babalawo:

If competence is all about clearing the mess of an incompetent predecessor then competence can't also be the fueling of a big mess for one's successor I think the greater challange for sanusi is for him to create a better CBN as an institution that is trully regulatory and supervisory.

I think you also missed the point of the whole argument-get to read the initiator's post-we all know that sanusi is in chagre now( its no news) and no body is is here to pity him for accepting the job.

You can only rate competence by comparing two equivalent situations. There is no basis to compare Soludo and Sanusi now (hence I have no biz really, reading the crap that was posted first) which is essentially comparing 5 years with a few months. You will know how competent Sanusi is after 5 years, being the equivalent of the time that we apply to now judging Soludo. You do not show superior competence by exacerbating an already bad situation. That, my dear friend, is what Sanusi has done.

I think its better if we keep sentiments asside and face the fact.
When SLS came on board, after the stress audit, it was discovered that a number of banks were in a critical or grave situations. He had two options as stipulated by the CBN ACT; its either the bank are handed over to the NDIC for closure as a result of liquidity problems (which would have been the worst decision) or he uses the power and authority bestowed on him on his capacity as CBN GOV to inject funds into the banks for continuous existence and to the advantage of  stakeholders and the economy at large. I happen to be working in one of the bailed out banks with one of the largest customer base. People should understand that if this banks were not bailed out, a huge amount of depositors would lost their funds, the consequence would surely be lack of confidence of people to leave their funds in banks in the future; people are complaining of job losses, this would have been worst if the banks were stalled or shut down, (i would have once again been in the labour market.); shareholders would have lost their investments. So pls we should rather give kudos to SLS, he is only cleaning the mess created by the prof and i think he is doing so perfectly well.

mekusxxx:

You can only rate competence by comparing two equivalent situations. There is no basis to compare Soludo and Sanusi now (hence I have no biz really, reading the crap that was posted first) which is essentially comparing 5 years with a few months. You will know how competent Sanusi is after 5 years, being the equivalent of the time that we apply to now judging Soludo. You do not show superior competence by exacerbating an already bad situation. That, my dear friend, is what Sanusi has done.

what you've done is like writing an exams without reading the instructions!!!You are the first on this trend to post a statement like 'If Sanusi is better than soludo, " .You sure are posting on the wrong trend I advice you start a trend on that-cos i still insist that you read the previous post to know what is been discussed here.
You dont have to create am impression to NL'ers that you such a person that jump guns and then arrogantly display ur ignorance in public circles.

ibrolamin:

I think its better if we keep sentiments asside and face the fact.
When SLS came on board, after the stress audit, it was discovered that a number of banks were in a critical or grave situations. He had two options as stipulated by the CBN ACT; its either the bank are handed over to the NDIC for closure as a result of liquidity problems (which would have been the worst decision) or he uses the power and authority bestowed on him on his capacity as CBN GOV to inject funds into the banks for continuous existence and to the advantage of stakeholders and the economy at large. I happen to be working in one of the bailed out banks with one of the largest customer base. People should understand that if this banks were not bailed out, a huge amount of depositors would lost their funds, the consequence would surely be lack of confidence of people to leave their funds in banks in the future; people are complaining of job losses, this would have been worst if the banks were stalled or shut down, (i would have once again been in the labour market.); shareholders would have lost their investments. So pls we should rather give kudos to SLS, he is only cleaning the mess created by the prof and i think he is doing so perfectly well.

@ ibrolamin could you still hold your ground if unfortunately we were among those that were sacked?.Of course I agree with you ,the truth is the truth even if we are directly affected but I also know that its quite difficult not to becloud ones thinking if one has been very 'unlucky'
You got the picture right of what could have happened but the truth is to some people the worst has already happened Jobs has been lost,investment has been eroded and businesses are already near collapse.

babalawo:

what you've done is like writing an exams without reading the instructions!!!You are the first on this trend to post a statement like 'If Sanusi is better than soludo, " .You sure are posting on the wrong trend I advice you start a trend on that-cos i still insist that you read the previous post to know what is been discussed here.

I have read it and I actually regret doing so, because as predicted, it is a load of poo. The poster is lamenting from the point of view of a newly-unemployed person. Nevertheless, he was in the banking system during Soludo's era when the said oversight was done. He knew some of the manipulations going on in the banking sector and he did not complain or raise an eyebrow. Instead he sat back and thoroughly enjoyed the fat salaries and unmerited perks of the then banking sector (unless he was a cleaner there). So he begins a lamentation series now that he has been personally affected and he wants to blame the CBN for everthing? Did, for e.g., the CBN ask Cecilia Ibru to purchase 28 houses in Dubai using depositors and investors money? Let SLS clear the mess like a competent administrator would, and he will be judged at the end of his own tenure. Sanusi came with an unbridled frenzy that contributed to worsen the situation. He thus, lacks vital mgt skills. That is the end of my story.

