A copy of the latest piece from yours sincerely for Naija papers:

RENAISSANCE PROFESSIONALS: A POST-MORTEM
I do not envy the campaign team of General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida. One of the hardest things to do is to sell a person or an idea widely seen as evil, even if wrongly. When everybody sees something as white, and some people’s job is to call it black and make people believe it, you will agree with me that such a job, for all its millions, is not an enviable one. But a group paid to do similar job were almost able to pull through.

Renaissance professionals. Does the name ring bell? That is the self-styled, combative group paid to see white and call it black for us. Until the recent disappearance of the group, they remained the most vocal defenders of the sacked chief executive officers of the five, later eight, banks in Nigeria in August 2009, rationalizing the ridiculous and justifying the unjustifiable.

But for the group now, this is definitely not the best of times. Or who else will consider this a good time, when, against all the millions spent in digging out ‘facts’ and propagandizing same, it became glaring that you had been defending the indefensible? Going into hiding, like our friends did since Mrs Cecilia Ibru, one of the deposed Bank chiefs they have been defending, owned up to the allegations against her, is therefore the only option left.

No one conversant with the whole failing banks episode needed Mallam Lamido Sanusi’s statement months ago that he knew those behind the group and their budget for the ‘project’, to know the source of the Renaissance professionals’ firepower. Their claim that three people from three different tribes(hey, akika!) just came together by chance, discussed Sanusi’s sacking of bank chiefs and agreed to form a group to expose Sanusi’s agenda, was as laughable as it came. With claims like this, who needs an Ali Baba or Basketmouth.

Renaissance professionals spent no less than N200 million to prosecute their anti-Sanusi media war, and it paid off to a great extent, as a time came when many of the analysts that had earlier given the CBN governor’s reforms a nod suddenly made a detour, joining the critics. With his supportive boss, President Umaru Musa Yar’adua, also battling for his life, the CBN governor had a tempestuous time. Word on the street, then, was that the CBN governor would be cut to size by the then acting President Goodluck Jonathan. Minister of state for Finance Remi Babalola’s and Security adviser Aliyu Gusau’s statements at the time, which appeared not nice to the CBN governor’s sanitization programme, were all one needed to believe the word from the rumours mill.

With the recent conviction of Mrs Ibru on the plea bargain that she would forfeit assets worth 191 billion Naira, conspiracy theorists, led by Renaissance professionals, seem to have been dealt a fatal punch.

It is very disturbing that in this part of the world, every attempt, even if genuine, to put things in order, is first viewed through sectional prism. Rather than render a holistic assessment of issue, parochial consideration takes precedence and the whole debate is reduced to ethnic and religious bashing.  Even more worrying is the fact that supposed intellectuals and highly rated analysts are not left out in this shameful approach to issues. This played out during the ‘Hurricane Sanusi’ debate, when, rather than look at the effects of the reforms on various economic variables like unemployment, inflation, GDP, foreign exchange, investors confidence etc, many otherwise respected economic analysts compete with  charlatans and beer parlour commentators in conspiracy theorizing, and words like ‘Kamikaze’, ‘bull/elephant in a China shop’, ‘Sharia’, ‘Northern/Islamic agenda’, suddenly replaced terms like multiplier effect, short term price, long run etc in our economic lexicon. Nigeria I hail thee.

One can easily agree that the CBN governor needed restraint in his remarks, especially with that unguarded statement that the sacked banking lords were good for the gallows, but to doubt the necessity of his actions, even after their offences have been laid bare, is to endorse corruption in high places.

With Sanusi’s intervention, apart from the over 100 billion Naira recovered from the debtors, 191 billion Naira is to be coughed out by Mrs Ibru alone. And much more is expected to be recovered in the days ahead. If 191 billion Naira had grown wings from the books of a bank, I wonder how strong such a bank would have been to still be in good health. No one needs further proof from the apex bank boss that the bank, like other rescued banks in similar situation, was a moving corpse.  Herein lies the locus of our arguments that the CBN intervention was timely, and whatever could have been the short term price, it is a decisive action worth taking.

