Saddled with the onerous task of helping investors retrieve their money, Justice Ngozi Chianakwalam is the Chairman of the Investment and Securities Tribunal (IST). A former Solicitor General and Director of Prosecution in Abia State, this seasoned judge has held many sensitive posts at the federal level, too. She tells NIKE SOTADE what her job entails, the challenges and how she has been able to adjudicate over the volatile Capital Market.
LOOKING very elegant and stylish in a black and white trouser-suit ensemble, Justice Ngozi Chianakwalam strolled majestically into the venue of the interview- the lobby of her hotel floor at the Oriental Hotel. Her height, gait, carriage and composure defined her several years at the bar and bench. Her lordship is the Chairman of the Investment and Securities Tribunal (IST), the panel that sits over matters of infraction in the Capital Market. The legal luminary was briefly in Lagos from her base in Abuja and she took time out of her busy schedule to speak with some select journalists.
Exhibiting her sense of style with the right coordination of clothes and accessories, this Chief Judge is, however, a no-nonsense woman when it comes to addressing legal matters.
She tells The Guardian about the mandate of her tribunal: “The Investment and Securities Tribunal adjudicates on Capital Market issues. These are cases arising from shares, stockbrokers, the Nigerian Stock Exchange, (NSE), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and so on. The tribunal came about after the government set up a panel. You know that in regular courts, it takes a very long time to settle case. So concerning the Capital Market, there is need for cases to be decided on time because shares are volatile.
“Matters concerning the Capital Market have to be decided very expeditiously. At a time, the Federal Government felt there was need to look at what could be done and they set up a panel, the Odife Panel. Then the Odife Panel worked on it and after extensive investigations, came up with a report. One of the recommendations of the panel was setting up a tribunal that was different from the regular court, to handle capital market issues. That was how the Investments and Security Tribunal came to be. It took off in the year 2002”.
She explains what constitutes a crime in her court. “Our court is a civil court. Once SEC gets reports about problems in the market, it is their duty to report to us. They may try it before their own administrative proceedings committee. When you are not satisfied with the judgment of that committee, then you can come to us. You can also come directly to us. For example, you may have complained to SEC and they didn’t do anything, you have a right to file your case before us. The type of cases that come to us include market manipulation to shares manipulation and infractions.
“There was a time when banks were claiming to give people loan to buy shares; those are the kind of cases that come to us. If your stockbroker sold your shares without your permission, you can come to us. We also have cases of people collecting money from investors, claiming that they are investing them and, at the end of the day, they don’t. We also have an Alternative Dispute Resolution Department that deals with fraud claims. We are very expeditious and the law says we should complete our cases within 90 days.”
The second female judge to head the tribunal, her lordship reflects on some of the landmark cases she has adjudicated on since she assumed office in 2013.
“Yes, we have quite a number of landmark cases. There is a law that makes provision for the setting up of the investor’s fund. Many investors lose their money, lots of money running into millions, either through fraudulent practices by bankers or stockbrokers. A position was made for the fund in the Investment and Securities Act but nothing was done about it until the IST delivered a judgment and gave the Nigerian Stock Exchange Commission (NSEC) a mandate and time frame within which to set up the fund. They were forced to set up the fund and fortunately, the inauguration committee for the fund took place last year. That is one of the landmark cases and there are quite a number of them in different areas.”
Justice Chianakwalam surely admits that presiding over such a sensitive tribunal comes with a lot of challenges as she reveals some of them.
“When I came in in 2013, I met a lot of challenges. The first was that we did not have a befitting office at the headquarters and even at the zonal offices. They are rented apartments and, like you know, many landlords don’t like to renovate their buildings. Where we were staying in Abuja was not good enough, I would want to call it an eyesore. So my ambition was to get us a befitting place. We are a world-class tribunal, the United States Security and Exchange Tribunal does not even have our own kind of tribunal. In 2013 when we attended a programme with over 80 countries, the officials there who commended us asked others to emulate us, saying Nigeria is a trailblazer. So if you have this kind of tribunal, you should also have a befitting office.
