₦airaland Forum

AjanleKoko:
Jarus,
Why aren't you pursuing a postgrad in economics?

sure. that's been in the cards for long. got durham msc econs admission in 2007, but kept deferring due to work.

already settled for same course in Lag later this year, on part time basis

semid4lyfe:
And who told you the moderator positions are permanent?

leave him, if only he knew the turnover of mods in some sections. Politics has had 5 mods in 2 years.

BlueDiva:
^^^^
Good decision.
Foreign degree is no longer as hyped over here as before.

We have tons of jobless foreign degree holders in Naija.
Your experience is what really counts these days.

i thought i was the only one that has been observing this in recent time. I had a chat few days ago with 2 ex-classmates of mine who left their banking jobs to do their Masters in UK. They have been back for few months now and still looking for job.

But in my own company, you stand high chance of being re-absorbed after going for Masters abroad, especially if your made it clearn that your going was for study leave.

Meanwhile, on a personal note, yours sincerely got his first Accounting professional qualification(ACA) last week. Add 3+ years experience in Accounting to that, and I'm still not convinced Accounting job is my career destination. Economics(where i had my first degree and planning to have further degrees) still remains my first love. I just wrote ICAN to keep myself busy and perhaps to be competitive where i find myself(Accouting job). I will be through with CITN(Tax) too shortly by God's grace. But despite all these, I'm still pushing for an institution where Economics, more than Accounting, will be what I'll be doing/using on operational basis.

@Katz,
The post was not visible before because spambot thought it was a spam and not only tagged it, it also banned me. It's now been reinstated and I also unbanned. If that happened to another member, they would have said we are banning people/deleting posts that are anti-Sanusi.

That's just for the records, I'll take each of your questions and answer them in the next few hours by God's grace. They will require long typing and I've got no time for that now.

Nonsense

A couple of times i have sent confidential sms to wrong persons.

Continue in Travel section.

Is Sanusi brilliant? Very. In fact -with due respect to northerners here-he's the most brilliant northerner I have ever known(I may be wrong)

Is he overhyped? Capital NO. If anything, he's underrated, maybe due to the part of the country he is from, because if this man had been from another part, questions would not have arisen about his tribe/religion.

Is he a mediocre? A mediocre will not post this performance at a global stage: http://www.proshareng.com/articles/2264

Does Sanusi have only 12 years of banking experience?
Lie from the pit of hell. He was with ICON Merchant Banks rising to Area Manager, Kano 1985-1991; UBA/FBN 1997-2009. That is 6+12=18 years. Not knowing the no of years of experience one's subject of criticism has, doesn't speak well of a critic. One can be forgiven accusing the critic of working from answer to question or deliberately twisting facts.

Is 18 years banking experience enough to become CBN boss?
It's enough. If you haven't known your industry so well in 18 years, you will not know it in 40 years.
If he is good enough to become GCEO of one of Africa's largest Financial Groups, he is good enough to direct the economy.
The Group CFO of my company(one of Africa's leading Energy Groups) had 1st & 2nd degrees in Engrg, and did some courses in Finance plus ACA, with less than 15 years experience in Finance, drives the Financial strategy of the group so effectively today. He will easily do well as Accountant General of Nigeria or Finance Minister(his personal attributes held constant). Why the fuss about Sanusi having 12 or 18 years banking experience?

He did not have Msc?
Another lie. He has Msc Econs in ABU 83; B.Sc 1981. If this was lie, his school would have denied this claim, or more likely, Renaissance Professionals or other critics would have dug out this and scandalized it like Toronto. In fact, I even read his interview around 2009 where he said one of his greatest regrets is postponing his Phd application many times due to busy schedules.

TBC

I've been offline for sometime, just logging in and seeing this thread of interest, which I'm not sure I'm ready to dissipate more than minimum energy on, as, from past experience, we can not reach an agreement on who is right and who's wrong. Most of us are driven by some personal admiration or dislike for the subject of the debate. But even if we don't change our conviction, we will at least learn one or two things and objective readers can decide on which arguments are superior.

I'm sparing 40 minutes for this debate(like I said, I'mpeeping back to respond to worthy issues raised in days ahead.

So my subsequent posts will take issues already raised in previous pages, most of which have actually been ably tackled by early pro-Sanusi and neutral posters(like Ola Olabiy).

Been off-NL in the last couple of days and just seeing this.
Interesting, no doubt.
I have had enough of this debate on NL here and elsewhere and I'll just provide link to my previous debates and writings on the subject:

WITH DAVIDYLAN ON NAIRALAND 2009: : https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-302810.0.html


FROM MY BLOG: http://jarus.blog.com/2010/04/20/an-engagement-with-two-sanusi-critics/

When is the game starting?

