₦airaland Forum

Dave14rc:
8

The Chairman of DAAR Communications Plc, owners of AIT, Raypower and Faaji FM, Raymond Dokpesi (Jnr), has offered explanations on why he had to ease 10 Directors, including Dr. Oluwatosin Dokpesi, the wife of his late father, Dr. Raymond Dokpesi, out of the company.

Dokpesi offered the explanation in an interview with Daily Sun on Wednesday, days after the sack was confirmed by the firm.

He said: “I think the first thing to recognise is that it is not a personal decision to ask anyone to go.

“If I had it left to me and to myself, I would definitely want to harness the experiences, the relationships and the skills that the existing management has for a little bit longer.

“But the reality of the matter is that we are a publicly listed company.

“We are the only publicly listed media company on the Nigerian Stock Exchange and that means we are also bound by the Securities and Exchange Commission rules and the code of corporate governance is mandatory for all publicly listed companies.

“So, that means our responsibilities to our shareholders transcend personal choices or personal opinions.

“We have persons who are leaving the organisation after 27 years; we have people who are leaving after 22 years.

“The vast majority of this time, they have spent in executive management positions and yet, the code of corporate governance and our internal documents state we should only do a maximum of two terms of five years.

“So, their retirement is, in fact, long overdue.

“It was a decision which ought to have been made, even as far back as five, six, seven years ago.

“But as of that time, my dad was still alive, very present and very active and also, we were going through different political turbulence as far as our organisation is concerned.

“Nobody needs to be reminded of the history of the former President Muhammadu Buhari administration with reference to the treatment of AIT and our founder in particular.

“Notwithstanding, whatever you want to say about the incumbent administration, I think, to some large extent, they have shown their capacity for accommodation of all shades of opinions from public broadcasters.

“We don’t feel the heat and the intimidation of governments as we did a couple of years ago and the time is opportune and right as well for us to review where exactly we want to go, going forward from here.

“For me, and I think also for the vast majority of members of our board, the decision comes down to simply determining: Do we want to continue on our existing trajectory or do we want to do something differently?

“And if we are looking at doing something differently, it means we have to subject ourselves to abide by the terms and conditions of extant laws and regulations to give the investing public confidence into our organisation and the administration and also to be able to attract the kinds of funds and investments we need to grow and expand beyond our existing programmes.”

DAAR Communications PLC announced the retirement of members of its Executive Management with effect from October 31, 2024 in compliance with Code of Corporate Governance as well as Company’s Internal Control Policies and Procedures Manual.

A statement signed by the Company Secretary, Miji Jonah, said the affected officials have spent over 10 years in such capacity.

Those affected were Senior High Chief Tony Akiotu, Dr. Oluwatosin Dokpesi, Dr. Ambrose Somide, Anthony Uyah, Paulyn Ugbodaga, Mary Lawrence-Dokpesi, Faith Ikems, Imoni Amarere, John Iwarue and Johnson Onime.

The Board of DAAR Communications PLC expressed gratitude to all the retiring Executive Board members for their invaluable contributions to the company during their tenure and wished them the very best in their future endeavours.

The statement added that the media conglomerate is working on major restructuring of its leadership and once this is concluded, the Nigerian Exchange Limited and other regulatory authorities, its shareholders and the general public would be notified.

bamsie:
interesting

Senator Abubakar Bagudu, the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, has stated that the recent nationwide #EndBadGovernance protests compelled the federal government to heed Nigerians’ demands.

Speaking at the ‘’Nigerian Economic Summit Group National Economic Dialogue on Nigeria’s Economic Future: 25 Years of Democracy and Beyond,” Bagudu attributed the country’s current issues to previous administrations but noted President Bola Tinubu’s refusal to assign blame.

The minister spoke at the ‘’Nigeria
Economic Summit Group National Economic Dialogue on Nigeria’s Economic Future: 25 Years of Democracy and Beyond.’’

While noting that efforts were in progress to improve the country’s fortunes, Bagudu said:

“We have learnt that even the current protests have made us listen more. Whatever we are doing, we have taken the message that we need to do more, we need to do better, and we need to do it in a hurry.”

Speaking further, the minister said: “President Bola Tinubu has been very reluctant to reflect on the past and blame anybody, but the net effect is that despite efforts by previous administrations, especially in the last 25 years, we are not where we want to be.

“So, what do we do? It’s not because of anyone’s failing, but that is our reality. We have yet to achieve the income per capita that we require, and it’s not for lack of trying; it’s not for lack of successes. With the transformation in the telecommunication sector, at some point, we even reversed our gross domestic product, GDP.

‘’Our population has grown from 119 million in 1999 to about 230 million, almost double. Still, our oil production, for example, 2.2 million barrels in 1999, is now rather than 4 million, according to the doubling of our population, which is still under 1.5 million, reflecting cumulative years of under-investment in the sector.

“So, our reality is that we are not where we want to be, and our constitution needs to be more transparent about what we should do. Chapter 2 of our Constitution, the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy, clearly discusses the country’s political objectives. It is also very clear about the economic objectives—what kind of economy we want to run.

“Chapter two of the Constitution spells out citizens’ duties. The chapter opens by saying that all persons in authority, legislative, executive, and judicial, at all levels of government, have the primary mandate to ensure the achievement of those fundamental objectives in Chapter 2.

“So, the constitution—maybe we can interrogate it and make it better—provides a starting point. Agenda 2050 reflects those objectives. We want a nation that includes all. We want a higher per capita by the year 2050. We want to ensure that we invest not less than $100 billion annually.

‘’But if our experience in the last 25 years should serve us as a guide, we sometimes know how difficult it is because you have to make choices that are both pleasant and unpleasant to be able to mobilise capital, private and borrowed, to support our aspiration.”