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Corporate Governance: Ajogwu Calls for Healthy Business Environment in Nigeria

Source: African Prime News, 31.05.2018

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Prof. Fabian Ajogwu, on Thursday, May 30, 2018, in Lagos called for a sustainable healthy business environment for corporate governance to thrive in the country. To this end, he said a set of principles should be identified, scrupulously implemented and practised. Ajogwu spoke at the maiden edition of Alliance Law Lecture Series and book presentation with the theme, “Contemporary Corporate Governance Issues in Nigeria”. He said corporate organisations should uphold their fiduciary duties in a corporate governance in a bid to foster healthy business environment in the country.

According to Professor Ajogwu, corporate governance imposes a serious responsibility on an individual by an entity to act on its behalf with utmost trust and faith. “When you talk of corporate governance, I always like to approach this topic by giving illustration of two things — ownership and duty. “First in my definition, I will like to see ownership as typified by the right to destroy a thing; anything you can lawfully destroy belongs to you. So, if I burn my jacket, there is nothing you can do about it because it is lawfully mine. However, if I engage some of you in this room to dry clean and iron that jacket or do anything in relation to it, then the first thing I lose is the right to destroy that suit without first consulting the owners. This is what happens when you make a private placementor do a public offering. You cease to be the owner of that public entity, and at best, you can only become a fractionalised owner of its shares,” Ajogwu said.

Professor Ajogwu stressed: “Whenever you find an individual or entity which is incapable of a function, such individual or entity is largely dependent on a set of people or officers called directors who ensure success in their duties. The dependency ratio in corporate governance brings about the fiduciary duty which includes honesty and accountability as basic ethics.”

Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN), disclosed that the Council was working on ways to regulate the corporate governance scheme.