Prof Corruption:

There is no correlation between your statement and allegations of corruption levied against Soludo.

Prof Corruption:

There is no correlation between your statement and allegations of corruption levied against Soludo.

Abagworo:

There is my brother. A lot of CBN governors have existed and are still existing(Sanusi) that did nothing to improve our banking sector and yet Soludo has been singled out and targeted for persecution.

Money to Print Money

The Age of Melbourne has reported that Securency International and certain of its executives are being investigated by the Australian Federal Police for alleged breaches of Australia’s criminal code which prohibit payments to foreign government officials to obtain a business advantage. According to the article, Securency (according to its website – a world leader in secure polymer substrate technology and the supplier of a range of unique substrates which are used for the printing of banknotes and other security documents), is also under scrutiny in the U.K., Vietnam, and Nigeria. The article notes that the Securency matter could be Australia’s first prosecution for foreign bribery.

Abagworo:

There is my brother. A lot of CBN governors have existed and are still existing(Sanusi) that did nothing to improve our banking sector and yet Soludo has been singled out and targeted for persecution.

Sanusi indicts Soludo for the rot in Nigerian Banks
As far as I know, the so called key shareholders and bank executives that ruined these banks do not deserve a place again in the institutions but should find their place in jail or even be shot dead. - Sanusi


Sanusi indicts Soludo for the rot in Nigerian Banks

The Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG) policy dialogue held in Lagos Friday was an opportunity for Sanusi to let stakeholders know the extent the sacked bank directors abused their offices.

At the summit, Mallam Lamido Sanusi exposed the extent of the decay in the banking sector that led to the current banking reforms. Those revelations have again highlighted the criminal conspiracy between the former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo and the former Bank Chief Executive Officers (CEO’s) to loot depositors’ funds.

According to Mallam Sanusi, one of the banks with N300 billion non-performing loans had 76 per cent of it (N236 billion) given to companies related to the CEO and his family members. Also mentioned was a N825 million paid as rent by a former bank CEO for a branch of the bank at Ikorodu, with 10 per cent of the money given to his private company. Not done yet, Sanusi disclosed that one of the sacked banks CEOs, still being questioned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) could not account for over N200 billion depositors’ funds.

Indicting his predecessor in office, Sanusi said: “all these are happening because 90 per cent of the times, the banks are smarter than the regulators”.

He said a bank can decide to hide N200 million loans in Commercial Papers without the auditors knowing; “How can one explain a situation where a bank is carrying a N300 billion bad debt on a capital base of N100 billion” He asked?

Sanusi added: “in this case, no responsible regulatory body will ignore such anomaly."

This is where Sanusi got it wrong. One Regulator did indeed ignore “such anomaly”. The Central Bank under Soludo relied too heavily on financial reports and the figures churned out periodically by the banks, and in the process, ignored the alarm bell that was getting alarmingly louder with every passing day. The CBN’s refusal to admit that the banking system was tottering resulted from Soludo’s criminal collusion with his partners in crime.

Let me explain.

On Thursday, February 27, 2009, the Federal Government announced its decision to fully deregulate the downstream sector of the oil industry, all the newspapers took notice. But some other significant pronouncements were made the same day by the Finance Minister, Mansur Muhtar almost went unnoticed; the decision by the Presidential Steering Committee on the Global Economic Crisis to set up a “group” to review policies critical to safeguarding the Nigerian financial system, most especially the banking sector.

This group comprising the CBN, Finance Ministry, NDIC, the Debt Management Office (DMO) and representatives from the private sector, announced the immediate setting up of a Regulatory Financial Services Committee that shall be mandated to meet every month to monitor and review developments in the financial system. The sub-committee will comprise the key regulatory agencies in the financial sector made up of the CBN, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), NDIC, NAICOM, and any other regulator crucial to the operations of the financial system.

While by Sanusi’s admission the “the problem started as far back as October last year when some banks became permanent customers of the Expanded Discount Window,” the establishment of an Asset Management Company in March 2009 was an admission by the government that till then, the CBN led by its Governor, Chukwuma Soludo preferred to bury its head in the sand.

Soludo's refusal to admit that the banking system is tottering was only because he was the architect of the consolidation programme which saw the sector slashed from 89 weak institutions to 24 much more complex financial market players. As such, he has staked his reputation so firmly on their success that his view of the sector can never be anything other than bullish.