While they lasted, Renaissance professionals, almost on daily basis and in many print media, regaled the public with different ‘revelations’ on the CBN governor’s ‘hidden agenda’, quoting every Joe that made a negative statement about the reforms as competent authority. 

But like the spin doctors that they are, the last may not have been heard from Renaissance professionals. They may have only beaten a retreat to come back with more tales. Our professionals may have been busy thinking ‘outside the box’ to concoct more propaganda. At least, we have not heard of accusation that the Judges that passed the unanimous judgment on Cecilia Ibru were bribed. We have not heard that Ibru admitted guilty under duress. We have yet to hear that the 191 billion Naira worth of assets were genuine fortune of the sacked ‘amazon’ of Nigeria’s banking system and not money channeled into private coffers from depositors’ funds.

Criticism is in itself not a bad thing. At least we had a genuine critic in somebody like Gani Fawehinmi who never gave the successive thieving governments a space and, from time to time, exposed their ill-deeds, even if he cannot do more than shouting to the top of the roof and instituting court cases to save, not himself, but the generality of hapless Nigerians. But when a group of people take as forte crying wolf where there is none and distracting somebody that appears to break the status quo, one wonders what kind of country ours is.

I have no doubts in my mind that Lamido Sanusi, and indeed any holder of public office whose decision can make or mar the nation’s economy or polity, needs to be put at check to prevent totalitarian tendency. But like Sanusi himself said at his Kano University convocation presentation early this year, this should be done by informed minds, not some sponsored charlatans that parade themselves as professionals.  But in a nation where university faculties have abandoned robust economic debates and analyses for other things, we can pardon the vulnerable, uninformed watchers of events who rely on analyses from the likes of Renaissance professionals to form opinion.

Renaissance professionals, while they bestrode this space, really gave a good account of themselves as a fighter, a master propagandist, and showed that with money, you can distort facts or embellish peccadilloes and make millions of people believe you. But with the result of Cecilia Ibru’s case, one can only pity them that despite the efforts and millions, they have finally taken their place in the bin of history. Our Victor Shodipo-led friends indeed deserve our pity.

http://jarus.blog.com/2010/10/24/renaissance-professionals-a-post-mortem/

Good piece

what about the NL faction of those wasted professionals

the 9jakings of this world and some others

where are they?

what do they have to say about the confession of the self styled 'armed robber' who stole 191 billion

chei, thats more than 1 billion USD

may SLS live long abeg

Jarus God will continue to bless you jare, there is a need to stay the course against both the public and private thieves in Nigeria. Renaissance professionals that can not think up a tenth of Sanusi's articles. Rogues writing fairy tales, we need the courts to expedite action on the remaining bank chiefs jare so that we can get our bailout money back, we need the money for infrastructure abeg.

Brilliant piece Jarus.
We seriously need a cure for short sightedness in naij

Each time The RPs placed an advert my friends rushed to me and say "okey see the man you are supporting, look at the damning evidence against him, look at the allegations , " what do I do? I smilled and say wait for the truth, Today guess what they say? you guessed right.

It doesn'T matter what the man SLS says. whether he wants the CEOs removed to be tied and shot or whatever, He is right. Yes RIGHT.

No mind dem Renaissance amateurs. The Renaissance amateurs are no one but Akingbola himself and the team around him. No wonder his defence is court is the badly researched piece linking Lai Alabi to some Saraki conspiracy.

