₦airaland Forum

Warning:
Let all the contributors here watch their words before it degenerates into exchange of hot words.

In an exclusive interview with P.M.News yesterday, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, said, “there has been serious pressure from the chieftains of the affected banks and highly placed individuals like businessman, politicians and traditional rulers, calling on the president to force me to rescind my decision. But the president told me never to be deterred. He is solidly behind my action.”

Sanusi regretted that in a country of 140 million population, our children have no role models or decent people to look up to.

He said: “The way things are going, if we had not taken the action we took, our children will grow up to discover that honesty and hard work do not pay. They will just believe that the best way to rob a bank is to set up one, allow stakeholders and depositors to put in money and thereafter announce the collapse of the bank and do away with the funds. In my time as CBN governor, I will not allow it.”

Sanusi, please resign if Yar'adua succumbs to their pressure!

In an exclusive interview with P.M.News yesterday, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, said, “there has been serious pressure from the chieftains of the affected banks and highly placed individuals like businessman, politicians and traditional rulers, calling on the president to force me to rescind my decision. But the president told me never to be deterred. He is solidly behind my action.”

Sanusi regretted that in a country of 140 million population, our children have no role models or decent people to look up to.

He said: “The way things are going, if we had not taken the action we took, our children will grow up to discover that honesty and hard work do not pay. They will just believe that the best way to rob a bank is to set up one, allow stakeholders and depositors to put in money and thereafter announce the collapse of the bank and do away with the funds. In my time as CBN governor, I will not allow it.”

This guy dey try o. Since Friday, he's been granting interviews here and there. Does he sleep at all? It's not easy o

Anyway, I hope Yar'adua doesn't succumb to the pressure. Sanusi should resign if the president succumbs to pressure from these ''chieftains of the affected banks and highly placed individuals like businessman, politicians and traditional rulers''

mbulela:
Jarus, since you know a lot about the story, could you throw more light on the moves of Gamaliel Onosode and Wakilin Adamawa?
i know both were directors of the bank and Gamaliel resigned from the board just before the collapse.
i will appreciate your insight.

Gamaliel Onosode is still around and still highly respected in corporate Nigeria. Remember he was the Chairman(a non-executive position) and could easily exonerate himself, just as the Chairmen and non-executive directors of Intercontinetal, Oceanic and co are being spared in the current tsunami.

However, Adekanye and co accused Onosode and co of betrayal, saying 'boardroom coup' compounded their woes.

What should EFCC arrest Soludo?
Did he commit any financial crime?
Did he aid or abet any?
Did he defraud anybody?

That analysis, coming from Vanguard,I'm not surprised. Is that not the newspaper that organizes BANKERS AWARDS to celebrate these banks and bankers? An attempt to save the irredeemably fallen credibility of their awards, if you ask me. Vanguard my foot.

Coming from Vanguard,I'm not surprised. Is that not the newspaper that organises BANKERS AWARDS to celebrate these banks and their CEOs. The story, to me, is an attempt to defend their awards and prevent it from losing its credibility. Vanguard my foot

Like Akingbola, Adekanye was also a philanthropist to the core. He helped a lot of people, people he knew and those he didn't know, gave scholarship to many people, close to MKO. Infact, his house was just a stonethrow to MKO's in London.(The house was later sold when wahala started )He was flamboyant though, and indeed their era marked the beginning of flamboyant banking in Nigeria. Posh cars etc. He was regularly praised by Yoruba fuji musician,Ayinde Barrister, in his early 90s albums(Anyone remember barrister's song:Aaweeda, omo Adekanyeeee. . .) That was when d ovation was loudest.

Suddenly came the failed bank saga and the rest is now history. All the beneficiaries of his largeheartedness disappeared. They began to say ''so he had been spending bank money all ds while''. With his closest friend,Ralph Osayameh, and others like Otunba Femi Ajayi, they were hurled in prison.

Adekanye went religious in prison.He learnt the lesson of life; from a respected CEO and CIBN president wt a palatial residence in Ikoyi, he found himself in prison jackets. When he was released, he strove to revive the bank, sought legal redress, went to Oputa panel, but nobody took him serious. Many people betrayed him.

Shortly after his release, I spoke wt him on phone and also met him @ his magnificent countryhome in Kwara(remember I said he used to be my role model) and he mentioned his ordeal to me and how he had been wretched, wt virtually all his properties sold.

Later, he relocated to Germany. But the last I heard about him, and that was a couple of days ago, was dat he's now a lecturer in SA. This life!

