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admin 3 January 2010 Entrepreneurship, Human Resources, Leadership, Writings 112 views No Comment Email This Post

I read the comments of some of the citizens of “Good people, Great nation” on the 234next news website concerning Dr Erastus Akingbola, the former Group Chief Executive Officer of Intercontinental Bank Plc. The website was such an interesting arena to be. People shared their opinion from different perspectives ranging from political, religious, economic and tribal point of view, to mention just a few. I know many people would have read it and some that were not opportune to drop their comment will still have personal opinion bottled up in them. I want to use this medium to share my own thoughts on this issue too with you.

I know what I am about to write will anger some people and I understand that I am about to raise a dust. Please follow me as I will be sharing this with you. The only help I will want is to free your mind from whatever opinion you might have concerning him (Erastus Akingbola) and let us come to a neutral ground to discuss this.

Firstly, I want you to know that am not in support of corruption in our country; in fact I am an advocate against it for a decade now in my own capacity. Secondly, I am not in any way related to him (Erastus Akingbola) neither am I sentimental about the issue as well. Therefore, I am not biased in my judgement. However let us speak the truth to ourselves.

According to a post on www.234next.com that stated that the Lagos high court Freezes Erastus Akingbola Assets. The newspaper reported that his offence was in tune of 347billion and his asset worth about 10 Million Pounds has been frozen. For God’s sake, I saw people commenting that his asset was 347billion & a particular individual on facebook posted comments that Akingbola’s Asset was worth half Nigeria’s 2010 budget. That is totally untrue and libellous. Moreover, I know quite a lot of internet millionaires who have made over 30 million pounds within ten years from the comfort of their bedroom without owning a single office….so I wonder what the issue is about Erastus owning asset worth £10 million when he has started building this over the past 20 years .

Is that really what the news said? This further shows the decadence in our educational system to the extent that a Nigerian university graduate cannot interpret simple grammatical statement correctly. I think that we should leave Akingbola alone and let us focus on those people who degraded our educational system and whose children study abroad.

Akingbola asset is only 10milllion pounds. Mind you, this is not physical cash; it’s a combination of assets ranging from businesses, properties, stocks & investment in various other instruments. This amount is not up to the salary of some of our Super Eagle’s stars. Yet this man started industries that created employment for thousand of people. I want to know why they do not expect him to have that much worth of asset. Something he has built over a period of 20 years.

Secondly, has any court in Nigeria or abroad convicted him? I thought that we have a saying that “A man is innocent until proven guilty by the court of law” why not let us leave him alone until the court says otherwise. The case is still in court why not let us wait and see where the pendulum will swing to before casting the first stone.

Thirdly, I am a former banker who resigned honourably to pursue my passion so I know much about what am about to say now.  Can anyone tell me which bank, I repeat, which bank that does not give out loans that turns bad at one point or the   other. As a banker you work with available data and at the end of the day, after following due diligence according to specified standards, Then you disburse loans to the individual who applied for it. Many at times, things still go wrong after all due diligence are taken either due to natural occurrences or when things go bad.

How many people know that the economy melt down is right at the corner? Also among the 7Cs of lending, one of them is credibility. This means that, at times, you are allowed to grant credit based on personal credibility or integrity. Look at it this way. You are the MD of a bank and Dangote approached you for a loan to purchase shares, based on his credibility in the business cycle will you ask him to bring 8 of his houses as collateral?  When there are other banks that are ready to offer him double the amount he is asking for? The capital market now collapsed and then resulted in the loans going bad. Really, did many individuals who are quick to stone Erastus discover that most of the loans are not being given out for the first time? Most of these entrepreneurs & businessmen who borrowed this loan have borrowed quite a lot of times in the past and returned it even with collateral. Most loans disbursed afterwards could actually have been given based on track record and credibility on return of previous loans. I must say that most loans going bad are a result of the crash in the stock market.

How many people who are saying “crucify him” today will be in his position and not do worse thing than him. There was a time in this country that Femi Fani Kayode was criticizing the government, the man spent few months in the aviation industry. After his tenure was completed and he handed over, EFCC paid him a visit. I hope this is not a case of the kettle calling the pot black here. Akingbola has his own short coming no doubt but can we also look at the good things he has done for our country at the same time.

There is a quote in the bible that says “the one putting on the Armour should not boast like the one putting off the Armour” are we not going to do worse than him if we have the opportunity. Don’t look at this height, just go to schools and see the way SUG money were mismanaged! You will cry for the future of our great country, yet the same set of people will come out to declare Aluta against corrupt leaders. I will soon share my experience in one of the Higher Institution with you in a later post.

Before the removal of Akingbola, There isn’t a customer who could not withdraw his or her money deposited with the bank. Sansui was asked this question and his candid answer was “we don’t need to wait till that time” look at the maturity Soludo used in handling the matter, not that the crisis was not there during his time. Do you know that Soludo removed the MD of Wema bank at that time? I mean Adebisi Omoyeni and I don’t think he was at anytime handcuff and bundle into the Black Maria. The man (Akingbola) was not a saint agreed! He ran away into hiding, I agree that, that was wrong! However that does not mean that we that are pointing, accusing fingers are the holiest citizens.

20years ago he and some people approach Wema Bank to get a loan to start a new bank, That is how Intercontinental bank plc came to being and rode through the years to gain relevance all over Nigeria. How many Nigerian can do that and survive the consolidation era? Look at Transcorp; are they up to 5years before their problem started?

Let us also see the good side of him. Look at it this way:

Intercontinental Bank staff is about 6000 including the support staffs and the contract tellers. Think of this, at every 21^st of the month 6000 people draw their pay cheque from his signature!! With the 6000 let us assumed that they have 2people depending on each of them. That means, we have 12,000 people and more, the man was providing a living for at the end of the month. Don’t also forget that by the time the 6000 collect salary, baba Sala the tailor, Iya Shukura thefoodstuff seller, Baba paul the bricklayer, Sule the newspaper vendor, car dealer, wale the teacher, plumber, mechanics just to mention a few benefits also. Do you know those that have lost their jobs now are many thousands and the chain effect is still causing more havoc?

I remembered that 3years ago when the HND madness started in the banking industry, it was only Akingbola alone that accepts HND holders as staffs of the bank. All other bank CEO’s discriminate against HND holders. Isn’t that a positive side of him too? Like I said I do not agree with some of his actions, the longing for positions, unnecessary over ambition, undue pressures for deposits mobilization on the staffs, how he sneaked out of the country, as well as some financial irregularities. If the court finds him guilty let him go jail and serve it honourably and come out having learned his lessons. However come to think of it, Tafa Balogun, Sani Abacha, Patricia Etteh, \Charles Okadigbo, and the rest did worse, how many people benefited from the save they put the money into in the foreign banks and some of them were hiding their loot in a special hole dug in the center of their bedroom.

My conclusion is that….people should stop trying to be like an irrational Lamido Sanusi for once and start reasoning without impairment of judgement. Erastus has not been proven by the court of law that he stole money as a CEO. EFCC is painting it like that’s what’s up…..but I and many other learned colleagues who can read between the lines knows that he’s being accused of mismanaging funds to the tune of N347 Billion and not that he owns that much and hence the court has decided to freeze his asset due to his non-appearance to EFCC or the court of law.

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