As for all the other bank managers who also thieve (Imoukhoude etc), intel says they are busy hiding their properties in jand in light of the Ibru verdict.

tkb417:

Good piece

what about the NL faction of those wasted professionals

the 9jakings of this world and some others

where are they?

what do they have to say about the confession of the self styled 'armed robber' who stole 191 billion

chei, thats more than 1 billion USD

may SLS live long abeg

#Gbam
Thank You Abeg
After the ibru 18 months in jail and ordered to Return 191 billion most of the anti-SLS elememts have keeping quiet only some few idiots that are still anti-SLS
Over $1 billion

SLS

[size=14pt]One problem with Nigeria is that if a person does something you do not support, the person would bring ethnic and religious dimension into it [/size]
Yes most banks were southerners, they almost killed the bank, a northerner came and removed them all we heard was he was anti-south ,   

HOS (head of service) Oronsaye came and do some reform and the northerners said it is anti-north,   

What crap!!! We need to stop this nonsense in Nigeria
It is really a shame and a pity   

Edited

1 billion dollars plus. . .kai!

that's 1000MW, God is great!

It is very disturbing that in this part of the world, every attempt, even if genuine, to put things in order, is first viewed through sectional prism. Rather than render a holistic assessment of issue, parochial consideration takes precedence and the whole debate is reduced to ethnic and religious bashing. Even more worrying is the fact that supposed intellectuals and highly rated analysts are not left out in this shameful approach to issues

But when a group of people take as forte crying wolf where there is none and distracting somebody that appears to break the status quo, one wonders what kind of country ours is.

But like Sanusi himself said at his Kano University convocation presentation early this year, this should be done by informed minds, not some sponsored charlatans that parade themselves as professionals.

GBAM GBAM GBAM

There is no need celebrating victory on Sanusi's policies, how is the economy doing, how about those who lost jobs due to Sanusi's panic attack? have they found work yet? how about our difficulties accessing credit abroad? is our credit rating any better? how about the criminalisation of lending? are our banks lending to small businesses again?

Sending Cecielia Ibru to jail is not a Macro-Economic index, if Sanusi thinks he has won his fight because Ibru and co are to go to jail then clearly he mis-understands his job description.

Lets not get carried away brothers. Sanusi has a lot of work to do, the economy is hurting due to his unprofessional behaviour and he has not done much to turn the corner.

[size=18pt]Banks are still not lending [/size]

By Oluwaseyi Bangudu


October 26, 2010 01:11AM
print email



Despite relative stability and gradual return to profit, banks' third quarter results show that they are still reluctant to expand their asset creation in respect to loan grants, especially to the private sector.


"An analysis of the key parameters on the balance sheet shows that UBA total assets remained relatively flat, declining marginally by 0.4 percent," Afrinvest, an investment banking and research firm, said.

"We also observed a decline in the bank's lending activities in quarter three. The bank's loan portfolio was subsequently down by 4.2 percent to N636.2 billion, from the N664.2 billion reported in quarter two 2010," the firm added.

"The bank's inability to grow its loan book during the quarter led to a slow growth in net interest income. The Q3 net interest income of N27.1 billion falls short of an average of N33.9 billion reported in Q1 and Q2. We expect the bank to be more aggressive in its risk generation appetite and also channel more of its assets into higher income earning assets.

"Currently, 24.2 percent (N402.5 billion) of the bank's total assets are placed in the inter-bank market where yields were an average of 7.9 percent during the quarter," the firm further said.

Guaranty Trust Bank's third quarter result, however, reveals that loans and advances to customers increased to N545 billion, from N532 billion at the end of quarter two, 2010.

Central Bank's policy not reflecting

Samir Gadio, emerging Markets Strategist, Standard Bank, said the Central Bank's accommodative policy stance between 2009 and September 2010 has not really reflected in lending to the real sector.

"According to the Central Bank, the growth rate in credit to the private sector fell to a record low of 4.5 percent year on year (y/y ) in August, from 9.8 percent y/y in July and 18.1 percent y/y in June. Although aggregate private sector credit extension edged up 2.0 percent in monthly terms to N10.1trillion, from N9.9 trillion in July, it has only increased 0.4 percent year to date (Ytd).

"This means the Central Bank's accommodative policy stance between 2009 and September 2010 has not resulted in a turnaround in lending to the real economy, which we think reflects the intrinsic weakness of the monetary transmission mechanism, amid structural issues in the banking system," Mr. Gadio said.

