, reckless and dictatorial, also accused them of demanding from her N39 million to organise the public sitting meant to throw searchlight into the operations of SEC. Both Hembe and Azubuogu are currently facing trial for obtaining money under false pretence.<\/p>\n

For daring to expose their members and putting them in trouble, the lawmakers declared war on Oteh and called for her removal. During the deliberations of this year\u2019s approriation bill, the lawmakers deliberately failed to appropriate money to SEC in an attempt to force President Goodluck Jonathan to remove her.<\/p>\n

We disagree with this barefaced arm twisting tactics of the lawmakers. The lawmakers should understand that Oteh is an appointee of the executive and it is only the executive that can remove her. It is true that the legislature passed a resolution calling for her removal, but then the decision to remove or retain her lies with the executive. Their resolution is just a piece of advice to the president and the president has the right to accept or reject it.<\/p>\n

We are at a loss for words on why the nation\u2019s lawmakers have taken the disagreement between them and Oteh to such a personal level.<\/p>\n

SEC is a creation of the constitution and the constitution made provisions on how it should be funded. It is a government agency. The oversight function of the lawmakers over it does not extend to trying to incapacitate or annihilate it by depriving it of funds for its daily operations simply because the Director-General of the agency offended them.<\/p>\n

Our lawmakers should understand that SEC is a legal entity and different from its head who is an appointee of the president. It is our opinion that the National Assembly has no right to starve the agency of funds in order to force the executive to remove its Director-General.<\/p>\n

This latest attempt by the country\u2019s lawmakers to emasculate SEC should be condemned by all.<\/p>\n

We implore SEC to challenge this unconstitutional stand of the lawmakers in the law court. The law court should determine whether the lawmakers have the constitutional backing to withhold funds for SEC or not. Such pettiness on the part of the lawmakers should not be tolerated in our democracy.<\/p>\n

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