By Innocent Anaba

Prof. Fabian Ajogwu, SAN, has called for a sustainable healthy business environment for corporate governance to thrive in the country.

*From left: Funmi Ekundayo (MD/CEO, Skye Trustees); Prof. Gbolahan, SAN(Book Reviewer); Mr Tunde Irukera (DG, Consumer Protection Council); Prof Pat Utomi, Chairman of the event, Mr Uche Val Obi, SAN (the author and MP, Alliance Law Firm); Emmanuella Obi; Justice Ejembi Eko (JSC) representing the Chief Justice of Nigeria; Dotun Sulaiman (Chairman, Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria); Prof. Fabian Ajogwu SAN; and Oluwatoyin Sani (MD of United Capital).

He also said that a set of principles should be identified, scrupulously implemented and practised.

Ajogwu at the maiden edition of Alliance Law Firm Lecture Law Series and book presentation with the theme: Contemporary Corporate Governance Issues in Nigeria, said  corporate organisations should uphold their fiduciary duties in  corporate governance in a bid to foster healthy business environment in the country.

Acording to the Professor of Law: “When you talk of corporate governance, I always like to approach this topic by giving illustration of two things,  ownership and duty.  First in my definition, I will like to see ownership as typified by the right to destroy a thing; anything you can lawfully destroy belongs to you.

“So, if I burn my jacket, there is nothing you can do about it because it is lawfully mine. However, if I engage some of you in this room to dry clean and iron that jacket or do anything in relation to it, then the first thing I lose is the right to destroy that suit without consulting the owner.

“This is what happens when you are in a private placement and then go into public placement, you cease to be the owner of that public entity, and at best, you can only become a fractionalised owner of its shares,” Ajogwu said.

Ajogwu said the scenarios clearly depict the idea of corporate governance in Nigeria, adding that since most entrepreneurs were unable to deal with this reality, it had interfered largely with their fiduciary duties which forms the thrust of the scheme.

Also speaking, Mr Dotun Sulaimo,  Chairman, Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria, FRCN, disclosed that the council was working on ways to regulate the corporate governance scheme, adding: “We are already working on a code which will regulate corporate governance, but they are not meant to replace existing regulatory laws.

“It is going to be a principle-based friendly code which will first be in a draft and we will continue to have public discourse and eventually become fully public in due course.” The code, Sulaimo said, would create 28 corporate governance principles with about 200 recommended practices which would give effect to the principles.

The high-point of the event was the unveiling and launch of a book entitled: Class Action in Nigeria, written by the host of the conference, Mr Uche Val Obi, SAN.

Dignitaries at the event include a Supreme Court judge, Justice Ejembi Eko, who represented the Chief Justice of the Federation, Justice Walter Onnoghen and the Director, Lagos Business School, Prof. Pat Utomi and senior members of the Bar.