RCCG, FRN: What you dont know about Jim Obazee

RCCG, FRN: What you dont know about Jim Obazee

Tuesday, January 10, 2017 3:55 pm


Jim Osayade Obazee

Jim Osayade Obazee

On Monday, 9 January 2017, President Muhammadu Buhari approved the immediate removal and the replacement of Jim Obazee, the Executive Secretary and the reconstitution of the board of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRN). Buhari appointed Mr Adedotun Sulaiman, MFR as Chairman and Mr. Daniel Asapokhai as the Executive Secretary of the Council.This was contained in a statement signed by Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President(Media and Publicity) on January 9, 2017.

Obazee made the headlines in the dailies and his story went viral on social media last weekend when, in conformity with the law he waxed, Pastor Enoch Adeboye reliquished his position as the General Oveseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG). However, Adeboye remains the General Overseer, RCCG, Worldwide. He announced Pastor Joseph Obayemi as the new overseer of the church in Nigeria.

What is not clear to many observers is that, according to a pastor in RCCG, Obazee had a personal axe to grind with Adeboye.

Obazee was a zonal pastor at Olivet Zonal Headquarters, Off Olusesi bus stop, Iju Ishaga area of Lagos State. The zone is under Province 25 of RCCG (Gateway Cathedral), Off Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, Ahmadiyah bus stop.

Trouble started when Obazee, as boss of FRN, wanted to introduce church taxation. He was quoted in the media on this: “In keeping other peoples’ money, you have to prepare account. That is why churches fought me so badly, took me to court as a person and then my office too. Mosques and orthodox churches freely complied, but those Pentecostal churches called me to ask questions. They said This church is church of God and we are accountable to God.’ And I told them: ‘Very good, so you must take this church to heaven, you can’t operate it here’. When public funds are involved, government needs to ensure proper accountability.”

“Religious organisations are ordinarily set up as ‘not-for-profit’ and they remain institutions of public character. The challenge, however, is a trend where churches and mosques start dabbling into non-charity ventures like schools, hospitals and so on.

“When you set up a church, your motive is to ensure that people are well focused to go to heaven. Then the money in the church should be targeted at ensuring that people are helped to do that. If you want to set up a school, then it should be free for all your members’ children. If you charge any money, then you are in the same league with other schools outside that are paying taxes to the government.

“If you set up schools, hospitals and the likes under a church, there is a high likelihood that you will be engaging in non-charitable activities within charity. If you are doing that, then what stops Dangote from setting up a mosque and having all his cements, rice and sugar under it? That is actually what some churches and mosques are doing.

Bishop David Oyedepo, General Overseer of Winners’ Chapel, reportedly contacted former President Goodluck Jonathan and Adeboye over it. Specifically, he reportedly told Pastor Adeboye to help call Obazee, one of his pastors, to order.

Adeboye, being the GO and Obazee, one of the lowest in the church’s pecking order (Parish is the lowest after Area, Zone, Province, Region etc), it was easy to summon the pastor in charge of Olivet Zonal Headquarters, Ishaga over the tax issue and other serious matters that Obazee needed to explain. Or so the G.O thought!

Obazee reportedly sent message to Adeboye that he is the one to come and see him (Obazee) in his Abuja office. This sent the jaws of many Redeemed members hanging slack for days!

One thing led to the other and Obazee, according to a source in the church, was suspended from RCCG. In a counter mover, he tendered his resignation. With the advice of one of his junior officers in his Abuja office, Obazee made a beeline for Pastor Tunde Bakare’s Latter Rain Assembly at Akilo road, Ogba, Ikeja, Lagos to become a member. Since then, he drew a line in the sand with Adeboye and, by extension, other General Overseers of the Pentecostal movements in the country.

Other Issues About Obazee, according to The Cable

“Jim Obazee, fired as executive secretary of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRC) on Monday, is a man of controversies. Since his appointment in November 2010, Obazee never showed any discomfort with controversy.

However, the latest controversy he got himself entangled in – enforcement of the code of corporate governance – might have cost him his job.

In 2015, he was re-appointed as the FRC executive secretary for another term of four years, which will have elapsed in 2018.

He has been accused of many things, including sexual harassment and insubordination.

And he had a frosty relationship with Okechukwu Enelamah, minister of industry, trade and investment, who had directed him to suspend the law, but he refused.
ACCUSED OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT BY HIS PA

Obazee was accused of sexual harassment by one Abimbola Yakubu, his personal assistant of three years, in 2013. But he denied the allegation.

In a letter to the board of the FRC, Yakubu alleged that Obazee had repeatedly threatened to sack her if she did not accede to his amorous gestures.