I just don't have faith in the current EFCC. How I wish Ribadu is still around.

On the demarketing accusation,Sanusi was not behind any demarketing, it was an attempt to smear his name for his conservative banking approach as GMD of FBN. That was earlier this year. Even b4 becoming CBN guv, Sanusi had always been critical of the unethical approach to banking by his colleagues. It was ds dat made them attempt to discredit thru d demarketing allegation.

Sanusi is the best thing to have happened to this govt. He is bringing live to a passive Yar'adua govt. We only hope he's not meted the Ribadu treatment

qblaze:
@Jarus


Did Fola Adeola recently comment on Erastus Akingbola? Was it a public comment or a private one? Would love to know.

No, I have not heard Fola Adeola comment on this Sanusi shocker.

RibaduFan:
2 years down the line u guys would look back and understand

Ok, let's wait and see.

RibaduFan:
It is easy to sit back and accuse others.

You are the ones making the unfounded allgeations so the burden of proof lies with you. Kindly proof to us that they are greed and reckless.

Have heard of wicked politics in Nigeria. Now I see it being played live.

Am sure you guys also crucified Jim Nwobode a few years back, now no one is saying jack.

I understand the burden of managing human and material resources in a very complex and competitive environment. I understand the intrigues and intricacies. I understand it could be rough at times, and save some patchings, results could be embarrassing and suicidal seeing what you've built over years subtly crumbling without trying to save it even if you have to jump the rules. In fact, with recent experience, I doubt if any CEO in Naija will survive if subject to thorough ethical check. I pity those CEOs. I wonder how they even sleep.
But sentiments apart, yemmyse, Akingbola's was of monumental proportion.

Can he deny that:
- he did not give out N250 billion to his associate companies which was used to buy shares in bank
- 78 percent of Intercontinental Bank’s shareholders’ funds were not eroded
-  he did not have bad books in oil and gas as well as real estate(one of such real estates is just behind my house in VI annexe here,behind city of David church, sprawling a whole street, built with billions of Naira)

I'm not in anyway rubbishing Akingbola, but I think we need to look at issues dispassionately.

Dis Guy:
You have to remember most of these guys like the politicians own the media houses in nigeria
what happened to all the awards they(media) gave these bankers and their banks, without seeing their balance
sheet?

The most pitiable part is that there are ways of hiding these things from balance sheet.
Imagine the huge margin loans. No disclosure, no provision.

RibaduFan:
Jarus

As ever u have displayed a great deal of knowledge and wisdom. But to accuse Akingbola and Cecilia of Greed and Reckelessness is a grave sin. Please do ask for forgiveness.
It is easy to read stuff from the dailies and run one's mouth.

"What is after the number 6 is much higher than seven"

Okay, I retract the 'greed' description, but can you convince me they were not reckless?

d failed bank actually stained them. Imagine ex-convict tag. Adekanye is now in SA as a lecturer. Don't know wia Osayameh is.

GEW:
having said that i still choose to believe he is a very nice man. he is not one of those greedy arrogant nigerians. he is a man of great humility and respect for everyone he came accross it doesnt matter who you are he respected you. that was the RKO i knew and choose to remember. a fine decent man

The same goes for his friend, Femi Adekanye, who I also know closely.

kokoA:
Good for you, at least for now until his own skeleton is dug out.

Sincerely, it's now very hard to trust any CEO in naija again.

DTaj:
It's so pathetic that Nigerians always return to their convenient cocoon of tribal and religious sentiments when officials genuinely undertake their assignments with all sincerity, Most times, when a Yoruba thief was caught, his kith and kin would cry blue murder that he was being 'persecuted' becuase he was Yoruba, The same thing goes on with other major tribes- Hausa and Igbo, If a Muslim/Christian stole and he was tried, his fellow religious adherents would claim he was punished because of his faith,

I am a Yoruba through and through (both parents) and I dare say that informed minds recognize that Sanusi just did what he had to do: what dispassionate, unbiased, and unfettered professionals had been clamouring for over the years, That our banks generally lack robust risk management and governance structures; and evidently the gravity of the inadequacies in some banks outweigh others,

I read a comment about Unity Bank not being touched because of its Northern origin and I laugh, Did you know that Unity Bank might likely escape the hammer? The reason is simple, At a recent private function (several months before the wind of change and during Soludo's tenure, for emphasis), the MD of Unity Bank claimed that he does not even know why there was so much noise about margin lending (lending to customers who bought bank and other companies' shares) and downstream lending (lending to clients, most of whom built tank farms); he said before he could find out, the lending market was already saturated!!! While this does not mean that Unity Bank had the best risk management structure, it shows that because they didn't partake in the lending bazaar- either by way of ignorance as depicted by their MD, or deliberate internal policies, they are likely to be free!!!