SLS (and the current CBN mgt) is the culprit: opinions

http://phpmy.saharareporters.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3567:cbn-induced-banking-crisis-a-solution&catid=81:external-contrib&Itemid=300

http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/news/article01//indexn2_html?pdate=220809&ptitle=Why%20Two%20CBN%20Deputy%20Govs%20Lost%20Job

http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/news/article01//indexn2_html?pdate=130909&ptitle=Foreign%20Banks%20Reject%20Letters%20%20Of%20Credit%20From%20Nigeria

http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/news/article02//indexn2_html?pdate=071209&ptitle=Banks

mekusxxx:

I have read it and I actually regret doing so, because as predicted, it is a load of poo. The poster is lamenting from the point of view of a newly-unemployed person. Nevertheless, he was in the banking system during Soludo's era when the said oversight was done. He knew some of the manipulations going on in the banking sector and he did not complain or raise an eyebrow. Instead he sat back and thoroughly enjoyed the fat salaries and unmerited perks of the then banking sector (unless he was a cleaner there). So he begins a lamentation series now that he has been personally affected and he wants to blame the CBN for everthing? Did, for e.g., the CBN ask Cecilia Ibru to purchase 28 houses in Dubai using depositors and investors money? Let SLS clear the mess like a competent administrator would, and he will be judged at the end of his own tenure. Sanusi came with an unbridled frenzy that contributed to worsen the situation. He thus, lacks vital mgt skills. That is the end of my story.

at leat thanks for reading but like your mindset anticipated it did more harm than good! You have shown that you are not arrogant but sure you must be a rare breed of a cold blooded species.

mekusxxx:

SLS (and the current CBN mgt) is the culprit: opinions

http://phpmy.saharareporters.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3567:cbn-induced-banking-crisis-a-solution&catid=81:external-contrib&Itemid=300

http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/news/article01//indexn2_html?pdate=220809&ptitle=Why%20Two%20CBN%20Deputy%20Govs%20Lost%20Job

http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/news/article01//indexn2_html?pdate=130909&ptitle=Foreign%20Banks%20Reject%20Letters%20%20Of%20Credit%20From%20Nigeria

http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/news/article02//indexn2_html?pdate=071209&ptitle=Banks

I think you can do better to presenting your views in a logical and convincing manner.I will be happy to see your personal reasons and facts than copy and pastes!!!

good nite its been good having some hodidays on NL,its time for some liquor!!

May God help us to help ourselves

Take home message: every one involved - banks and their workers, CBN (old and new mgt) NDIC, etc shares the blame, we may decide what % of blame goes to each group.

Sanusi is the disease infecting the whole of the financial industry.
We need to cut him off soooooonest
He will not only kill the banks, he will kill the whole economy!
We need to cut him off fast!!

babalawo:

at leat thanks for reading but like your mindset anticipated it did more harm than good! You have shown that you are not arrogant but sure you must be a rare breed of a cold blooded species.
I think you can do better to presenting your views in a logical and convincing manner.I will be happy to see your personal reasons and facts than copy and pastes!!!

good nite its been good having some hodidays on NL,its time for some liquor!!

May God help us to help ourselves

If I am a cold-blooded species for stating my opinion this far, what more opinion are you asking for from a cold-blooded species, or do you want to turn me to a colder-blooded species? People lose their jobs everyday. The world will not stop due to that. Bye, and enjoy your beers.

Sanusi is the cause of this financial problem @ ibrolami have you been sack. I think if you have been, then you will have feelings for those people sacked.

Thank you eveyone, i will wait patiently till when u will come back and crucified sanusi on this forum. And if soludo has done it all , tell me what ease Mr sanusi will be doing in the office? So let continue to pray for them all for better governance.

Very unfortunate some people lost their jobs. The banks are like accidents waiting to happen, even under Soludo some international financial monitors have been saying only 4 banks were sound in Nigeria, instead of telling the truth and dealing with it Soludo kept telling us "no big deal".

Imagine ECOBANK entered into merger plans with three banks and pulled out when they saw real situations that they were hiding from the public.

How can there be an end to a rot when the action of banks did not change. How can a bank give loans for people to buy their own shares at 16% apr then when the share crashed and the people unable to pay, the banks raised the interest rate to 22%, continue to capitalized the unpaid interest also reporting it as expected revenue, even the people have abandon the accounts and the share used as collateral have become worthless, we are now blaming Sanusi for telling the banks that those money should be considered gone and correct for them.

