Aruma Oteh Love For Shame
The 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!
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Odimegwu Onwumere,
Poet/Author, Media/Writing Consultant and Motivator, Founder of PoetAgainst Child Abuse (PACA), Rivers State.