Internal crises rock SEC, NSE

Ms Oteh

A seething internal crisis is brewing within the capital market regulatory system as  staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) are pitched in a heated camp battle between the line of old and new staff.
Sources in the know of the crises at the two institutions told The Nation that there have been no cohesion and sense of purpose within the SEC and the NSE in recent past over what some members of staff described as alleged attempts to denigrate majority of long-serving members of staff as incompetent with a view to sidelining them in the current management.
Sources at SEC said the obvious disagreements by top management staff of SEC at the public hearing by the House of Representatives’ Committee on Capital Market were reflective of the built-up frustrations by experienced members of staff over the management style of the new Director-General, Ms Arunma Oteh.
Sources at SEC alleged that Oteh was running a ‘management within management’ with a coterie of handpicked consultants and advisers while existing members of management were only sought for concurrence to crucial decisions.
Top management staff had during the public hearing dissociated themselves from several decisions allegedly taken by management and tendered several documents indicating they had raised objections to certain decisions and processes pushed through by the director general.
A middle-level member of staff said the segregation cut across, from the top to the middle and low cadre members of staff.
Besides, there are strong indications that some experienced management staff of the NSE might soon resign over alleged high-handedness and witch-hunting by the new management of the Exchange.
Sources close to the NSE told The Nation that uncertainties over the future of those that rose to the top management level during the tenure of the past director-general of the Exchange, Prof. Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, have continued to generate serious concern.
They alleged that the Oscar Onyema-led management has been frustrating management staff perceived as loyalists of the previous director general. 
They said the exclusion of some management staff from the list of officials of the NSE posted on its new website was a deliberate decision to present new faces as the champions of reforms at the NSE.
NSE sources said a recent appraisal carried out by the NSE for staff performance was being used as a smokescreen but alleged that in actual sense those perceived as loyalists of the Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke regime were the ones allegedly being removed from the management. 
The Nation gathered that although the affected members of staff were not asked to leave directly; rather, there have been undue pressures and it was becoming clear the management and recruitment style of the Onyema-led team were threats to their future careers.
Some of the affected pre-Onyema management staff included four assistant general managers and a principal manager. Already, an assistant general manager had given a notice of retirement, which is due  this month, while another had indicated that he would be leaving by the third quarter. 
A deputy general manager also last week tendered his resignation letter to the management of the Exchange.  
When contacted, Head, Media, NSE, Mr Wole Tokede denied any rift within the management of the NSE.