By Nkiruka Nnorom

SIR Sunny Nwosu, former National Coordinator, Independent Shareholders Association of Nigeria, ISAN

As against the previous structure where you have about 25 or 29 civil servants there, more of private sector operators should be in the Board of FRC, including shareholders because when there is a default, it is the shareholders money that is being used.

The civil servants are not private sector; they are public sector. They live on budgeting. Whatever is the allocation given to them, that is what they use from tax payers whereas the private sector bakes the cake through taxation and every other thing.

The new chairman should quickly bring people together that were not happy with the muddling and muscling of FRC; let us sit down and talk and find way to agree on the status and credibility of Financial Reporting Council. If you take an opinion poll, you find more than 70 per cent of Nigerians that will kick against FRC. That on is own is a problem for an institution like the FRC. So, they need to sit down and take opinion of people.

AMB. Olufemi Timothy, President, Renaissance Shareholders’ Association

The new executive secretary should learn from the mistake of Jim Obazee that being the head of Financial Reporting Council, does not turn you into a super regulator; that is the lesson and we will continue to hammer this to the new Board of FRC that they are not regulators. They are just to switch Nigeria accounting standard to the new one, which is International Financial Reporting Standard, IFRS.

That is just the point. So, going forward, the new FRC man should ensure that Nigeria fully complies with international financial reporting standard.

That is the basic function and they should not exceed that. They have no business giving us a code of conduct.

SHEHU Mallam Mikali, National President, Constance Shareholders Association of Nigeria

The new Board should listen more and they should concentrate on setting accounting standards, not regulating. They should not interfere in any corporate governance issues, but rather, they should concentrate in ensuring that audits of private and public entities comply with set rules.

They should also ensure that auditing firms attached to corporate bodies are accountable and transparent. The new Board should ensure that management of companies do not interfere in the job of the auditors. So, basically, they should concentrate on accounting standard and leave issues relating to governance to agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC and other regulators.

Setting accounting standard is their job, that is all. Transparency is what most important in reporting accounts and that is what they should beam their searchlight.

Besides, they should beam their searchlight on government agencies, not just on private sector; they should make sure that there is transparency in presentation of statement of accounts and reports of all these government agencies.

President, Association of Avid Shareholders, AAS.

Except for the excesses of Jim Obazee, there is nothing wrong with those policy formulations, but his style was wrong. You don’t single-handedly do things. So, I expect the new chairman that is appointed to take a critical look at the entire policy of FRC and then implement it because to a large extent, the policy that the previous chairman actually formulated, there is nothing wrong with it.

As a matter of fact, it will make everybody sit up whether you are in public or private sector or you are a church. It will make them sit up. Nigerians have a way of politicizing things; and for as long as we continue to politicize things, we cannot go far.

Moreover, I will expect them to implement to the letter the dictate and scrutinize the management of our corporate organizations. It will bring about quality, openness.

They should execute the new code to the letter.