Experts have said the tightening in monetary conditions during the last Monetary Policy Committee, held in September, is likely to further impact credit dynamics as the Central Bank hiked the standing deposit facility by 225 basis points (bpts) to 3.25 percent. This, they say, may curtail liquidity and place upward pressure on money market rates.

However, a source at Spring Bank said the bank's lending is fast improving.

"I can't speak for other banks, but I know Spring Bank is lending. Even if you want a loan, just come to the bank and get a form. Once you meet with the basic requirements, why won't you get a loan?" he said.



http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Money/5634636-147/banks_are_still_not_lending_.csp

^^^^^ mister tkb and co will come and defend/explain the article.

OYB_MEND:

There is no need celebrating victory on Sanusi's policies, how is the economy doing, how about those who lost jobs due to Sanusi's panic attack? have they found work yet? how about our difficulties accessing credit abroad? is our credit rating any better? how about the criminalisation of lending? are our banks lending to small businesses again?

Sending Cecielia Ibru to jail is not a Macro-Economic index, if Sanusi thinks he has won his fight because Ibru and co are to go to jail then clearly he mis-understands his job description.

Lets not get carried away brothers. Sanusi has a lot of work to do, the economy is hurting due to his unprofessional behaviour and he has not done much to turn the corner.

spot on !!!

Accepted Sanusi did a good job, but dont forget that Nigerian banks are almost not lending to the real Industrialists and real engine room of the Economy, so he should also do something. And Jarus, this is something you should try and replicate in the Kwara Politics, i hate seeing my moderator in Political Bondage.

Ariaria analysts spewing bunkum above. Don't worry, banks will soon come on roadshow to your market to fleece you and your naïve cohorts into buying overbloated stocks. , just like they did in times past. Then they will have capital to lend. Hehehehehe.

Ibime:

Ariaria analysts spewing bunkum above. Don't worry, banks will soon come on roadshow to your market to fleece you and your naïve cohorts into buying overbloated stocks. , just like they did in times past. Then they will have capital to lend. Hehehehehe.

You need to do better than that.

It seems Sanusi know how to do nothing else but doom and gloom economics.

I don't need to do better than that. It is the most fitting reply for airbrained sciolists who believe that much capital can be withdrawn from the system and that banks who lent recklessly and got burnt will not be cautious with their loan books. I set you one simple task - find me a Western nation where banks are lending.

to hell to sanusi and all his cronies.

nobody says those MDs are saints or anything

BUT sanusi's approach was questionable.

if they like they should jail everybody .

that doesnt make the sanusi a good CBN governor.

how fair is economic indexes under sanusi

are we better off or worse off.

Bleep sanusi Bleep all of una

"Renaissance Professionals" or whatever you call it is simply a myth as described.

The concept of an omnipotent RP is one of the theories advanced by the messiah Sanusi to show and prove how many demons he slaughtered on his way as he rode his celestial horse to our financial uhuru.

He weaves a story of how the powerful, rich, but sinful people contributed or were dashed billions of naira to fight him, how he almost fell, but then in some personal superiority, he was able to conquer and triumph! If he's not able to hold audience at his usual market place like he used to, people like our distinguished Jarus is here to use his esteemed moderator offices to make the points for him. I can see how the beer-parlor discussion will go now-- anybody who has ever expressed opposing views to Sanusi is a memeber of RP, paid by RP, and has his brain connected to the RP's central computer terminal. I can also see a large number of our populations swallowing the story hook-sinker-and line, because we are gullible people.

Any celeberations about the victory of Sanusi is rather premature, because unlike Ibru who is sick, thinks she's about to die, other participatants in this case are in no rush to plea bargain. And even if all the CEOs, shareholders, and bank workers go jail because of our "unusual' judicial system, the facts still solidly stand before us as an evidence that will transcend not just the so-called RP, but our nations financial system as a whole.