If the truth must be told:

Are the 5 banks not guilty of reckless lending?
Didn't they go on a lending bazaar?
Were their massive indebtedness on inter-bank in doubt?
Did they perpetually borrow from the Expanded Discount Window( EDW)?
Did the sacked CEOs live 'depositors-fate-doesn't-bother-me' lifestyles?
Are the symptoms in those banks not similar to the bad precedent of bank chiefs few year ago during the Failed Banks Tribunal era?
Aside from the reasons adduced by the CBN, would staff of these banks honestly confess to so many 'dubious deductions' from their salaries lately before the hammer fell?
Did one of the banks not put a withdrawal ceiling on customer accounts recently owing to liquidity problems?
Wasn't this the same thing that caused people like 'highly respected' Femi Adekanye, prolific banking author and a former bank CEO- Commerce Bank (and former CIBN President for that matter) to be jailed and disgraced by the Failed Banks Tribunal?

I can go on and on, NIGERIANS LET'S FACE FACTS, I am a senior banker too and I know certainly that some of my family members, friends, acquaintances, family friends, current and former professional colleagues work in ALL the five banks affected. I also know that people especially love Mama Ibru and Mr Akingbola (among the 5 CEOs fired), BUT THE TRUTH HAS TO BE TOLD!!! NO SENTIMENTS!!!

Parochial Nigerians should leave Sanusi alone! He means well and he needed to rein in on our profligate bank executives, People should read informed reactions and commendation of Sanusi from the papers- See a former ICAN President- L. Owoyemi's comments in the Punch of yesterday and several other comments from 'real thorough-bred professionals', not the many ethnic jingoists and religious fanatics on several blogspots and chat rooms in Nigeria, Even those in the Diaspora who should know better are not any different,

People should read Sanusi's interviews in the ThisDay newsaper of last Sunday and in the Punch of yesterday, Or lazy bones could type his name on 'google search engine' and see the plethora of articles and speeches by Sanusi several years before he became CBN Governor,

People should talk to senior people at UBA and FBN who worked with or who knew Sanusi; they'd tell you that he is fortright, intelligent, urbane, considerate, consultative and uncompromising, And knowledgable!!! This is not to say that he is a saint tough,

FOR EMPHASIS: NIGERIA'S PROGRESS WOULD REMAIN A PIPE DREAM IF ALL WE COULD DO IS TO CRITICIZE GENUINE POLICY DECISIONS ON THE BASIS OF ETHNIC AND RELIGIOUS AFFILIATIONS, NO WONDER WE ARE WHERE WE ARE!!!

And in case some people come out of their rat holes to slam me, the writer is a senior executive in a bank,

Thank you Dtaj for your informed comment.
We have continued to enlighten them but they refuse to get themselves extricated from the stranglehold of tribal jingoism.

I have researched enough on Sanusi, read virtually all his articles since 1997 to have an idea about his thinking.
I was forced to write the article 'THE SANUSI LAMIDO I DIDN'T KNOW'(http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=147240%20-) after my research. I have spoken with people close to him, especially in UBA. Atedo Peterside, the Rivers-born investment banking guru, who had known Sanusi since their secondary school days in Kings College, Lagos, has spoken volume on sanusi's ability. If this guy had been a southerner, we would have called him a genius, but because he's from a tribe not known for producing more genuises, we all read undue meaning to his bold move.

@Dtaj,
I have also mentioned the Adekanye issue in another thread.

kokoA:
Its called proffesional incompetency and its a crime. Hope you got your self a better role model after wards. Abi you later choose Erastus?

FOLA ADEOLA now.

GEW:
i dont know the other 2 but i know ralph osayameh personally. he is one fine morally upright man that got caught up in nigeria's business politics. unfortunately he is not a politician. i have not heard of him recently cos i dont reside in nigeria. ask anyne who know the man personally they will tell you who he is a fine gengtleman.

he didnt know there was more to banking than knowing figures and being inteligent. everything is politics. tribalism in nigeria

I followed the two men(Femi Adekanye and Ralph Osayameh) in the 1990s. Femi Adekanye was my role model then when my sole ambition, as a young Junior secondary student was to grow up and become a banker like Adekanye and I actually knew him personally. I have spoken with him a couple of times after his release from prison. I have read the two books he wrote while in prison, DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL and PRESUMED GUILTY.

