The House of
Representatives has ordered a “detailed” public hearing on the activities of
Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN), particularly the Council’s
decision
to fix the tenure of the leadership of religious organisations.
The House
passed the resolution on Wednesday in Abuja at a session which was presided
over by the Speaker, Mr. Yakubu Dogara. It came after members debated and
endorsed a motion moved by the Minority Leader of the House, Mr. Leo Ogor.
Lawmakers also
clarified that no agency of the Federal Government was empowered by any law
passed by the National Assembly to determine how many years a religious leader
should serve in office.
They noted
that the FRC Act 2011 did not make provision for the tenure of office of
religious bodies or non-profit organisations.
While leading
the debate, Hon. Ogor said he was amazed where the FRCN got its powers.
He added that
while the agency might have delegated legislative powers, being a product of
the National Assembly, any legislation or code it formulated should have been
mandatorily approved by the same National Assembly before it could be applied.
In the extant
case of the controversial Good Governance Code formulated by the FRCN for
non-profit organisations, the lawmaker stated that the National Assembly had no
knowledge of it.
The motion
stated, “The House is concerned that the Governance Code, formulated by the
Council, as it relates to heads of non-profit making organisations, is a clear
usurpation of the powers of the National Assembly as stipulated in Section 4 of
the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999.
“Also
concerned that the National Assembly has not, in any way, approved the
corporate governance code as it did with the Building Code.
“The House is
convinced that codes of corporate governance must be in conformity with
international best practices.
“Worried that
an overzealous chief executive officer of a regulatory body can misinterpret or
misapply the provisions of the code as can be clearly seen in the case of the
FRCN.”
In performing
its duties, Ogor pointed out that the FRCN was to restrict itself to
accountability, transparency and probity in pursuing corporate governance
principles in public and private organisations.
“No law,
enacted by the National Assembly, empowers any agency to set the tenure of
office for heads of non-profit organisations,” he added.
The Chairman,
House Committee on Ethics/Privileges, Mr. Nicholas Ossai, took the same
position as Ogor.
He told the
House that though the FRCN was empowered to function, the issue of fixing how
long a religious leader should be in office was off its bounds.
Ossai added,
“This is because we are talking about the things of God here. The tenure of
religious leaders is determined by God, not man.
“Besides,
delegated legislation like the FRCN code should have been forwarded to the
National Assembly for approval. The code in question was never forwarded to the
National Assembly.”
Two other
members, Mr. Istifanus Gyang, and Mr. Sunday Karimi, berated the former
leadership of the FRCN for its actions in implementing the controversial code.
On his part, a
former Deputy Minority Whip, Mr. Garba Mohammed-Dhatti, called for rigorous
monitoring of the activities of agencies to prevent them from abusing their
delegated powers.
“Overzealous
heads of agencies can abuse delegated powers. They have to be properly
monitored to save us from embarrassment.”
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