My mechanic once told me that mileage can be brought down by manipulation to deceive buyers. How about that?

ola olabiy:


You no serious ooo

Yes na. Abeg make i promote my hero o

And guess where that borrowed coinage came to my mind yesterday? Inside BRT bus.

No top-rate Economic analyst, anywhere in the world, will speak against Islamic banking. The maximum you can hear is call for more enlightenments of ignorant foks that are making it a fuss in Nigeria when it is already operative in more than 75 countries in the world.

So sit there and think Soludo is ignorat like many of you.

If Islamic Banking violates your constitutional rights, go to courts. Simple

I have not seen a single top-rate Econimic analyst, from Okojo Iweala to Soludo to even Opeyemi Agbaje, criticize this banking model. The maximum i have seen is calling for more enlightenments, so that ignorant folks _and they abound here- can be educated that Islamic banking is Islam's contribution to Economics. Now i know ignorance is truly a diseaesn and maybe Sanusi is wrong for overrating Nigerians as enlightened enough to have understood this global trend.

Moved to Foreign Affairs.

Saw that PDP is finishing in Edo, and decamped to ACN to maintain relevance. That's all. Same happened in Osun after ACN took over,ertswhile PDP SSG, otthers defected to ACN to Maintain relevance.

manny4life:
Is SLS a CFA?

Besides, that he was invited to the CFA Conference, and he was called upon to make a speech, it could have been for many reasons. For crying out loud, Nigeria is on the race to be one of the G-20 nations, irrespective of the fact of our declining economy, Nigeria is well acknolegded globally, if someone can prove to me that he was invited because of his wonderful policies, particularly his own personal work, then I'll accept till then, let's forget it.

Can you give us other reasons why a global, serious professional body like CFA will invite an African regulator to come and address them, if not for spectacular performance of interest from him? Or do you think he was there to sing for them?

I have been away from this thread since almost immediately i started the topic, due to autoban from spambot. Now coming back, i have a seen a lot of comments which i will respond to together.

First, if you're new here, Naijaking and co, will tell you that i have been an avid admirer and defender of SLS since 2009. So for the poster saying 'now, it's Sanusi on Nairaland by Jarus and co', i want to tell you that it's not now, we have been in it in this section for 2 years plus.

Sanusi is my role model and far before he became CBN boss, i said that here in March 2009: https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-248924.0.html#msg3607203

What i like about him is his brilliance, intellect and courage. Being a writer myself, i learnt from him that contributing to national socio-political issues through regular articles, despite being a corporate executive is very possible. I learnt som many other things from him. And i have only sighted him live just once when he was FBN CEO. But i have self-apppointed myself as his defender, especially against the sickening arguments that he is not qualified as apex bank boss because he did not have an Ivy League degeree. Now tell me, from the way the authors of that article narrated his performance at world Financial Analysts gathering, what more would an Harvard-trained CBN governor do that he did not do there. He delivered the speech ex tempore and got the loudest ovation in a 4-day conference, where, for sure, many top guys from investment banking world would have also talked.

As for ekubear asking for vdeo evidence before he believes what those guys said of Sanusi's performance, then i'm sorry i cant help you. If you think 3 CFA Charterholders(and they are few in Nigeria) out of the 4 recognized enough to represent Nigeria at that conference will lie(with their professional reputation at stake) about Sanusi's performance, then your cynism is beyond redemption.

I have written over 20 articles in the last 2 years and half bordered on Sanusi, simply due to the fact that i personally cant take it when people dismiss somebody simply because of his tribe. Secondly, because he is my role model from his FBN days and i will continue to defend him.

Now, is he infallible? Clearlly no. Have i agreed with all his policies? Yes, except too hastily publlishing bank debtors list in August 2009 where errors were unpardonably found in the list.

Sanusi Lamido Sanusi: so good that his mother named him twice!