But that is not the whole story. At a point in his career as CBN governor, Soludo got too entangled with the Bank CEO’s that he became both player and regulator at the same time. While Soludo fiddled as Rome burns he did have many supporters; those in the banking industry for whom he has done many favours. Soludo’s CBN turned a blind eye to phony financial declarations and doggy loans, many extended to buy shares by these beneficiaries of his consolidation policy.

Mr.Soludo was seen as especially close to some of the most powerful bankers in the land. These include Jim Ovia, the chief executive of Zenith, and Tony Elumelu, who runs UBA. Also close to the Central Bank governor are Cecilia Ibru of Oceanic Bank, and Erastus Akingbola, of Intercontinental Bank, all of whom constitute the aristocracy that invariable supports Mr. Soludo at Bankers Committee meetings.

Akingbola and Ibru were particularly indicted by Sanusi above of ‘abuse of office and outright stealing of depositors’ funds’.

A senior banker told us: “Mr. Soludo enjoyed incestuous relationship with the former bank chiefs. He gradually transformed himself into an imperial banker. His pulpit was the bankers’ committee meetings”.

The most illustrative evidence of Mr. Soludo’s questionable position as both player and regulator at the same time was the Intercontinental Bank and Ascot Offshore Nigeria affair. In 2007, Intercontinental bank gave a $200 million loan to Ascot Offshore Nigeria Limited to buy out Wilbros Nigeria.

Without the necessary due diligence, the CBN looked away when the collateral provided to secure the private loan turned out to be shares in the telecoms operator VMobile, now Zain, that were owned by the Delta State government. Today the deal is in receivership and the bank is groaning.

The ACOT and Willbros share scandal that had James Ibori’s – the corrupt former Delta State governor - imprimateur is presently the subject of investigation by the Economic and Finacial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Ibori would later repay this favour by coming to Soludo’s rescue when the Australia Federal Police Authority early this year sent a high level confidential security memo to the Presidency through the Office of the National Security adviser detailing bribery probe that centres on a series of multimillion-dollar payments by RBA firm Securency into offshore bank accounts of two British-based businessmen for onward transfer to Nigerian Government Officials to win a bank-note deal in the polymer cash-for-contracts scandal.

Australian Federal Police taskforce had been investigating Securency for possible breaches of Australia's criminal code, which outlaws payments to foreign officials.

Prominent amongst the names that featured in the secret memo is that of then CBN Governor, Charles Chukwuma Soludo, senior officials of the finance ministry and a former president.

Upon receipt of the Memo, a livid president Yar’Adua was said to have summoned the visibly shaken CBN Governor and all those involved to the Villa. As a damage control measure, the CBN Governor was to be relieved of his job after the expiration of his tenure and will not be reappointed.

My Source insists that the above resolution was reached after the intervention of James Ibori, the former Governor of Delta State on behalf of Soludo.

The sad reality in reporting these events is that the sources have to be anonymous. According to one of them; “No one wants to go the way of Bayo Ohu” (Bayo Ohu a former Guardian editor was assassinated this year while reportedly researching a certificate scandal concerning the current Customs Comptroller-General)

In fact, I am still trying to convince a former director of Spring Bank to reveal the under-hand deals that went on between Soludo and Bank directors to allow some banks pass the consolidation test. Sorry to say that some of us that knew of those corrupt deals were intimidated by the seeming success of the consolidation exercise.

Thus it was that Soludo maintained for months that the banking sector was robust and that no institution will be allowed to fail, estimating capital adequacy at 22 per cent. But even then, when this was juxtaposed against the banks’ exposure to the stock market and downstream oil marketers estimated by some analysts to exceed N1 trillion, capital ratios in the banking system may be insufficient to write off these loans. Soludo knew quite well that even if there was sufficient capital, a massive write off of this scale by the banks would greatly reduce their ability to fund the real sector. Besides, with interest rates at the interbank market climbing to 26 percent, this is reflective of the risk premium that banks are demanding in order to lend to even their own peers amid the uncertainty in the system.

In other words, banks have lost confidence in each other and are uncertain that obligations will be met when they fall due. Given the reality, it is apparent that hard policy decisions must be taken, and very quickly. But Soludo failed.