He was a philantropist to the core. In his account of his ordeals, as I read in his 'PRESUMED GUILTY', he claimed IBB and Abacha witchhunted him for associating with MKO. Another account had it that it was because he refused to sell his bank, Commerce bank, to IBB.

But sentiments apart, I struggle to accept his ordeal was political. Even if it was political, I think they were the ones that took a petrol bath, making it easy for their enemies to roast them. I read his book but struggled to get convinced that the Ile-Oluji loan deal was not recklessness on Adekanye's and Osayameh's side.

On the part in bold, are you sure being gentle and morally upright make one immune from recklessness? Remember they did not steal, they only mismanaged.

Anyone followed the failed banks proceedings of the mid-90s?
Anyone knew Commerce bank?
Anyone knew Drs Femi Adekanye and Ralph Osayameh?

Well, the failed banks saga of the 1990s erupted from the enforcement of the failed bank decree of 1991 that swept away top bank chiefs of that period, just as Sanusi's invocation of BOFIA is sweeping off some reckless bank chiefs of today.
Commerce Bank Ltd was one of the banks licensed in 1989, alongside Intercontinental, Zenith,IBTC and a host of others, and the bank was owned by Chief Femi Adekanye and Dr Ralph Osayameh. These banks, later dubbed second generation banks, began what is now known as glamorous banking. They revolutionized banking with perks and flamboyant living by bank executives and all the First and Union banks of this world suddenly became old school, the ugly bride.

For reasons, which a decade later some people still believe was political, the military government's axe dangled on some of these bank chiefs, most prominently Dr. Femi Adekanye and Ralph Osayameh, CEO and Vice Chairman respectively of the then Commerce bank(Gamaliel Onosode was the Chairman and he was later accused of betrayal). The then John Ebodaghe-led NDIC accused them of breaching  lending principles in giving loans to Ile Oluji company(a company that later went under) and they were imprisoned in additon to their banks being liquidated.

Dr. Femi Adekanye FCIB was a seasoned banker and author of books on Finance. He was the President of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria(CIBN) 1991-93 and President of the West African Bankers Association.The guy he co-founded Commerce Bank with, Dr. Ralph Osayameh, was also a past president of CIBN. In fact the fall of their bank is still being used in Finance lessons as reference point in how professional banking certificates/qualifications do not translate to proper management of bank. Imagine a bank run by two former CIBN presidents failing!

While Adekanye and Osayameh were among the superbankers of that era(like the Jim Ovia and Tony Elumelu of today), Akingbola was in a lower class then. He was the youngest bank CEO when those banks were licensed in 1989. By 1994-96 when Adekanye and co were on trial, Akingbola, though still lower than these more renowned bank chiefs, was already a member of CIBN board. Recall Adekanye and Osayameh were past presidents. The two folk, seeing that their free fall was on the way, contacted Akingbola to save their bank from imminent collapse by accepting their merger proposal. Akingbola refused and watched his senior colleagues and their banks crumble. That was the end of their banking career that had spanned four decades. From men that people looked at in awe in Nigeria's financial and social circles, the two men found themselves in Ikoyi prison, in white prison uniform. You know the military. They spent four years in prison. The men soon paled into insignificance in the list of Who's who in Nigeria. one of them is now a lecturer in South Africa.

Fourteen years later, the then young Akingbola now came of age. He rose to positions these men were in 1991-94. He became CIBN president like them. He became NSE Vice-President. He was made Pro-Chancellor of a university. The ovation was loudest. Every young banker was looking forward to become Erastus Akingbola, just as the young bankers of the 90s looked forward to become Femi Adekanye or Ralph Osayameh. That was the peak of his career.

And suddenly, the bubble burst. Akingbola was sent the way of Adekanye and Osayameh, but thank God this is not a military era, he was sent home while the Adekanyes were sent to Ikoyi prison. . . . someone is saying this is retribution for Akingbola's refusal to accept Commerce bank's merger proposal to save his two falling senior colleagues!!!! I do not totally agree.

Like Fola Adeola, I believe Akingbola should have left the scene long ago. My 5 cent.

NB: This is just for the records. I'm not celebrating the fall of anybody. Even if the fall is due to their recklessness and greed, I don't think it's moral to celebrate the fall of another man.

Nairaland now equals Nigeria

coi:
i am sure Sanusi and his team are after something we dont know.
how can he suddenly turn the table round within this short period. the timing is too short to make things happen; unless, of course he is a wizard.

