Boniface Okezie Lied Under Oath - His Views Are False, Malicious And Unfounded
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A significant downside to the proceedings at the public hearing on the 'Near Collapse of the Nigerian Capital Market' were the puerile and incoherent falsifications made by Boniface Okezie, a self - styled shareholder activist and known minion and
commissioned agent of a former director general of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE.
In his haste to do his master's bidding, justify his take and malign the target of his proxy warfare, Okezie lied that the SEC Nigeria 'used 150 Policemen to invade the NSE'. Can Okezie supply proof for this absurd and sensationalist claim? At what point during an 'invasion' did he take count of the number of policemen carrying out the 'invasion?'
Can Okezie who perennially collects cash incentive to run around public fora to carry out his master's bidding supply, in the spirit of transparency, information on his shareholding in the capital market and the companies in which the shares are held? How many shares does he have and in which companies?
Okezie is a prime example of the peculiar nuisance value that is causing trauma and frustrating investor confidence in the Nigerian capital market under the guise of shareholder activism. He typifies the regression that is stoking public companies' desire to delist from the capital market. His brand of 'protection of shareholder interest' is purely self - centered, characterized by blackmail and extortion of quoted companies to get them to succumb to parting with gratification. There is rejection of governance and disinclination to undertake the preliminary responsibility of a shareholder which is to custody their investment by ensuring that their investments are properly managed.
At company Annual General Meetings, AGMs cabals, formed around a mesh of porridge, shut out legitimate shareholders from participating in a meaningful examination of the fortunes of a company such that the outcomes of those AGMs are not only predetermined but are travesties which negate truth and violate the popular interest. These are the anomalies which frustrated the emergence of a fair and transparent Nigerian capital market in the past. They are the anomalies which the current leadership of the SEC Nigeria is confronting headlong and on account of which Okezie and his fellow travelers have become squeamish. This confrontation will attain a logical conclusion which will elevate the market to a world class standard; a market with integrity, fairness and transparency; one with a strong enforcement regime in which untoward conduct perpetrated even by insouciant and self styled shareholder activists are severely punished.
His attacks on the person and credentials of the DG of the SEC express his frustration that the dubious privileges he enjoyed in the order of extreme anomaly is fast diminishing and desperation to have them back. It is understandable that a man of his limited education cannot comprehend excellent credentials. His ignorance is crowned by the claim that SEC DGs emerged from 'among the staff' in the past. All minimally informed and knowledgeable people are well aware that no DG of the SEC has ever been appointed from within the ranks of the Commission's staff!
By Ibikunle Ajao