The vital question is: Why did Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo ignore all the warning signals? Why did he fail to nip the looming disaster in the bud? Why did he shirk his responsibilities?

There are three theories for this:

1. Fraudsters thrive on the inability of people either to spot what is going on, or a lack of the wherewithal to do something about it.

2. When those who are supposed to regulate get distracted or worse, get corrupted, it create conditions that favor those who are deliberately dishonest.

3. When regulation is imposed upon companies by governments or regulators who have little or no direct knowledge of the area they are trying to regulate, it sometimes end up encouraging behaviours that are not appropriate.

In the case of Soludo, he was completely corrupted by his gubernatorial ambition!

One of my sources detailed how Soludo cultivated the people he believed will help him achieve his long-standing ambition to be the governor of Anambra State and eventually the president of the entire nation by channeling funds to them.

Fortunately for him but with disastrous consequences for other Nigerians, his corrupt friends this month ensured that without wining a single vote, Soludo emerged as the gubernatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Anambra State.

The declaration by the CBN governor, Lamido Sanusi at the policy dialogue organized by the Nigerian Economic Summit Group that Shareholders of the eight banks recently taken over by the Central Bank of Nigeria have automatically lost their investments in the banks is very difficult to swallow.

These shareholders are being punished for the criminal negligence, fraud, corruption, ineptitude and dereliction of duty of one individual- Chukwuma Soludo.

At the Lagos Summit and in an emotionally laden voice, Sanusi declared: “As far as I know, the so called key shareholders and bank executives that ruined these banks do not deserve a place again in the institutions but should find their place in jail or even be shot dead.”

Amen! We cheer[b]…but the same consequence should befall the corrupt CBN governor that allowed them to get away with it[/b]!

aribisala0: Difference between Sanusi and Soludo is the former had prior industry experience and so knew the tricks his former colleagues got up to.

In this regard Soludo was naive and seems to have been dazzled by the razzmatazz and perhaps even begun to believe his celebrity.

In fact it was a win win situation for the criminal bankers;continue to inflate his profile and they continued their plunder undisturbed.

Time will tell whether Soludo is guilty of more than naivety

Dudu_Negro: rhino, how body? you and my biafran relatives, wetin we do you now?

ezioku?

PointB: Incidentally the main culprit is also the accuser.

By the way, the secret memo indicted a 'former president'. Since the 'secret memo' was sent to Yar Adua, and the 'bribe' was paid to foreign official, why is 'a former president' not keeping Soludo comapny in EFCC gulag?

Anyway, this is Nigeria, by the next year Soludo will stand for Governorship election under PDP or APGA or even the much maligned AC.N and emerge Anambra State Governor.

The 'former president' will see that as his (former president) only escape route. I am sure he doesn't want to die in prison.

Prominent amongst the names that featured
in the secret memo is that of then CBN
Governor, Charles Chukwuma Soludo, senior
officials of the finance ministry and a former president.

babapupa:

Do people contest election from foreign jail. Ask Ibori.....

PointB:

Between Soludo and say any of Gowon, Gowon, IBB, Abdulsalam, and IBB (all former president possibly referenced in the memo) who is more prominent.

Those who don't see that Soludo is simply a fall guy here should explain why 'a former president' is not in chains with Soludo? So give me the former president in chains or live with the tag of selectively prosecuting Soludo because he is Igbo!

PointB:

Extradite first before thumping your chest! Hater!

Rhino.5dm:
My brother, I lost almost everything I laboured in shares with bogus claims. I sold properties and invested that money in banking shares only to later found out that I traded in "tissue papers". Look these ediots were claiming my share value was promising and all is well, until they almost drained the last blood in my vein. Ko ni da fun awon ole jati jati.

Then one ediot will come here and spew nonsense about ethnicity?

babapupa: The world is really tired of you people playing the victim card. Its like you are never responsible for anything, its always other people victimizing you. smh...

babapupa:

Ode. Same way you waited for outcome before proclaiming election contest.

Ibo logic is always upside down logic.

seunfly:
If that is the case, can you please tell me any top man in Nigeria from public, private, political and academic organisation who is not a thei**f or has no skeleton in is closet. The truth is that it is easy to bring anybody down in Nigeria if need be. That is why it is difficult to oppose the incubent gov. Hence we have weak opposition party.