I find it hilarious someone claimed on this thread that the banks were fine until Sanusi came and ruined everything. I think Sanusi is not helping matters but the banks were screwed up long before he became Governor.

I thought I will see future CBN governors replying to this post. Giving me an all round analysis not all this one-sided analysis.
As an engineer with little knowledge of the banking system, I will tell you guys what I think.
My company, an engineering firm cannot access funds as usual and it is frustrating works at different sites. On top of that we just downsized our workforce, putting more pressure on the few available.
Soludo and Sanusi are two different individuals from two different backgrounds and I don’t expect them to work in the same manner.
I learnt that the audit report that Sanusi is using for his clean-up was instituted by Soludo but was completed by Sanusi. I guess Soludo sensed the situation hence his action and I bet he would have handled the issue differently.
I commend Sanusi for his boldness which is required sometimes to get things done in Nigeria but he is too harsh (from my own perspective). Most of the executives found out the status of their bank in the media. This is not proper. What would have happened if he called this guys, show them the report and give them lets say 4 months to recover the bad debts after that he can do whatever he likes. Why cause panic in the economy?
The world economy was already poor for these kinds of drastic measure, atleast cushion it. Just read what USA did with their banks earlier and how they went through periods of recession. Believe me they hide things more than we do. The point is that the panic Sanusi has caused in the economy is worse than the debts itself.
Personally, despite the consolidation preaching I got am still moving money from one bank to another this few months for fear of the unknown.Companies can not access funds, loans?The banking industry affects all sectors of the economy.
In my opinion I think Soludo is the best thing that have ever happened to the CBN, what Sanusi is doing now is the second phase which I believe the former would have still done.
Sanusi is more resolute and is in a position to do a better cleansing work owing to his risk mgt background
If the banks were not big then there won’t be need for cleansing it.
Above all I will want Sanusi to surpass Soludo for the betterment of Nigeria.
Posterity will judge!
We have heard different accusation leveled against Soludo and how he was cleared, Sanusi helped out in some. Those that are taking it personal should relax, when a man is doing well he is praised and should be praised, he got international rewards and so what? He deserved it. He needs to make a public speech on this issue to clear the air if he is to contest.
For soludo’s political ambition, personally I think he should have remained in his field and help in any other capacity he can. He was already consulting for IMF and World Bank so why not continue in that line. I don’t like politics and don’t support him going into it.

and guys why can't some of you write without attaching tribalism sentiments it shows most posts.

The layoffs has got nothing to do with soludo
Only a cretin would say such a thing.
Nigerian banks are starting to feel the impact of the Global recession which necessitated the massive layoffs.

For several months at the beginning of the economic meltdown the US Government (George Bush) refused to use the word recession even when the economic indices clearly showed this because they realised it would cause panic and worsen the situation.

Maybe things wouldn't be so bad if Sanusi had exercised such restraint.

I believe Soludo should be given kudos for the consolidation exercise which was acclaimed as a success worldwide with the lowest cost as a percentage of GDP of similar exercises worldwide. But, he took his eye off the ball - inadequate monitoring and risk assessment, lax controls and regulations - basically getting carried away during the boom era.

Alas, he was not alone!  Mervyn King - Governor, Bank of England, Alan Greenspan (retired) - Chair, Federal Reserve Bank in America, and practically all Central Banks took their eye off the ball in the preceding 5 years or so leading up to the financial bubble in 2007! The US had to pump about a trillion dollars to stabilise their system - UK about a quarter of that. Although guilty as charged like his other counterparts, I guess we can give Mr/Governor (seems to have fallen in love with that title) Soludo a soft landing - even though he refused to accept the reality of the situation at the time.

Now to our other dear friend Mr Sanusi - doing the right thing - at the right time - but not exactly the right way. He came in and was initially very trigger happy. I believe he meant well, and after a few ricochets, has calmed down a bit but he should bode well for the banking industry in the final analysis.

The global economic downturn is real! Presently no less than 100 banks have failed in the United States this year leading to massive job losses.

Soludo deserves credit for the fact no Nigerian bank has collapsed as a result of the global downturn. Soludo's consolidation which forced the banks to increase their capital, made the banks very strong, and afforded them capacity to finance big ticket transactions; this is good for the economy. If Soludo had not done what he did, by now many Nigerian banks would have collapsed as a result of the global downturn, and of course not only would thousands of people have lost their jobs; several other thousands would have lost their deposits and life savings.

Ensuring good corporate governance was always mainly the responsibility of the management of the banks. The banks got into trouble because of recklessness on the part of the managers of the banks in managing the funds they got from consolidation and laxity in credit administration. The managers of these banks must therefore now answer to the outcome of their actions.