Sanusi showcases Nigeria to Global Investment Professionals at the 64th CFA Institute Annual Conference in Edinburgh  



May 25, 2011
By Ayoleke Adu, CFA; Banji Fehintola, CFA & Michael Anyimah, CFA

The 64th CFA Institute Annual Conference recently held between 8 – 11 May 2011 at the beautiful Scottish capital city of Edinburgh. The CFA Annual Conference is reputed to be the largest melting point for global investment professionals, especially those that hold the prestigious CFA designation awarded by the CFA Institute. The conference speakers are usually carefully selected and include some of the world’s most reputable thought leaders, scholars, book writers, journalists, economists, regulators and finance experts. With the Speakers usually drawn from developed economies, Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi of the Central bank of Nigeria was given the honour of being the only African regulator to speak at the conference this year. It was a unique opportunity for Nigeria and indeed Africa to showcase one of its own at a global stage. For Nigeria in particular, it was an opportunity for the CBN Governor to put the country, which many conference attendees knew very little about, on the global map. More importantly, it was an opportunity for Governor Sanusi to correct many misconceptions that the global investment community has about Nigeria. This was certainly an opportunity that Governor Sanusi seized wholeheartedly and indeed Nigeria can be proud of how one of its own was able to change the mind of close to a thousand investment professionals in a speech that lasted less than an hour.


Not many people would have been able to retain their composure following the way the moderator introduced Governor Sanusi. The moderator started by stating the obvious fact that not many people in the audience knew so much about Nigeria apart from regrettably the wide spread cases of internet fraud. With this daunting introduction of Nigeria, Governor Sanusi was given the platform to speak to an international gathering of world leading investment bankers, investors, and policy makers about the recent regulatory reforms in the Nigerian banking industry, how Nigeria is curbing fraud in the banking system and the country at large and the lessons that the world could learn from the Nigeria’s experience. The expectation was very high as the world, represented by the nationalities of the various conference attendees, waited to hear what Governor Sanusi had to say. Perhaps some skeptics might have doubted if anything good could come out of Africa, and were just waiting to confirm that opinion. For the four Nigerian CFA Charterholders in attendance at the conference, our feeling was also that of anxiety as we did not know what to expect.


Once Governor Sanusi mounted the podium, he started his speech by joking about how his staff religiously prepare speeches and presentations every time he had a speaking engagement and how he had informed them that it is his prerogative to decide whether to use the speeches or not, and that this time, he had chosen to speak without using prepared speech. The audience had a good laugh and settled in for what turned out in the opinion of many, to be the best hour of the conference. Through a very interesting narration, Governor Sanusi without looking at any notes, took the audience through the various regulatory reforms that the Nigerian banking sector had witnessed in the last two years. The speech was jovial and incisive, with Governor Sanusi holding the audience spell-bound while also passing on the crucial message that Nigeria is not about the negatives that people read about in the media. Admittedly, the country faces all the challenges of many resource-rich developing economies saddled with the classic Dutch disease that makes the economy to be highly dependent on oil exports and revenues to the detriment of other sectors of the economy, nevertheless, the CBN Governor’s emphasis on the efforts that the government has been making in curbing fraud in various facets of life in the country in no small means went a long way in correcting the mindset of many people in the audience. Using the banking sector as a reference point, the CBN Governor took the audience through the roles that the CBN and the various governmental and law enforcement agencies have played in ensuring that people who are saddled with the obligation of running financial institutions and have fallen short of that moral trust are tried through the legal process in the country. For global investors that doubted if the court systems in Nigeria work, the fact that a conviction of one of the Chief Executives of one of the rescued banks while some are still at various stages of going through the court process was cited to emphasize the strides that Nigeria has taken in the last few years.

The Governor also shared Nigeria’s experience in bailing out troubled financial institutions with the central bank injecting about US$4.1 billion into the rescued banks in the form of Tier 2 Capital and reaffirming the guarantee of the local interbank market to ensure adequate liquidity for all banks in the system, all in a bid to curb a systemic collapse and contagion that was imminent if nothing was done. Governor Sanusi shared his belief that regulators around the world should not allow banks to fail in order to avoid systemic crisis but after a bank is bailed out, he opined that the executives that mismanaged the bank must not be allowed to continue running the bank. Someone has to pay the price for the failure. Sharing the Nigerian experience, he also condemned in strong terms the notion of bankers wanting to privatize profits while socializing losses, advocating that the cost of bank bailouts should be borne by the banks and not the tax payers. The fact that this idea was welcomed with a thunderous applause across the conference hall suggested that Governor Sanusi’s position resonated well with majority of the audience who are predominantly from the United State and Europe where the debate about bank bonuses and who should bears the burden of bank bailouts between “Wall Street” (the bankers) and “Main Street” (the taxpayer) lingers on.

