Jim Obazee, Executive Secretary, Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria

Much has been said about the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria’s report with which the Federal Government took Sanusi Lamido Sanusi to the cleaners but not much has been said about the man who authored and gave the go ahead for his suspension, prosecution and perhaps, humiliation.

Jim Osayande Obazee is the Executive Secretary/Chief Executive Officer of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRN). In that capacity, he oversees the setting, monitoring and enforcement of financial reporting standards and Corporate Governance practices in both Public and Private Sectors of the Nigerian economy. He is also responsible for harmonizing the activities of relevant professional and regulatory bodies in Nigeria.

Authoritative source confirms that while Obazee was trying to get the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN) Bill on May 18, 2011 passed by the National Assembly, he got support and encouragement from Sanusi who argued that such a law would help to attract foreign direct investment into Nigeria. With the passage of the bill, Sanusi was elated believing that the era of shady deals in Nigerian financial sector was over, not knowing that what he pushed to see that the National Assembly pass would turn out to be his undoing.

With a job ‘neatly done’ by Jim for the Presidency in that he came with the FRC report that nailed the suspended Governor of Central Bank, Sanusi, Jim is now vested with powers to do and undo at CBN (in fact, it is believed that he is the one running the shows at CBN since the “temporary” exit of Sanusi). Segun Adeniyi alludes to this in his weekly column, The Verdict by Segun Adeniyi of March 27, 2014, titled One Central Bank, Four Governors. Segun said: “…the Executive Secretary of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN) is the man who has been calling all the shots at the CBN in recent weeks.”

To those who know, Jim Obazee is not strange to controversy. He, it was, whom one Mrs Abimbola Patricia Yakubu, his former Personal Assistant, accused of sexual harassment, intimidation and official handedness. Mrs. Yakubu claimed Jim saw to her posting from their Lagos office posted in controversial circumstances to Kaduna where the council maintains a liaison desk at the Corporate Affairs Commission. The affair got so messy that The Public Interest Lawyers League (PILL) waded in and made calls on Segun Aganga, Minister of Trade and Investment, to probe the grave allegations Mrs. Yakubu had made in her letter to the chairman of the governing board of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria, Hajia Mariam Ladi Ibrahim, and PILL. The outcome of those calls is yet to find its way to the public, if the minister really made efforts to investigate the allegations at all.

Jim Obazee parades sterling professional-cum – academic records He was the Chairman of the Committee on Roadmap to the Adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards in Nigeria and currently establishing a national Code of Corporate Governance for Nigeria.

He has served on various Standards Setting and Technical Committees set up to develop accounting standards aimed at improving financial reporting in the various sectors of the Nigerian economy. In his role as accounting standard setter, he has been on attachment to the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), USA, Accounting Standards Board, Canada and at other times, on working visit to the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and Accounting Standards Board, United Kingdom. Prior to joining the defunct Nigerian Accounting Standards Board, Mr. Obazee worked as a Lecturer of Accounting at the University of Benin from 1990 to 1993. He has served in many capacities including: External examiner to the department of Accounting, University of Benin; member of the Members’ Education Committee of the Institute of Chartered  Accountants of Nigeria; Member of the Steering Committee on Small and Medium –Sized Entities Guidelines on Accounting (SMEGA) – Level 3 of the United Nations Conference on Trade And Development (UNCTAD), Chairman, National Committee on the Roadmap to the Adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards In Nigeria; etc.

Mr. Obazee holds 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 and a professional member of the Nigerian Institute of Management and the American Accounting Association (AAA). He has so many written works, some of which have been published locally and internationally.

Jim Obazee is married to Elizabeth and blessed with two children: Bethlehem and Naioth.

Additional reports from http://www.financialreportingcouncil.gov.ng/