Soludo's 13-point reforms programme, chief among which was raising of minimum capital base to N25b and the inevitable consolidation, was also unveiled in his very first meeting with bankers' committee(all bank CEOs). That was July 4, 2004, less than two months after his ascension to the position. That was the Soluso shocker.

Have you ever been in a position to reform or revive a team?  The first thing a brilliant manager will do is to study the situation and come up with what he feels is the best approach to tackle the ills. Soludo came with his recapitalization policy less than two months after taking over and it was a success(to me), so the argument that Sanusi's action was too hasty holds no water.

This is greed and inexcusable corruption.

Before dropping the money, I use to drag it as if it's more than N100. At times, I dribble them into selling the fuel and give them an amount equals to the value of fuel sold to me and ask them to challenge me. Although, they have their way most times, I don't submit to them easily. I don't aid corruption.

Salam all

. . . and some people will come here and tell us Akingbola's axing was witchhunting

This northern agenda argument is most ludicrous.

@volunteer, thank u 4 simplifying d issue for dem.

@beaf, it's a pity u still continue to call BOFIA a military decree after all d lecture we av given u in d various threads on ds topic. But to spoonfeed u again, it was originally Banking and other financial institutions decree(BOFID) when it came to existence in 1991, but was amended later In 2003 to become an act(BOFIA). All Soludo's powers were also drawn from ds BOFIA but now dat d punitive part is being invoked, you remember it is a 'decree'. How hypocritical can some people be.

'a brush wt EFCC recently'

Is ds not Jim Ovia? Fingers crossed.

As 4 d northern agenda theorists , I expect nothing better from drowning men

Becomrich no go kill person 4 ds NL oooo LOL

Sanusi has started well but I do not think Soludo was a failure. Sanusi outperforming Soludo does not mean Soludo was a failure. In fact, everybody was unanimous dat Soludo floored his predecessors, bringing vibrancy to a position dat, hitherto, nobody other than bankers cared about. If not for Soludo's bringing of life to CBN governorship, the debate on who succeeded him would not av been dat intense. This will be anoda test 4 whoever is going to succeed Sanusi dat CBN guvship is no longer 4 d lily-livered. The whole nation is now interested. You must be seen working. You av to improve on ur predecessor's shortcomings.

I do not tink it is fair to castigate Soludo. His consolidatn exercise, weda we like it or not, was well timed and as we all see, led to a boom in the financial sector and d sector turned out to be the largest absorber of graduates.  Soludo was no doubt also aware dat  all was not well wt dese banks, but rather than visiting dem heavily, he exercised d option of secretly bailing dem out, but it did not work. It will be foolhardy of Sanusi to continue wt d secret bailing out, esp wen he realized dat dey were using unethical means to cover up. Let's leave Soludo rather than hold him responsible.

Like I argued in anoda thread, beyond academic  qualifications and even professional experience, the skill and attitude of a person is equally important in looking @ who's fit for a job. No-nonsense and zero tolerance for indiscipline and breach of ethics. That is who Sanusi is.  Sanusi is a fearless professional and a disciplinarian to fault. Even as ordinary AGM in UBA, he fought his state governor to standstill. A Phd in Economics and a Harvard cert will not do ds 4 u. This is wia I have problems wt dose dat argue dat Sanusi has no more dan Msc from ABU and dismissed him as incompetent.

As 4 dose arguing that this Sanusi shocker is a northern agenda, dey obviously know nothing about the man Lamido Sanusi. While I do not rule out the north having any agenda, the SLS I know is the last person dey can use to hatch dia agenda.I am too sure Lamido Sanusi will neva do d bidding of any ethnic group. They will rada remove him and put anoda person. This Sanusi can not be a pawn in any ethnic group's political chess game. Sanusi ranks in d  same level wt Gani Fawehinmi in my list of Nigerian personalities I can put my money on dia trustworthiness. I av said somewhere dat d Sanusi I know has d gut to resign if not given free hands to operate. I only hope the evil desire to keep his job will not make him deviate or bow to political pressure and compromise.

SLS I know is not for vengeance. He need not witchhunt Tony. I also heard ds story of demotion from one of my bosses whose office was just few metres away from Sanusi's in UBA house. When UBA and STB merged, Sanusi from UBA was due to be the ED risk mgt, but Tony put d guy dat came wt him from STB and made Sanusi report to him. But Tony himself recognised Sanusi's superior competence. In any case, FBN invited him for same post months later.