“For the period of years that I worked with him, I have always been closing as late as 10pm and sometimes beyond. I have been very loyal, committed and dedicated to duty. I have never for one day shown any sign of insubordination. Early this year, I noticed the Executive Secretary’s attitude changed towards me,” she wrote.

“I met with him on several occasions, asking him what I have done wrong but he would not say anything rather, he would yell and scream at me saying all manner of unprintable words like: ‘when I am done with you, you will cry’; ‘when I am done with you, you will hang yourself’. So I withdrew and kept to myself. He continued in this attitude towards me, not relating with me and giving my subordinates my job to do (the things I should be doing).

“I close very late at night as a civil servant, not because we really have much work to do, but that’s when he finds it most convenient to talk to me about his love for me. He makes sure everyone has closed and we are left alone in the office to make his demands. I am grateful to God for the kind of husband I married who is very understanding.

“Besides, there is no sexual move or plea he made that I did not tell my husband, from the very beginning of the advances. So, my husband is very much aware of the goings on but, he trusts me. Even when I told the Executive Secretary that my husband is aware of his moves he tells me it is not trust, that there is no man who will allow his wife go through such since all men are jealous. He then warned me sternly not to ever mention goings on the office with my husband.

“We have had to travel around the country together to places like, Calabar, Uyo, Enugu, Ibadan, Ijebu-Ode, Abuja and Minna. These were occasions he would have had his way had God not helped me, if I had not been determined to stand firm and if my husband was not solidly behind me. All of the time when we ought to retire back to our hotel rooms he would call me to either come to his room if we are in the same hotel or he would call to tell me he was coming to my room. Other times when we stay in different hotels, like when we are in Abuja, he would call me sometimes very late at night to tell me he was on his way to my hotel.”

She added that Obazee later transferred her to a corner office in Kaduna, where she would “suffer”, and that he eventually sacked her. Despite the allegations, Obazee was not probed. He strongly denied them, saying he sacked Yakubu because she had a history of poor performance at work.
RECOMMENDED SACK OF SANUSI

The sack of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, in February 2014, is perhaps, one of the most controversial actions of the FRC under Obazee.

Prior to his sack, Sanusi had made weighty allegations against the government of former President Goodluck Jonathan.

He had alleged that billions of dollars accruable to the federation were being diverted by some persons in the management of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

And in the heat of the storm which followed his allegations, Jonathan relying on a recommendation of the FRC, which accused Sanusi of financial recklessness, sacked him.

After his sack, the FRC began to probe Sanusi, but he shunned several invitations of the council.

He later sued the council for defamation of character.
SUSPENDED PETERSIDE

In October 2015, the FRC under Obazee suspended Atedo Peterside as the chairman of Stanbic IBTC.

The council cited infractions in the 2013-14 financial statements of the bank as the reason for its decision.

It directed the bank to restate and to re-issue its 2013-14 financial statements. It also imposed a fine of N1bn on the bank.

Besides Peterside, Sola David-Borha, group managing director, Stanbic’s chief finance officer and the audit committee chairman were also suspended.

But in December 2016, the FRC lifted the suspension on the management of the bank.
FORCED ADEBOYE TO STEP DOWN

Late 2016, the FRC directed not-for-profit organisations — including churches and mosques — to comply with a corporate governance code stipulating a term of 20 years for heads of such entities.

It was by this provision that Enoch Adeboye, who had spent over 20 years as the general overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), named Joshua Obayemi to head the Nigeria church although he emphasised that he remained the worldwide overseer of the church.

But two days after Adeboye stepped down, and in the heat of a caustic controversy, Buhari fired Obazee and approved the reconstitution of the board.

In a statement afterwards, Constance Ikokwu, media aide of Enelamah, said the law had also been suspended in order to review it.

“The Corporate Governance Code issued by the Financial Reporting Council of Nigerian has been suspended pending a detailed review, extensive consultation with stakeholders and reconstitution of the board of the FRC,” she said.

Obazee has a bachelor of science degree in accounting from the University of Benin; a master of science degree in accounting from the University of Lagos, and a certification in strategic financial analysis for business evaluation from Harvard University, USA.

He is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), and a member of the Nigeria Institute of Management (NIM) and the American Accounting Association (AAA).”


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2 Comments

  • jojo_method says:

    When the news they are carrying is fake why won’t they make such a mistake. A newly appointed G.O whose name is everywhere they are writing something els. Just imagine. Smh

  • Awolesi Idowu David says:

    Joseph obayemi and not Joshua

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