The High Commissioner, while reacting to media reports that he had unofficially accepted the position, described the reports as \"misleading\" urging current and potential investors to ignore it.

Kolade admitted that one or two stakeholders of Transcorp approached him, but noted that at no time did he give his word of acceptance to the offer.

\"I have been a top player in the Nigeria capital market and have helped to run a top company, so at this stage of my life, I do not want to be part of anything that will mislead the capital market,\" said Kolade.

The former Chairman of Cadbury Plc added, \"it is my obligation to state very clearly that I have not agreed to join the board of Transcorp in any capacity whatsoever. I have no investment in Transcorp, I have no intention to invest in Transcorp, therefore at this point, and I am not connected with Transcorp in any way. It may be true that one or two stakeholders in Transcorp have approached me to have some connections with the company, but I have certainly not indicated that I want to do so.\"

Kolade continued, \"I would like to issue this correction so that we don\'t deliberately or accidentally attempt to mislead the market.\"

When asked why he didn\'t denounce the offer after Okereke-Onyuike\'s announcement on Saturday, Kolade took an ideological route in answering back. \"Let us put it this way, I\'ve been long enough in the boardroom of companies to know that, even when you want to invite one individual to the board, all the directors of the board should agree that this is what they want to do and they should make a formal approach to the individual.\" That, according to him, \"has not happened in this case.\" - Guardian

COMMENT:

This is a major credibility gap about the operational capability of the board of Transcorp and indeed its corporate governance ethos. The company has, again failed to observe a basic CAC guideline that requires companies appointing Chairmen over the age of 70 to ratify such decisions at a shareholders meeting before making such public.

The question now remains, what and how do decisions get taken at Transcorp and how does Tom deal with the fall-out of this sweeping denial by the most respected corporate icon in the Nigerian business community - given his statement that he does not want to be part of misleading the public. The DG of the stock exchange may equally want to review her role & position.

Through all these, it is obvious that the corporate communications unit of the firm has been either ineffective or made redundant by personalities on the board whom have taken over such function……all indicating a question mark on professionalism and governance in the firm. The more serious issue however is the growing uncertainty about this noble goal laden with huge potentials which seems to be headed in a direction envisioned by its critics.

While at it, it might be well to know what is happening to the technical suspension placed on the shares of the firm and when this will be lifted for the market to react approapriately to going-ons in the company.

We remain hopeful that this issues can and should be resolved but certain things just can\'t be mended……credibility is one of them. It takes longer and requires consistency; two things Transcorp has little of at this time.