Do we need the RP to tell us that:
Calling for accused people to be shoot before trial is wrong?
Travelling around the world to warn potential investors that our financial system is no good, when worse happens in the US and UK is wrong?
Causing the sack of thousands of bank workers in the name of learning how the system works is wrong?
Minimizing the incentives for people to invest in our companies by prohibitting the use of share certificates as colletarals is wrong?
Criminalizing loans is ignorant and wrong?
The list goes on, and on, and on .

There's nothing Sanusi has achieved in the banking industry today that could not have been better handled if he had been a little bit more educated.
As you pop your champagne, and beat your chest, simply remember that the night of this banking saga is still too young.

First, I take strong exception to your comment that I use my mod position to promote SLS. Show me a Sanusi thread I sticky, or an anti-Sanusi comment I delete. I opened this thread. I have opened scores of it before I became Mod. Anybody can open thread, mod or member. So where have I used my Mod privilege to promote SLS. That's uncharitable.

That said, the article is not for NL alone, it's even for the larger populace, but as I do sometimes, I have only made a copy available here for discussion and criticisms.
The article is in no way a celebration or champagne popping. I wondered why RP suddenly went underground and put it to paper.

Jarus,

Abeg we must celebrate jare, it is rare for the truth to defeat evil in Nigeria, so, when it happens we must pop champagne.

oyb:


GBAM GBAM GBAM

GBAM GBAM GBAM once again

OYB_MEND:

There is no need celebrating victory on Sanusi's policies, how is the economy doing, how about those who lost jobs due to Sanusi's panic attack? have they found work yet? how about our difficulties accessing credit abroad? is our credit rating any better? how about the criminalisation of lending? are our banks lending to small businesses again?

Sending Cecielia Ibru to jail is not a Macro-Economic index, if Sanusi thinks he has won his fight because Ibru and co are to go to jail then clearly he mis-understands his job description.

Lets not get carried away brothers. Sanusi has a lot of work to do, the economy is hurting due to his unprofessional behaviour and he has not done much to turn the corner.

Agreed but the solution to our problem is not just CBN, as far am concerned a little part of it is CBN.

How creative and business oriented is the average Nigerian (Not buying and selling of tokunbo products)? Av worked with the credit dept of a bank b4 and majority of those who got loans back then was to open shops and trade in clothing. Even those that got huge loans spent a huge part of it in reforming their life and acquiring liabilities.

Majority don't want to farm, does not want to invest in real sector. All they want is to buy bank shares or stick their money in fixed deposit.

Give a Nigerian 5million or let him hit money and what does he do? Changes his wardrobe, buys jewelries, buys a car, changes and furnishes his apartment, wants to travel out for holidays, starts to oppress but never thinks of multiplying it first. Liabilities, liabilities, liabilities NO assets.

Even those that embezzle, what do they do with the money? Liabilities, liabilities, liabilities how many assets. How many of invest in the real sector or multiply what they stole?

Yet we blaim Sanusi. WE, our thinking and mentality is the major problem.

A post mortem performed on a patient who is still breathing oxygen on his own is called murder.

The opposition lost some ground with Ibru's plea bargain, no questions, but by the time this case winds through the courts, a few basic principles would have been established as a precedence on Nigerian's financial and economic annals.

One of those principles would be:
When does the government step in to take over a privately established company, and how?
It's the banks today, tomorrow it maybe cement companies, airlines, and even suya-making companies.

realmen:

to hell to sanusi and all his cronies.nnobody says those MDs are saints or anything BUT sanusi's approach was questionable. if they like they should jail everybody . that doesnt make the sanusi a good CBN governor.
how fair is economic indexes under sanusi are we better off or worse off. bleep sanusi bleep all of una

Must you contribute? U're obviously out of your depth. Why not just read and scroll on. MD's are not saints and the bull. If you ever lost money in a failed bank, I'm sure u won't be spewing this crap.