The controversies trailing the appointment of the new Board of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), especially its chairman, may have been put to rest by lawyers who posited that the appointments are valid and constitutional.
Recall Buhari appointed the new NDIC board headed by a former Lagos Lawmaker and commissioner, AbdulHakeem Abdullateef on January 9, 2023, and sent their names to the Senate on the 22nd of March.
The six board members are Professor Osita Ogbu to represent South East, Umar Gambo Jibrin (North Central), Mohammed Attahiru Haruna (North East), Yasmine Zaabatt Amin Dalhatu (North West), Simon Ogie (South-South) and Abimbola Olashore (South West).
Upon the confirmation of their appointments by the lawmakers on May 9, they were inaugurated on May 25 by the then Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed
However, a day after their Swearing-in, Buhari assented to a bill tagged the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation Bill, 2023: an act of the National Assembly that rescinds the NDIC Act No.16 of 2006 and enact NDIC Act of 2023 following its passage by the national assembly.
The law provides as follows: “The governing body of the Corporation shall be a Board of Directors (in this Act referred to as “the Board”). (2) The Board shall consist of—(a) the Chairman who shall be the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry responsible for finance; (b) the Managing Director; (c) two Executive Directors; (d) one representative of the Central Bank of Nigeria who shall be the Director of Banking Supervision; and (e) the Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission.”
It was no surprise that after Buhari’s exit from office, some stakeholders are calling on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, to reverse the appointment, describing it as illegal.
The critics based their argument on the fact that Buhari himself signed an amendment to the NDIC establishment law which repealed and rendered the appointment unlawful.
According to a stakeholder in the banking industry who gave their name as Charles, the amendment to the bill has made any move carried out in alignment with NDIC Act No.16 of 2006 invalid such as the latest appointment.
His words: “If you are abreast of the trajectory of the appointments you will understand that their nominations were made in line with the provisions of the NDIC Act, 2006; which the president subsequently repealed and reenacted the new NDIC Act, 2023 on the 26th of May, 2023. The adjustment to the bill has raised many questions about the legality of their inauguration because as it is now their appointments are invalid.”
“I do not understand why the President could not ensure that their appointment aligned with the amendment since he was the one that delayed the passage. As it is now, the composition of the board is not in tandem with the new NDIC act. It’s now left for the new president to correct the wrong,” said a financial exporter Akeem Ojodu.
However, lawyers have expressed their views that laws, when adjusted, do not always have retroactive effect and so was the case of the new NDIC Act, 2023.
Ruhamah Adams explained that: “The newly amended Act can only take effect in the future noting that the nomination and inauguration of the current board was done with regards to the act in use then. Also, their nomination is in accordance with section 6 (1) (c) of the Interpretation Act which provides that the repeal of an enactment shall not “affect any right, privilege, obligation or liability accrued or incurred under the enactment.”
Another legal luminary in Lagos, Rasheed Olayiwola who spoke with Theliberationnews defended the appointments saying: “As you can see, the development on the bill came after the appointments have been ratified so it doesn’t affect it. The formation of the new board is legal and constitutional.”
Also, a lawyer, Sogo Oyewole faulted one of the components of the law arguing that the permanent secretary of the supervisory ministry can not be the chairman of the board as he likened it to a case of being a judge in one’s own cause.
As observed by Theliberationnews, the second schedule of the amendment law signed by Buhari and gazetted, only the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance can be the chair of the governing board of NDIC
In the words of Sogo Oyewole, “Their appointments is valid if there is anything we should worry about is the fact that the new act restricts the chairmanship of the board to the permanent secretary of the federal ministry of finance. That’s absurd and unreasonable to me. The permanent secretary should be appointed to perform oversight function to the corporation and not chair it. Aside that, this is democracy, the law cannot take a retroactive cause, the new board had been sworn-in before Buhari appended his signature to the new act. Questions about the legality of their appointment is irrational.”
