WorldStage– Meyer Plc, the Nigerian paint maker on Tuesday accepted the resignation of Erelu Angela Adebayo, one of its board’s five non-executive directors and one independent executive director spending over 14 years, and still counting.
In an April 15 notice, the paint maker penciled Adebayo down for re-election, during the next annual general meeting, into her 16th year before she resigned two days later, an April 20 disclosure on the Nigeria Exchange Group revealed.
Meyer filed these disclosures in compliance with the Nigeria Code of Corporate Governance (NCCG 20218) whose tenure limits for board members Meyer the company has tested and crossed time and again.
According to the code, NEDs should serve for a ‘reasonable period on the Board’, adding, however, it is necessary to ‘reinforce the Board by continually injecting new energy, fresh ideas and perspectives”.
“The Board should ensure the periodic appointment of new Directors to replace existing NEDs,” its section 12.8 concludes.
But Meyer’s board has not refreshed six of its nine members in any periodic appointment for over a decade.
Its Chairman Kayode Falowo and three NEDs who joined the board in 2010 are still serving after 15 years; two other NEDs are in their respective 14th and 23th years.
For an INED, the NCCG 2018 states the specifics in section 12 (10): The tenure for INEDs should not exceed three terms of three years each. But Ochee Vivian Bamigboye, one of the three INED on the board, has spent almost 12 years, according to the company’s 2025 compliance report.
The former subsidiary of Dunlop Nigeria is not just having compliance issue for the first time. It disclosed in the report it mixed up board attendance figure and violated regulatory filing in the past. The Security and Exchange Commission and the Financial Reporting Council enforcing the governance code imposed on the company N5.2 million and N1 million fines respectively.