“The second challenge was funding. Normally we are funded by the federal government budgetary allocation, but with the failing economy, allocations have been falling and falling over the years. There was not much to take care of the basic needs of the tribunal, but we have always been fighting for the Capital Market because the other players in the market- Nigerian Stock Exchange, Securities and Exchange Commission, Central Security Legal System, all get funded from proceeds of the transaction fees. They charge one per cent of every fee and we were just asking for 10 percent of that one per cent.
“It was a fight and I am happy to say that the former Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala directed SEC to look into it holistically to make sure that we get funding. I am also happy to say that as at last year, an order was made for us to get funding, even though there are still some hiccups and resistance here and there.”
She continues: “Another major challenge was that the staff had not had promotion since 2011; there was a little rumble of industrial unrest when I came in and so I begged them to allow me settle down first. I am happy to say that we conducted promotion exams last year and we got approval from FEC to get our own house in Abuja.”
She also describes the state of the Capital Market today. “You know, there was a fall in the Capital Market after the problems that occurred between 2007 to 2008. The transactions are building up now; there was a lull prior to the elections. They didn’t know what the outcome of the election would be but immediately after the election, there was a rise again. The capital market is building up and we are praying along with it. Since I came in, we have delivered about 55 judgments and the total verdict in monetary value is worth over N350 billion. The tribunal has helped to boost confidence in investor.”
Naturally, there would be objections to some of the rulings of the tribunal and her lordship explains how she has been able to get around them. “You know, lawyers like to explore loopholes and so they come up with preliminary objections. We have quite a number of appeals pending at the Court of Appeal. What we did last September to save the situation was to have new IST rules. So, here, if you have a preliminary objection, then you have to file it along with the case so that delay can be cut off.”
Many investors who have lost their money in the capital market are apparently not aware of the existence of IST to seek redress. So Justice Chianakwalam’s desire is to take the tribunal to the grassroots. “My vision is to get our services as close as possible to the grassroots so that people can recover their lost money.”
While advising investors to always get enough information before buying shares, she says people should not see all stockbrokers as dubious people.
“Stockbrokers are doing their jobs like in any profession, but among them we have the good and a few bad ones. Once in a while, you see those who are involved in sharp practices, who prey on investors’ ignorance.”
In the legal world where men are mostly the senior advocates and also hold exalted positions, chairing such a sensitive tribunal as a woman is no challenge for the Chief Judge as she declares: “Women are doing very well on the job. If you work hard enough, nobody would think of you as a woman. I think women have done very well in the judiciary. If you look everywhere today, you can see them from the Magistrate Court to Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. You can see nowadays that men have abandoned the bench for the women and we have many female judges now.”
The pioneer Director of Public Prosecution in Abia State, Chianakwalam, who was called to the bar in 1978, has also held other sensitive national posts in her legal career. She was the Director of Registry at the Corporate Affairs Commission from 2001 to 2006. At various times she also acted as the Registrar General. It is on record that her department achieved five days manual registration of companies within a short time while she was there.
Born to a lawyer father and a mother who’s a fashion designer, interestingly, the career choice for this legal luminary was to either be a lawyer or fashion designer, but she settled for the legal profession through her father’s inspiration who was also a judge.
But this has not hampered her love for the latter. “Everybody in my house can sew,” she says enthusiastically, explaining that in her undergraduate days, she never bought clothes but made them.
A mother of three daughters and grandmother of one, who describes herself as a “workaholic,” when she doesn’t get busy in her black and white paraphernalia during the week, you’ll see her on weekends, mostly in her jeans and T-shirt, teeing off on the golf course or busy playing tennis.
QUOTE: Women are doing very well on the job. If you work hard enough, nobody would think of you as a woman. I think women have done very well in the judiciary. If you look everywhere today, you can see them from the Magistrate Court to Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.
