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Welcome Ikhazobor, But...
- By Nik Ogbulie
- Published August 16th, 2010
- MoneyWorld
- Unrated
The new helmsman at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Emmanuel Ikazobor is one man nobody wants to envy. The amiable financial analyst may have started a fresh career after his retirement with a job that will keep his soul in panic as long as he is allowed to be. He has to chose between being a hangman or the hanged. NIK OGBULIE reports.
THE scenarios at the capital market are very pathetic. For many who had followed the glitters and the carcass, the situation would not only be pathetic and laughable but unfortunate. This was the sector that commanded the very best of market managers and professionals who saw themselves as colleagues and partners. In fact, the capital and money market key operators and regulators saw themselves as primus inter pares whenever the financial sector stood up to be counted. The reason was that they wanted to act as one in an effort to sustain the confidence reposed in them by their numerous admirers who look up to them as very astute managers. They were like people living in glass house, all. They may have had their differences and dislikes but they were not sold to the others outside their own worlds. They lived like cults, moved like cults and had some peculiarities of thought. In fact, they were super-stars.
Each time I remember the stupidity and timidity that have been the signage at the various outlets of the financial sector, I feel as if a kite has flown from my forehead. There were some managers in the sector that many people have failed to look up to as alter egos in their quest for professional excellence. I remember George Akhamiokor, former DG of SEC in the early and middle 1990s, Apostle Hyford Alile, DG of NSE within the same period, Dr Paul Ogwuma, MD/CEO of Union Bank within the same period and later Governor of the CBN, Mr John Ebhodaghe, Managing Director of NDIC.
The sweet thing about these men is that they moved together so often and would want to stay in their clusters in any outing, apparently because of their peculiar function to government and the people. Akhamiokor and Alile were so close, to the extent that the issue of who was the regulator and the regulated was a non issue. I had the special privilege of riding with them in a special van from Abuja airport to Abuja town during the first ever economic summit in 19991. As a very young financial journalist, I listened to all they said about the market and their challenges and I was meant to understand that they really want to move the stock market forward. By that time, Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke was still at the engine room of the NSE where she was nurturing the tentacles of the Second Tier Securities Market from where she brought innovations to our quotation procedures.
Because Akhamiokor and Alile shared the flaws and the ingenuity of the two bodies, the capital market was quickly put on the pedestal where it grew in lips and bounds. They were partners and hunters who never turned round to hunt themselves. The current difficulties in the stock market were orchestrated by a seeming lack of good relationship within the ranks of the NSE and SEC. The fact that the two leaders were women made the matter worse. Again, because the protagonists at Sec had set up a very antagonistic platform for poor relationship even before Arunma Oteh was appointed there was no deliberate effort for cordiality to reign. The introduction of the National Committee on Capital Market Structures and Processes laid the minefield for stark enmity. The fact that the majority of the members came from the Kings College, Lagos Old Boys softened the nature of solidarity for an emancipation of a total gang-up to subdue the opinions of any opposition. This union or reunion put the NSE under severe checks and illogical antagonism. Unlike George Akhamiokor and Alile, the two leaders at SEC and NSE never came together one day to see themselves as friends. Become Oteh came to SEC with a mind-set, she was waiting for a shout from the street-side to catch a thief. When Aliko Dangote did, she jumped at it and went to a desperate spree that is now the crisis in the market.
I have heard of a naval officer who was also a one time chairman of the rancorous Nigerian Football Association known as Ikhazobor. He was a nice man. I do not know his relationship with Emmanuel who is now the interim administrator. His sojourn at NSE is not receiving any cheers because he is coming to assume the position of somebody who was largely seen as a genius and who had in the last ten years bestrode the African capital market surface like a colossus. The shoes left behind for him are so big. His pedigree in his largely unstable KPMG may not be questionable but obviously not intimidating as Nigerians wanted to know. This is why he must have to buy the wisdom of Solomon in all he needs to do. If he is thinking that the market will give a 100 per cent support to his activities he may be deceiving himself because of the circumstances of his appointment and the anguish his appointees have brought to bear to the teeming investors that are reeling from the fallout of the executive backlash.
You are not on a political saddle but on an economic saddle where the tenets of democracy are totally sacrosanct. You can eat your cake and have it. This is an opportunity for you to get out of whatever impression the Cadbury misadventure may have brought to your reputation. And the only way to do it is to go back to the Akhamiokor and Alile model and give Nigerians the peace of their mind. You can do it if you go to do the right things and refuse those things that would take you back to the Cadbury days. I know you are not a product of Kings College, Lagos. You can do it. This is important as you may not pass this road again.
As the war still rages, I know you have been given a mandate to make sure that your successor is not any of those sharp guys you met there. Their reason is that they want to complete the annexation of the Nigerian economy.
