By Modupe Gbadeyanka
On Friday, President Muhammadu Buhari announced the appointment of 1,467 board chairmen and members of some government agencies and parastatals.
The appointment comprised 209 board chairmen and 1,258 members and they cut across different ministries.
A statement issued by Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr Boss Mustapha, stated that, “President Buhari considered the approval for the constitution of the boards as well as the appointments, very necessary, so as to provide a proper governance and oversight structure for government agencies and parastatals.
“The constitution of the boards, with the appointments, is a demonstration of this government’s efforts aimed at building strong institutions of governance, and by extension, improving the quality of policy formulation and supervision.”
He also said all the appointments take immediate effect.
But from the list of appointments made by the President yesterday, Federal Government was yet to constitute a board for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Last month, in a petition to the President, the Executive Chairman of the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership (CACOL), Mr Debo Adeniran, urged government to urgently constitute a board for the capital market regulator.
Mr Adeniran argued that the non-constitution of the board violates “the extant laws establishing SEC.”
He explained that the board will help to enhance operations of the capital market regulator and ensure no Director General of SEC abuses his office.
“That Your Excellency should take immediate steps to constitute a Board for the Securities and Exchange Commission as provided for in the extant laws establishing the Commission.
“The Investment and Securities Act (ISA) 2007 which gives the Commission its current powers also made a provision for the appointment of a nine (9) member Board to be headed by a Chairman.
“The idea of the Board is to, amongst other things, ensure that no Director-General of the Commission can become a law onto himself or herself and act without appropriate checks by the Board,” Mr Adeniran had stated in the petition.
CACOL made this known in its petition against the suspended Director General of SEC, Mr Mounir Gwarzo, accused of paying a severance package of N104 million to himself after he was appointed for the position in 2015 by former President Goodluck Jonathan.
When the President announced the latest appointments on Friday, he said more would be announced later. It is hoped that the board of SEC would be constituted then.
Aduragbemi Omiyale 
Dipo Olowookere