Nigerian stareholders were recently admonished over ignorance of proper understanding of capital market’s operations to fully understand their legal rights and how to use it to curtail the excesses of managers else, they will continue to achieve less than desirable investment returns.

Mr Peter Nta inaugurating a book he authored with title ‘Shareholders Rights Under the Nigerian Laws’ stated that shareholders’ failure to enforce their rights have made it impossible for the nation to institutionalize good corporate governance.

He encouraged shareholders to take advantage of the current reforms in the financial sector and the global cash crunch to impose their legal rights on their quoted companies and their managements.

Nta warned that there will always be corporate governance problems as long as Nigerian investors continue to treat their investors as private arrangement rather than as business co-owers. He noted that “the current companies mismanagement and threats of failure or collapse in Nigeria will continue to be fostered, if Nigerians continue to personalize publicly quoted companies.”

Nigerians are usually reticent or laid back in exercising their rights as shareholders, especially in corporate governance issues like fraud, corruption and so on, as is typified in the case of Cadbury, Unilever, Oceanic and others. He further revealed that the ‘issue of insider trading and the self dealings by directors can only be checked by separating companies from their founders, directors and managers.

The current chairman of the Lagos State chapter of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) Mr Jide Ologun in his review, stated that the inauguration of the book was the best returns to Nigerian investors in the face of sustained investment rash tand the agony that has accompanied it.

He pointed out that “the factual and judicial notice in the book covers shareholders right under the Nigerian laws and what it has done is to simplify and challenge Nigerians and foreigners in maximizing the full benefits of their rights under investment laws.”

According to Ologun, the book has shown that “factual and judicial notice to all stakeholders in the nation’s economy remains one of Nigeria’s contemporary answers in managing global financial difficulties.