Posted by By EMEKA OKOROANYANWU on
The Action Congress (AC) has asked Professor Ndi Okereke-Onyuike to step down as the director-general of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) to save the organisation from the possible negative impact of what the party described as her growing acts of indiscretion.
The Action Congress (AC) has asked Professor Ndi Okereke-Onyuike to step down as the director-general of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) to save the organisation from the possible negative impact of what the party described as her growing acts of indiscretion.
In a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said Okereke-Onyuike would be acting in the interest of thousands of investors in particular and the country in general, by stepping down from her post at the NSE.
AC catalogued the NSE director-general's perceived series of missteps as including her recent fund raising for the US Democratic Party presidential candidate, Barack Obama; her potentially-conflicting roles as the NSE DG and the Chairperson of Transcorp and her fund raising, under the umbrella of ‘Corporate Nigeria', for the re-election of former President Olusegun Obasanjo during the 2003 elections.
The party said it was also common knowledge that Dr Okereke-Onyuike was a staunch supporter of the failed, unconstitutional third term bid by Obasanjo.
'In saner climes, these series of misadventures are more than enough for any self-respecting person to step aside from any important post, whether public or private, that impacts on the lives of many.
'And if such a person fails to follow the path of honour by quitting, then he or she should be given the boot. The experience of Prof. Okereke-Onyuike's co-traveller on the train of indiscretion, Mr Festus Odimegwu, who was cleverly eased out of his post at the Nigerian Breweries after getting himself bogged down in a political quagmire, is still too fresh to forget,' the party said.
While the party hailed the EFCC for finally zeroing in on the NSE director-general, it said she probably would not have continued to commit one ‘faux pas' after another, if the anti-graft agency had heeded earlier calls by the AC to investigate her, especially over her role as Transcorp's chairman and the NSE director-general.
AC said 'by leveraging her post as the NSE DG to engage in the illegal fund raising for Obama's campaign - which by the way has disowned her, Dr Okereke-Onyuike could eventually make enemies for Nigeria.
'While there is nothing wrong in any Nigerian showing or expressing support for any of the candidates for the US presidential election, it becomes a different ball game when such a person is a public or quasi-public official, whose interest could be misconstrued as an indication of the government's thinking,' it said.