Remember Kings College old boy heads the CBN, another Kings College old boy heads the SEC; and now the Stock Exchange? You must have known that those people that run the market whom you met there are the best in African today. If you want to complete the routing of the capital market you can deny them the posts and prepare the Nunc Dimitis for the Exchange. Ask the operators at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange!
Welcome, my brother!
THE scenarios at the capital market are very pathetic. For many who had followed the glitters and the carcass, the situation would not only be pathetic and laughable but unfortunate. This was the sector that commanded the very best of market managers and professionals who saw themselves as colleagues and partners. In fact, the capital and money market key operators and regulators saw themselves as primus inter pares whenever the financial sector stood up to be counted. The reason was that they wanted to act as one in an effort to sustain the confidence reposed in them by their numerous admirers who look up to them as very astute managers. They were like people living in glass house, all. They may have had their differences and dislikes but they were not sold to the others outside their own worlds. They lived like cults, moved like cults and had some peculiarities of thought. In fact, they were super-stars.
Each time I remember the stupidity and timidity that have been the signage at the various outlets of the financial sector, I feel as if a kite has flown from my forehead. There were some managers in the sector that many people have failed to look up to as alter egos in their quest for professional excellence. I remember George Akhamiokor, former DG of SEC in the early and middle 1990s, Apostle Hyford Alile, DG of NSE within the same period, Dr Paul Ogwuma, MD/CEO of Union Bank within the same period and later Governor of the CBN, Mr John Ebhodaghe, Managing Director of NDIC.
The sweet thing about these men is that they moved together so often and would want to stay in their clusters in any outing, apparently because of their peculiar function to government and the people. Akhamiokor and Alile were so close, to the extent that the issue of who was the regulator and the regulated was a non issue. I had the special privilege of riding with them in a special van from Abuja airport to Abuja town during the first ever economic summit in 19991. As a very young financial journalist, I listened to all they said about the market and their challenges and I was meant to understand that they really want to move the stock market forward. By that time, Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke was still at the engine room of the NSE where she was nurturing the tentacles of the Second Tier Securities Market from where she brought innovations to our quotation procedures.
Because Akhamiokor and Alile shared the flaws and the ingenuity of the two bodies, the capital market was quickly put on the pedestal where it grew in lips and bounds. They were partners and hunters who never turned round to hunt themselves. The current difficulties in the stock market were orchestrated by a seeming lack of good relationship within the ranks of the NSE and SEC. The fact that the two leaders were women made the matter worse. Again, because the protagonists at Sec had set up a very antagonistic platform for poor relationship even before Arunma Oteh was appointed there was no deliberate effort for cordiality to reign. The introduction of the National Committee on Capital Market Structures and Processes laid the minefield for stark enmity. The fact that the majority of the members came from the Kings College, Lagos Old Boys softened the nature of solidarity for an emancipation of a total gang-up to subdue the opinions of any opposition. This union or reunion put the NSE under severe checks and illogical antagonism. Unlike George Akhamiokor and Alile, the two leaders at SEC and NSE never came together one day to see themselves as friends. Become Oteh came to SEC with a mind-set, she was waiting for a shout from the street-side to catch a thief. When Aliko Dangote did, she jumped at it and went to a desperate spree that is now the crisis in the market.
I have heard of a naval officer who was also a one time chairman of the rancorous Nigerian Football Association known as Ikhazobor. He was a nice man. I do not know his relationship with Emmanuel who is now the interim administrator. His sojourn at NSE is not receiving any cheers because he is coming to assume the position of somebody who was largely seen as a genius and who had in the last ten years bestrode the African capital market surface like a colossus. The shoes left behind for him are so big. His pedigree in his largely unstable KPMG may not be questionable but obviously not intimidating as Nigerians wanted to know. This is why he must have to buy the wisdom of Solomon in all he needs to do. If he is thinking that the market will give a 100 per cent support to his activities he may be deceiving himself because of the circumstances of his appointment and the anguish his appointees have brought to bear to the teeming investors that are reeling from the fallout of the executive backlash.
You are not on a political saddle but on an economic saddle where the tenets of democracy are totally sacrosanct. You can eat your cake and have it. This is an opportunity for you to get out of whatever impression the Cadbury misadventure may have brought to your reputation. And the only way to do it is to go back to the Akhamiokor and Alile model and give Nigerians the peace of their mind. You can do it if you go to do the right things and refuse those things that would take you back to the Cadbury days. I know you are not a product of Kings College, Lagos. You can do it. This is important as you may not pass this road again.
As the war still rages, I know you have been given a mandate to make sure that your successor is not any of those sharp guys you met there. Their reason is that they want to complete the annexation of the Nigerian economy.
Remember Kings College old boy heads the CBN, another Kings College old boy heads the SEC; and now the Stock Exchange? You must have known that those people that run the market whom you met there are the best in African today. If you want to complete the routing of the capital market you can deny them the posts and prepare the Nunc Dimitis for the Exchange. Ask the operators at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange!
Welcome, my brother!
