The Obazee Code

HomeTruths By Adeola Akinremi, Email: adeola.akinremi@thisdaylive.com

Our prayers are with Obazee. That is the best place to start this conversation with Nigerians today. Yes, he did not lose mother, father, wife or a child during this contentious week that politics mixed with religion in Nigeria, but he lost a livelihood. So it is natural to extend condolences.

Thirteen years ago, the world woke up to a controversy created by a code. With film and a book, Dan Brown, the author of The Da Vinci Code nearly rocked the foundation of faith of Christians everywhere. Classic controversy.

This January, the ex- Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRC) chief, whose adroit tactics failed in the face of religion, Jim Obazee, implemented his own code that pitted spiritual authority against political authority in Nigeria. Epic controversy.

Believe me: everything that has code is suspect, and as usual comes with controversy. Think of Code of Conduct Bureau, dress code, and The Dan Vinci Code

I wouldn’t recommend Obazee’s tactics to anyone serving in a government, where politics is mixed with religion, but I will recommend his gut and courage.

In case you’re wondering: Obazee touched the most sensitive part of Nigeria as a country with the implementation of the code and the responses showed the sentiment we have to religion as a nation.
I have always said it that general overseers and Islamic leaders have cult-following that continues to make them a deity of sort.

You can find the details in the churches and Islamic societies like Ahmadiya, Ansarudeen, and NASFAT and in the caliphates.

Symptomatically, most of the comments I have seen on The Obazee Code make it look like the code is an issue only with the Redeemed Christian Church of God or just the Christian faith or that Obazee is another anti-Christ.
Really, Obazee as the harbinger of the code made it easy for himself to be targeted in the aftermath of the controversy that eventually consumed him and his job. I felt pity for him.

In November 2012, Obazee had called out the RCCG leadership in Nigeria on tax and tenure.
At the annual conference of the Finance Correspondents Association of Nigeria (FICAN), Obazee delicately said: “We want to release our Statement of Accounting Standards (SAS) 32 because we want churches and charities to begin to present accounts. They just file returns to the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and so long as they pay the N1000, they are home and dry. But we are saying that they must report their financial transactions in proper format.

“Also, once charity organisations engage in non-charity activities, they would have to submit those goods for taxable purposes. A country is not run by oil, but by tax. Go to the Internet and you see all the branches of the Redeemed Christian Church in United Kingdom, you will see their accounts and over there, they fully disclose the amount collected as a church. But in our own, people are asking me: “Jim, do you want God to render account.”

That speech may be why Obazee, whom I met a few years ago as a minister in one of the RCCG parishes, precisely, the Victory Center, on Iju Road, Agege, is now deemed to be working against the church.

But why the unnecessary ruckus about this code, when the code clearly says, “in the case of religious or cultural organisations, nothing in this code is intended to change the spiritual leadership and responsibilities of Founders, General Overseers, Pastors, Imams and Muslim Clerics, Presidents, Bishops, Apostles, Prophets, etc. which are distinguishable from purely corporate governance and management responsibilities and accountabilities of the entities.”
The code even allows founders or leaders of faith to have lifetime spiritual role in section 9.4(c).

I’m very open to religious organisations submitting their balance sheet annually, have no exemption from tax, if doing profit-making business in addition to charity, and a leader not holding more than one governance position of general overseer or Imam, because accountability is the very foundation of Christianity and Islam.

Yes, before The Obazee Code, accountability and transparency codes have been written in the bible and to be a Christian you must submit to this will of God.
So I’m unenthusiastic about a church or mosque without structure, where general overseer is the treasurer and the secretary.

On the president side, people have questioned the decision of President Muhammadu Buhari in terminating the appointment of Obazee, but if you calculate the cost for Buhari, it will be better to do away with Obazee than entering the inferno of religion that may cost him/his party the 2019 election.

But the persons Buhari should sack are still in his government running anti-corruption agency and having access to classified information as secretary to the government. They did more damage to his government than The Obazee Code.
All things being equal, I’m not very sure how Obazee would have succeeded in a government populated by religious leaders, including his own minister at the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Okechukwu Enelamah, the counsel of whom he ignored.

The Obazee Code cannot be said to be perfect really, because going after the civil society groups is something Nigerians must be vigilant about.
To be sure, the story of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) is a good signal to how quick government interference of any form can destroy anything.

Now, there are rumours from the usual suspects that Buhari wants to Islamise Nigeria and that is why he pushed Obazee out and brought in a “Muslim” to head FRC. Please perish the thought.

The new man at the FRC, Adedotun Sulaiman, should not be categorised based on his name.
The only thing I have found is that he’s a thoroughbred professional who mentored Enelamah himself and the duo have actually walked the earth hand-in-hand for at least two decades.

In a testimony while sharing his upward trajectory in his career with cdnet, Enelamah paid tribute to three people. The new helmsman at FRC is one of them. “I got the basic training and foundation necessary for a successful business career from Dick Kramer and Arthur Andersen. Dotun Sulaiman also played an important role in my career development. In particular, he counseled me to qualify as a Chartered Accountant, and this provided a very valuable foundation for my business career.”

For now, it’s goodbye to Jim Obazee and The Obazee Code. Comic.
Follow me on Twitter: @adeola.akinremi1