Oriental Hotel Lekki was agog with activities on the 27th of April 2020 as FBN Holdings held its Annual General Meeting. FBN Holdings had just declared N66 billion as its profit after tax. Shareholders were ecstatic as FBN Holdings also announced that N16.15 billion would be payouts on its dividends. This was followed by news of the re-election of Dr. Adesola Adeduntan, Mr. Oye Hassan Odukale, and Otunba Mrs. Debola Osibogun as directors of the bank.

Recent events have shown that there were factions in the bank struggling for its control. A faction, led by Chairman of the First Bank Dr. (Mrs.) Ibukun Awosika and Chairman Dr. Oba Otudeko, unceremoniously removed Dr. Adesola Adeduntan as MD/CEO of First Bank Ltd when he proved to be a stumbling block to their plans to consolidate control of FBN Holdings and all its subsidiaries.

CBN may have unwittingly started the faction on this course of action when they directed Ibukun Awosika, within ninety days, to divest First Bank Ltd.'s interest in Honey Well Flour Mills & Bharti Airtel Nigeria Ltd and comply with regulatory directives. Failure to do this will mean that the apex bank will take severe sanctions against First Bank for the insider lending practices.

This directive would have required First Bank to put a lien on the shares provided by Honey Well Flour Mills as collateral as well as instigating a corporate takeover by AMCON if the loan couldn't be repaid. This directive didn't go down well with Oba Otudeko who is a shareholder in both companies and set the plan to remove Dr. Adesola Adeduntan as MD/CEO of First Bank Ltd in motion.

The CBN, realizing the reason for the removal, reinstated Adeduntan to forestall moves by Oba Otudeko to frustrate the loan repayment and hinder investigations into the spate of irrecoverable loans gotten by insider lending within the last two decades.

"We are particularly concerned because the action is coming at a time the CBN has provided various regulatory forbearances and liquidity support to reposition the bank which has enhanced its asset quality, capital adequacy, and liquidity ratios amongst other prudential indicators. It is also curious to observe that the sudden removal of the MD/CEO was done about eight months to the expiry of his second tenure which is due on December 31, 2021. The removal of a sitting MD/CEO of a systemically important bank that has been under regulatory forbearance for 5 to 6 years without prior consultation and justifiable basis has dire implications for the bank and also portends significant risks to the stability of the financial system."

Oba Otudeko could not be controlled by financial regulations and Emefiele may have been wary of allowing him to remain as the chairman of FBN Holdings. The board was removed as the directors were incapable of preventing the breakdown of governance and insider abuse. CBN justifies its decision to intervene as to allow such illegality to stand will have led to a collapse of First Bank Ltd. Otudeko may be the ultimate loser and may head to court to get an injunction to halt his removal as chairman of FBN Holdings and uphold the decision to sack Dr. Adesola Adeduntan as MD/CEO of First Bank Ltd.

Ah omo kilode na
A whole 75bl na this government go kill us Las Las