On other issues, Governor Sanusi informed the audience of the current regulatory reforms in the Nigerian banking industry that are all geared towards making the industry operate at world class standards. Specifically, policy measures and initiatives to promote the safety, soundness and stability of the financial system include the landmark establishment of the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) as part of a broad resolution strategy aimed at addressing the problem of non-performing loans in the Nigerian banking industry, enforcement of the Code of Corporate Governance for Banks in Nigeria (which affects both the bankers as well as the regulators), introduction and implementation of risk-based and cross-border supervision and a move towards the implementation of the New Capital Accord (Basel II), adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) by all Nigerian banks in 2012, reversal of the universal banking model and the introduction of a banking model aimed at making banks focus on their core banking business hence promoting functional specializations and preventing depositor’s money being used for proprietary risk taking and non-banking activities. While the world is still debating which direction to follow on restricting banks to their core-banking function, it appears that Nigeria is ahead of the curve having rolled out and implemented a policy on this. Other points raised by the Governor include the enforcement of the Know-Your-Customer (KYC) directive, comprehensive review of the “Fit and Proper Persons” rule, introduction of tenure limit of 10 years for external auditors of banks and issuance, in conjunction with SEC and other agencies, of the Margin Lending Guidelines, which places a limit on a bank’s capital market exposure to a percentage of the bank’s balance sheet.

At the end of his speech, the CBN Governor was given a standing ovation (the only Speaker during the 4 days conference to be accorded that honour) as he walked from the podium to take his seat to answer the multitudes of questions that the delighted audience had. It was evident from the responses after the speech that the CBN Governor had just written Nigeria’s name in gold in the minds of a global audience. While we admit that the country may have its challenges, it is obvious that steps are being taken to right the missteps that the country had taken in years past. While Governor Sanusi’s speech was inspirational, his responses during the question and answer session revealed the jovial nature of the man. The most interesting question that came from many people in the audience to Governor Sanusi was, “Can you please take over the leadership of the Fed (the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States)?” In the usual nature of central bankers who hardly give anything away, Governor Sanusi’s answer to the question was a big smile. It is doubtful that even if offered, the CBN Governor will take Ben Bernanke’s job at this stage of the United State’s economic history. So, Mr. Bernanke has nothing to worry about! Moreover, Nigeria still needs Governor Sanusi. The Nigerian CFA Charterholders at the conference were extremely proud to be Nigerians after Governor Sanusi showed to the world, the very best part of Nigeria that the global media often refuses to showcase. Certainly, never again will those that listened to his speech ever think that Nigeria is only a country of “internet fraudsters”. We feel that more Nigerians of his quality and courage should be appointed into strategic offices to bring about the transformation needed in the country.

Thanks, Sanusi, for doing Nigeria proud at global stage

This man is not infallible, but the earlier we expunge the belief that he is a mediocre because he has no Harvard degree, the better. I'll continue to promote my role model.

http://www.proshareng.com/articles/2264

That's an attendee's account.
My man was the only speaker to receive standing ovation in a 4-day global conference of of international finance experts.

Yet some people will come here to dismiss this as 'wetin Sudan-trained aboki sabi?'

A arika jimo

Everywhere it is practised, it is called Islamic Banking. Why then do we have to change the name in Nigeria?

Never knew many Nairalanders have stayed in Kwara like this.

Out. Checked in VI office. Qualified.

visited (more than 48hrs)
Kwara (my state) ilorin, omu-aran

So you never spend 1 week in your state?

A finance friend in Shell earns 750k per month.

Lived, 1 year plus:

Kwara - 19 Years (Born+primary+secondary)
Osun - 5 years (University)
Lagos - 3+ years(work)
Sokoto -1 year, 3months (NYSC + its extension)

Been to:
Oyo
Kogi
Ogun
Niger
FCT
Kebbi
Kaduna
Kano
Rivers
Zamfara
Katsina
Ondo
Ekiti

There must be something about this Dr Tunji Olagunju. Virtually all regimes have been recycling him since 70s. Late General Musa Yar'Adua plucked him from ABU as private Assistant in the Mid 70s. IBB used him as Special Adviser and Minister of External Affair in late eighties, later Minister for Internal Affairs in till IBB left in 1993. Obasanjo also used him as High Commissioner to RSA in his civilian coming, Umaru Yar'adua continued, appointed him Special Adviser on NEPAD. He has retained same position in GEJ government.

otondo55:
Never! we are not enough enlightened to have it.

This is a secular nation, it can Never work, NEVER !

We will see.

X-factoria,
Honestly, it is sickening the way you people castigate someone for no other reason than he has anything to do with Islam. Yes, he has a degree in Islamic studies, so is that a crime? Islamic banking has been in the piipeline since Soludo says, should Sanusi just ignore it because he is a Muslim or he read Islamic studiies. I'm sure if SLS was not a Muslim, there would not have been any fuss about it, it would have just come as a regular CBN policy. But now, the CBN governor is a Muslim and every step he takes is being viewed from ethno-religious lens? It's sickening.