But the managers of the banks are not entirely to blame. When the capital market crashed in Nigeria as elsewhere, trillions of Naira were lost. Much of that money belonged to the banks that had financed share purchases by way of credits to investors. To a large extent, the huge losses suffered by Nigerian banks are directly linked to the global downturn. Why should anyone therefore single out any Nigerian for slaughter over the global economic downturn?

SOLUDO DESERVES:
1. COMMENDATION
2. NATIONAL AWARD
3. TO BE PRESIDENT IN 2015

@Megacity and the sly look we need people who can think logicaly. if you have nothing tangible to say then it is better not to post at all. Is the financial melt down the reason why people should borrow money unchecked and refuse to pay or is it the reason why a cbn governor will not put in place checks and balances to prevent any funny business. As you can see from my post/language i am not an economist or a banker but an individual who thinks logicaly. So please dont come and confuse us here. Global melt down is one thing and financial ineptitude is another.

It is easy for someone to come into any field at all and find faults. I can come fishing for dirt in your perfectly clean house and still find dirt. I guess I am trying to say that I think sanusi went fishing for dirt just to gain appraisals. This is the typical Nigerian leadership model; to get some credit you have to discredit your predecessor. Of course, this removes the focus on you who is doing nothing at all. I mean it is easy to put regulations and try to force companies, but at the end you strangle your own economy. I am not a soludo sycophant but I think he did a better job than sanusi is doing. Sanusi is trying to make our banks be like some of the test books he read in sudan. The truth is that sanusi went out of his way to discredit our banks, and in return all companies and financial institutions now lack trust of Nigerian institutions. I have always said that we have to protect our own. What is the use of all your western and islamic education if you can't adjust it to suit your african environment. Call me sentimental but the truth still remains that sanusi is either knowingly or unknowingly strangling our economy. The best way to follow findings like that isn't to scream and cause panic but to slowly work with the banks to adjust. I don't like soludo but I think we are in for a big mess with sanusi.
I know that the manufacturing sector is a key sector in any economy, but you can see that that sector would always remain stagnant until their is regular and affordable power. This wouldn't stop enterpreneurs for seeking for means to make money anyway. Overall, I would say that if soludo has done anything wrong (encouraging or supporting cooking of books by the banks) he should be brought to book but you can't blame him for the recent lay offs thats smells chiefly of sanusi and the disgruntled banks.

Soludo on one hand was able to build a "strong banking system " , but along the way there was fraud and gross mismanagement on the part of the C.E.Os . I would have expected Soludo to have properly regulated these banks which didn't do.

A lot of people in this forum are heaping piles of blames on Sanusi .Apart from the fact that there is/was a global financial melt down these bank chiefs were busy obtaining awarding outrageous loans to themselves. A situation when an individuals own at least 70% of the bank loan is suspicious.

These bankers cooked up figures and lied to the public. Sanusi did well in exposing their dirty deals and dealing with them appropriately; or do you guys expect that he should fold his hands and close a blind eye to what is going on ? If Sanusi had not acted on time like he did, he would be postponing the evil day for something worse. His actions are timely; his method, well not sure there could have been a better way

bidemi12:

@Megacity and the sly look we need people who can think logicaly. if you have nothing tangible to say then it is better not to post at all. Is the financial melt down the reason why people should borrow money unchecked and refuse to pay or is it the reason why a cbn governor will not put in place checks and balances to prevent any funny business. As you can see from my post/language i am not an economist or a banker but an individual who thinks logicaly. So please dont come and confuse us here. Global melt down is one thing and financial ineptitude is another.

One thing you should ask your cretinous self is. . . . .
Did any of these massive layoffs happen during Soludo's tenure?
If not. . . .Can you state the reasons?

@the sly sorry for the harsh tone but i stand by my case. soludo's ineptitude is the main cause and the effect is what we are seeing now. You are an african. Lets say you neglected to train your child in the path he ought to follow, in order words you did not perform your duties creditably, and lets say the result is the child grows up wayward, who do you think would be blamed ultimately? the child or you?

With what we now know about banking fiasco, Soludo is the real facilitator of the current problem in the Bank. In a civilized society, Soludo will not present himself to run for an elective office. But then, he is running for a governor of an Igbo state, that says it all. He continued the same sleaze in being "selected", not elected as a PDP governorship candidate, and the Igbo in his state will vote for him. I really wish that they would have him as governor because they deserve his type - afterall he his one of them.

