I Never Knew I’d Leave As SEC DG Unannounced ––Yuguda

The immediate past Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Lamido Yuguda, has said that he never knew he was going to leave office unannounced.

Yuguda said this Thursday at the 2024 presidential valedictory session in honour of the 22nd president/chairman of Council, Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, Ken Opara, where he was the chairman on the occasion.

He disclosed that he had made a promise to himself to avoid public events for some time upon his exit from office but he had committed himself to be the chairman of the event days before he was removed from office.

He said, “I had promised myself that anytime I left office, I would take a kind of leave from public events like this, and I never knew I was going to leave unannounced. Just before I left office, Mr. President (CIBN) reached out to me to be the chairman of this occasion, and I said yes. Two days later (laughter), I heard the announcement that I was no longer the DG of SEC.

“I’m getting used to the title now, former DG of SEC. So Mr President called me after hearing the announcement and the next day I called him to get out of doing this in line with my earlier promise and before we started, he said, ‘I look forward to seeing you on the 16th.’ I said, ‘Yes, Mr. President.’ And I’m here in Lagos.”

Yuguda was removed as the SEC DG on Friday, 19 April, hours after he chaired the Capital Market Committee for the first quarter of 2024.

President Bola Tinubu announced his successor and a new Commission board in a statement signed by his Special Adviser (Media & Publicity), Ajuri Ngelale.

The former DG was succeeded by the Managing Director of the Nigerian Capital Market Institute, Emomotimi Agama.

The statement partly read, “The President anticipates that all members of the Board of this critical commission will bring to bear their wealth of experience and competence in advancing the commission’s core mandate of developing and regulating a capital market that is dynamic, fair, transparent, and efficient, to bolster investor confidence and contribute immeasurably to the nation’s economic development.”

The new SEC board is chaired by Mairiga Katuka.

Other members include Frana Chukwuogor, Executive Commissioner (Legal and Enforcement), Bola Ajomale, Executive Commissioner (Operations), Mrs. Samiya Hassan Usman, Executive Commissioner (Corporate Services), Mr. Lekan Belo — Non-Executive Commissioner and the Managing Director of APT Securities and stockbroker, Garba Kurfia, who was appointed a Non-Executive Commissioner.

At the media briefing post-CMC meeting, the immediate past DG of SEC disclosed the commission’s readiness for the fresh banking sector recapitalisation exercise, expressing a preference for a paperless process.

Yuguda was appointed SEC DG in 2020 by former President Muhammadu Buhari.