…Says decision statutory, not personal
The Management Board of DAAR Communications Plc, owners of Africa Independent Television (AIT), Raypower F.M, Faaji F.M, has cleared the air on the recent retirement of ten members of its Executive Management team.
The media conglomerate had raised speculations about its retirement policy earlier in the week when it announced the retirement of 10 principal staff who have spent over 10 years in Executive Management positions.
But in a recent interview, Chairman of DAAR Communications Plc, Raymond Dokpesi Jnr., explained that the retirement of the affected members was in compliance with the Code of Corporate Governance as well as the Company’s Internal Control Policies and Procedures Manual.
He noted that DAAR Communications Plc was the only public Limited media company listed on the Nigerian Exchange Limited, NGX, and as such, is bound by statutory regulations which guide the formation of its leadership and tenure of executive members.
When asked if the Management was looking to recruit younger staff into executive management positions, Dokpesi Jnr. had this to say;
“I think the first thing to recognize is that it is not a personal decision to ask anyone to go. Left to me, I will definitely want to harness the experiences, the relationships and the skill set that are existing in management for a little bit longer. But the reality of the matter is that we’re a public registered company, we’re the only public registered media company on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, and that means that we’re also bound by a security and exchange commission rules, and the code of corporate governance is mandatory for all publicly listed companies; and so, that means that our responsibilities to our shareholders transcends personal choices or personal opinions.
“It is true that when you look at the tenures of the existing members of management, many of them had started at some point of management since the very inception of the organization. We have persons who are leaving the organization after 27years, we have people leaving after 22years; the vast majority of this time, they have spent in executive management positions and yet the code of corporate governance and our internal documents state that we should only do a maximum of two terms of 5 years; so, their retirements is in fact long over due. It was a decision which ought to have been made even as far back as 5, 6, or 7 years ago…
“Also, we were going through different political turbulence as far as our organization is concerned. Nobody needs to be reminded of the history of the Buhari administration with reference to the treatment of AIT and our founder in particular. So, the decision at that time was that this might not be the best period in which to try to implement wholesome changes to the structure of the organization. Notwithstanding, whatever you want to say about the incumbent administration, I think to some extent they’ve shown their capacity for accommodation of all shades of opinions from public broadcasters; we don’t feel the heat and the intimidation of the government as we did a couple of years ago; and the time is opportuned and right as well for us to review where exactly we want to go, going forward from here.
“For me, and for the vast majority of members of our board, the decision comes down to simply determine if we want to continue on our existing trajectory or if we want to do something differently. And if we are looking at doing something differently, it means that we have to subject ourselves to abide by the terms and conditions of extant laws and regulations; to give the investing public confidence into our organization, and also to be able to attract the kind of funds and investments that we need to grow and expand beyond our existing programmes.
“So, what does this mean? Of course, as a PLC again, there are statutory committees responsible for appointing people into specific positions, we’re talking about very senior levels of managements here; so we have a corporate governance committee whose task is to pursue the recruitment of alternatives as well as head-ons from within the industry; those who are deemed to be capable, those who are qualified and have some track record of success in their various past endeavours to give us confidence that yes, they can come in and fit in with the new plans and the new strategy we have going forward. But certainly, opportunities will open up for people both within the organization to grow into new positions, but they shall also open up for other people form outside the organization and from the broader sector of the industry – the broadcast media and entertainment industry to also come in and play a role.”