I have noticed that the argument here is caused by misunderstanding especially by those with non finance background, thats why some keep arguing that durring soludo things were good. Here is a crash coures in Finance;

1 No doubt soludo did a good job in consolidating the banking sector, but that was just half of the job

2 When u create banks that 'big' u need to monitor them moren (regulate), that second part soludo did not do

3 I just did a thesis on the consolidation and I found that some banks had negative working capital as early as 2005, the implication is that they were definately taking on more risk than they could handle

4 Here is a finance Basics Leverage (which the banks r guilty of having too much) creates abnormal profits, but so is the other side of it (losses)

This is where risk mgt comes in, Soludo should have known better as a financial economist that those profits the banks were making dont justify the excessive gambling and risk taking of those banks giving the vital role banks those banks play in the economy.

Looking at it in another angle we r lucky the productive economy (if we even have one!) dont depends on these banks coz they neva granted loans to the small bizs, But if it had depended the story would have been worse coz not just bankers will be loosing jobs, but the entire economy will be shedding jobs, and then we will start demanding our leaders be hanged for their omissions or commissions

Now on the issue of some saying we blame soludo for this mess bcoz we were not sacked!! this is a bizzare argument.
Infact in my view if u are a Sacked banker and u saw nothing wrong in the status quo (which was a bubble that would eventually burst even without sanusi's interferance) then u deserve to be SACKED; my reason for saying this is probably u have no degree in FINANCE, ECONOMICS, ACCOUNTING or MANAGEMENT and see nothing wrong with the dubuios accounting, book cooking and reckless gambling these banks indulged in.

Put simply these sacked bankers (not all but those who were happy with the STATUS QUO) are just currently STRUCTURALLY UNEMPLOYED; which is an imbuilt system in any economy to correct the problem of unskilled labour force, pending when they acquire the necessary training and understanding needed to feel the new positions in the economy.

BOTTOMLINE I am not blaming soludo 4 what he did, BUT 4 what HE DID NOT DO, which is he did not adequately check the excesses of these banks giving that there were glaring signs for even outsiders like us to c that these banks were on unsustainable path. He should have known better.

Soludo should not be blamed for all these mess. The man did a very good job and should be commended. To even form 25 good banks out of incalculable number of banks then was not easy. It is time we choose leaders that are problem solvers and not destructive as we have today, whose motives are just to make names to detriment of many. Is it not time to learn from developed countries like US? Many big banks were bailed out without losing any of their staff and shareholders were allowed to take decisions. That you were big yesterday does not mean you can not have have problems tommorrow. Our leaders should not open their mouth wide as it poses adverse effect in the economy. May God help us .

@Topic,,,
Soludo remains the principal culprit of the present situation of Nigerian economy at large,,the banking industry inclusive.Even a primary school student was able to prove him wrong last year when he continued to tell lies about the precarious state of Nigeria economy and as well as fundamentally porous state of Nigerian banks.
To prove to commentators here that soludo failed in his responsibilties,,,People should go and pick up the Financial statements of all the 25 Banks in last five years and there you would discover the fraud,manipulations and misrepresntations that were even made in PRINTED form for the general public to read.
In all the Banks financial statements,,,Only Three(3)banks were consistent with their reports,,,and the banks are First bank,Eco and GTB,,,I am however surprise that Banks like Access,FCMB,Zenith, UBA and many others with their flagrant manipulations and inconsistent statement of affairs can still be considered banks in Nigeria.
As regards layoffs,,,if layoffs would subsequent lead to a virile and sustainable banking system,,,I welcome the idea,,as write this moment,,,over 140 Banks have closed in just this year alone in the US,,,,If the criterion which the banks were closed in the US is applied to Nigeria,,,we probably should be having 2 or 3 banks in Nigeria today, What we have in Nigeria today is not banking system,,,its rather a corporate "esusu"
I personally believe that soludo is a common criminal who is solely responsible for the present state of the Nigerian economy at large,,All the stolen funds during his tenure were facilitated through soludo to foreign countries.

Hi All,

Im surprised most of you are debating on this issue, Let no man blame Soludo for trying to bring progress for this country. The Sacked MDs are ALL to blamed and punished severely for mismanaging funds .

Did soludo eat the money?

Well from what ive seen Soludo and Sanusi did the right thing like

Soludo = Bank capititalisation which made banks stronger
Sanusi = Corporate governance which i pray should jail those MDs

Root of this problem is that Bankers simply [b]did NOT [/b]know where to invest the Huge funds they raised, therefore it was easy for corruption thrive and easy money allocated to MDs

Im an advocate of having professionals working in Banks to compliment finanacial managers (Construction, telecommunication, education, health etc)
This would have stimulated the economy positively

Thank you