The House of Representatives has suspended the Corporate Governance Code of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN) pending the outcome of a public hearing after debate at its plenary session of Wednesday, January 11th 2017. Leading the debate on the motion titled “Urgent Need to Stem the Controversy within the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN)” Hon. Leo Ogor (PDP: Delta) explained that the FRCN Act 2011, was created by the National Assembly with an objective to protect investors and other stakeholders interest as well asensuring good corporate governance practices in public and private sectors of the Nigerian economy.
Citing Section 73 of the FRCN Act which grants the Council powers to make regulations which must be in consonance with the Act, Hon. Ogor expressed concerns that the Governance Code formulated by the Council for non-profit making organization usurped the powers of the National Assembly granted in Section 4 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended). He also noted that the National Assembly did not way approve the Corporate Governance Code.
Following this, the House therefore agreed to
- Mandate the Committee on Delegated Legislation to carry out a public hearing on the activities of the FRCN and
- Suspend the Corporate Governance Code pending the outcome of a public hearing.
The Committee is expected to report back its findings to the House within four (4) weeks for further legislative action.
In the meantime, the Federal Government has already suspended the Corporate Governance Code which took effect since 17th October 2016 and sacked the Executive Secretary of the FRCN, Mr. Jim Obazee following a public uproar after the resignation of the popular leading Pentecostal General Overseer in Nigeria due to the controversial 20 year tenure that the Code sets for Not for profits Entities. The Federal Government has promised to exhaustively review and consult with stakeholders during the period of the Code’s suspension.
