Industry sources said the contentious sections of the bill, which had earlier pitched the Nigerian Economic Summit Group against the leadership of the Central Bank of Nigeria , were extremely worrisome. A top banker told The Guardian “those issues were as worrisome to directors of banks as they were when NESG raised the alarm on them.”
The position of the organisation on the bill, which was meant to repeal the 29-year-old law on banking regulation, placed it against the leadership of the apex bank, resulting in an implosion as three bank chiefs resigned their directorship of the economic think-tank in solidarity with the regulator.
An industry source said it was most unfortunate the President went ahead to “endorse illegality, despite the uproar it generated”, adding that it would send a terrible signal to the international investment company about Nigeria. The source said there could be dumping of bank shares in the coming months as “any bank can lose its license on the slightest excuse without the chance of regaining it.
Owoh, a professor of Applied Economics , said the new BOFIA flies in the face of the country’s aspiration for increased corporate governance practice and the Company and Allied Matters Act while wrongly ascribing infallibility to managers of the regulatory body. The Act is not only generous to the governor, the newly created special tribunal, which some stakeholders have described as overkill, also enjoys similar largesse. A clause in the version seen by The Guardian says: “the President of the tribunal, members of the tribunal or any person acting judicially shall not be liable to be sued in any court for any act done or ordered to be done by him in the discharge of his judicial duty whether or not within the limits of the tribunal’s jurisdiction.
Observing that the law is ousting the jurisdiction of the court, the lawyer expressed worry about the wrong signal the Act would send to the investment market, saying it would drag the country back to the military era.
isiaims