Another thumb down for Sanusi

Sylva Nze Ifedigbo

Like a hurricane, it swept through, leaving anything but smiles on many faces. Not the faces of the sacked Bank Chiefs and their high profile debtors. Not on the faces of the Bank staff and innocent depositors. Not on the faces of shareholders and investors.

For weeks it was the subject of national gossip, on the TV, in the papers and on the Internet. Naturally, three camps emerged. There was the pro Sanusi who awed by the revelations applauded the reform efforts of the Central Bank Governor. The anti Sanusi group who though equally awed, saw the impending melt down and advised caution. The final camp consisted of the majority of Nigerians who do not understand the economic jargons but whose only concern is to have food on the table every day.

It’s been over a year and many things have happened since. Loans have been recovered, Assets frozen, people put on trial, businesses grounded, Jobs lost, pays cut, share values crashed and yes, the banks have since erased the advancing of credit facilities as one of their services. We all refer to the situation as fall outs of Sanusi’s banking reform and is there any one who has not been affected in some way?

There is however another fall out of the reform. It is fast emerging that Sanusi swept away Bank Chiefs he described as fraudulent and replaced them with even more fraudulent bunch. Interim management teams as he called them were supposed to run the supposedly distressed banks for a while, stabilize them and put them in a shape that will be attractive to investors. These Interim Teams who have long outlived their interim-ness are now beginning not only to help themselves to whatever is left of the supposedly struggling banks resources but are also turning the banks into their fiefdom .

If the news out of Union Bank is anything to go by then there is yet many reasons to give Sanusi Lamido a thumb down. The revelation came to me in the form of a full page open letter by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor in one of the Dailies, highlighting what they termed “Unwholesome actions of Mrs. Funke Osibodu led Management Team at Union Bank.”

The revelations are as shocking as they are worrying. Mrs. Osibodu is said to have doubled the wages of the management team. While the ousted team earned about N38 Million per annum, the current executive Directors each earn N68 million per annum while that of the Group Managing Director is an official secret. This is in addition to tax free two years housing grant in advance totaling N180million, and medical grant of US$120,000 for each director all of which has been paid in full. In addition, Mrs. Osibodu bought her self two bullet proof Mercedes Jeeps at a total cost of N40million and Mercedes ‘E’ series for Four Executive Directors.

This spending profile which smacks of insanity certainly does not sound like measures to reposition an allegedly sinking Bank. As shocking as they are, it is even more shocking to hear of the manipulations in the bank books. For example, the Banks Fixed Assets has undergone an unexplainable reduction from N79,522billion in 31st December 2001 to N62,iiibillion as at 30th June 2010. Without stretching logic here, are we supposed to assume that N17.41billion in Fixed Assets simply grew wings and flew away in six months?

The management team does not fail to scream that the Bank s in bad standing financially, yet it has gone on a recruitment frenzy, hiring high earning senior personnel whose career exposure is no where as good as that of existing staff to justify the bumper compensation packages. What is more, the existing staffs have been moved away from sensitive duties, allowing the interim Management and their new recruits the needed space to run the show without challenge. And yes all these special new recruits are said to all be from the Interim GMD’s ethnic group. How convenient.

To add to all these, the Osibodu led team is accused of highhandedness and insensitivity. Indeed, the letter stated clearly that no bank in the country would dare compete with Union Bank under the interim leadership in very poor labour relations. Staff are not being promoted when due, 37 staff were sacked for overdrawing their account even when Mrs. Osidodu’s own account had been overdrawn within the same period. Three months after, the team has refused to act on the report that reviewed the illegal and unwarranted sack of 223 employees of the Bank.

There are also other allegations of deliberate de-marketing and striping of the bank Assets which has seen treasured long time customers of the bank being hounded out with their deposits and goodwill all of which curiously points to a deliberate effort to impoverish the bank and truly make it seem insolvent and thus good only for sale which has always been the alleged mission of the Central Bank Governor for the outset.

These are by all means weighty accusations which can not be swept under the carpet. For the NLC to make this public shows that it has gone way beyond mere speculations. The figures and precise information provided do not equally sound fictitious. While the team is presumed innocent until proven guilty, we can only hope that the necessary process necessary to proving that they are not guilty is set in motion under an atmosphere of integrity and if indeed they have done these things, they face the same fate as those whose places they took.

In all however, it is pertinent to note that this situation provides one more reason to give the Central Bank Governor a thumb down for his reforms that have failed to reform. Perhaps we shall all learn from this that there are many ways to kill a rat without spilling blood. Zeal must always be balanced with rationality or else it all comes crashing down as our banking industry has today.