Nigeria: The Lessons From Oteh's Recall

opinion

The decision of the Federal Government to reinstate Ms Arunma Oteh as the Director-General of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), after an investigation by SEC'S external auditors that gave her a clean bill of health, has not only opened up new vistas for sober reflection, but it has also placed a burden of trust on the sincerity of the Jonathan-led administration to fight corruption, irrespective of repeated pretentions in this regard. However, this piece is by no means intended to be a compliment of any sort, neither is it contemplated to denigrate anybody or group, as the case may be. It is at best a critical and candid analysis of events as they relate to the suspension and recall of Ms Oteh and, more importantly, its underlying lessons.

It is no longer news that Ms Oteh slugged it out with the House of Representatives Committee on Capital Market before her eventual suspension, which became inevitable following the vote of no confidence hurled at her by the erstwhile board of Securities and Exchange Commission. Though her suspension was as timely as the circumstances that dictated it, yet it cannot be taken away from her that she fought a courageous "war" in exposing alleged corrupt tendencies among some lawmakers - a war that has made Nigerians to really appreciate that all that glitters is not gold. In fact, willy-nilly, it took the rare courage of Ms Oteh to expose the fact that beneath the seemingly incessant hullabaloo emanating, every now and then, from our lawmakers in the exercise of their oversight function of conducting probes into the activities of government ministries, departments and agencies, lies avaricious quest for cornering public funds by some of them. That Oteh has set the pace in this regard may be an understatement or a precedent too good to be ignored. Surely, it may not be out of place to safely submit that the subsequent Otedola-Lawal saga did not essentially differ from what initially had been set in motion by Oteh-Hembe scandal.

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