Oh My God! Cecilia Ibru

Comfort Obi

May I start by saying that for days, I was moody when the Central Bank Governor, Lamido Sanusi, removed Cecilia Ibru as the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Oceanic Bank International Plc. I know she was not the only one removed. But as a woman, I felt bad. I was like, how many women are at the top? So, why remove her, and so deplete our number?
Personally, I was fascinated by Cecilia and her activities. She had power, influence, and she is rich. She knew how to use the three at once. A combination of beauty, brain, and brawn, at 62, she is cute. She has a good dress sense and she exudes confidence. But three things fascinated me the most about her.
Taking the lead is her ability to combine her job as a banker, and her duties at home so beautifully. Her job never interferred with the love, and attention, she showered on her husband, the patriarch of the very wealthy Ibru family, Chief Michael Ibru. She never allowed her husband’s failing health to diminish her love for him, as would some society women. She flaunted him, and usually, held him unto her in public, to guide his every step so he wouldn’t stumble. Before I read about the two of them, I erroneously thought she was one of those husband snatchers. I am not comfortable with polygamy. A man’s first wife, who suffered with him, is his real wife. Others come to “chop.” I do, of course, realise that atimes, it is not always so. There are occasions when a first wife stupidly becomes impossible to live with, thus pushing her husband into the hands of other ready women. Cecilia Ibru’s case seems different. She married her man when both were still young. And has lived with him for over 40 years. They have lovely children, all of whom are accomplished young men and women, to show for their relationship. She dotes on her children, and gradually, but steadily, saw to it that she got them grade A jobs within the family’s business empire.
My second fascination with her is her ability to pull Oceanic Bank from the abyss. Before her, it was a dying family bank. It had little clout. At best, it was just servicing, barely, the Ibru family businesses. But she fought like a wounded lion and gave her all to raise the bank to one of the five biggest (or so we thought) banks in Nigeria. She walked Oceanic Bank. She slept Oceanic bank. She breathed Oceanic bank. She wore Oceanic bank. And I admired her Oceanic bank-branded scarves which she proudly draped everyday. When former CBN governor, Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo, insisted on the consolidation of banks, not a few people thought Oceanic may not make it. But they did not reckon with her resilience and aggressiveness. I remember one of her photographs, published in the newspapers during that period. She had gone to Pastor Adeboye’s Redeemed Christian Church of God, to pray. She the cynosure of all eyes as she raised both hands to high heaven, her eyes tightly closed, and her mouth open, as she desperately prayed to God to help Oceanic bank raise N25 billion, or go under. The bank made it. And this brings me to another aspect of her life which I admired.
She never failed to pray, or go to church. She always sat on the front row chairs at the RCCG. Nobody failed to notice her, as she fervently prayed. I was taken in by that, concluding that she ran the bank with the fear of God.
God blessed her efforts. Oceanic bank not only survived, but went ahead, along with Cecilia Ibru, to win, several times, local and international awards. Cecilia was everywhere. Young people looked up to her, especially young women. She was their role model. But now, what a role model! It took the removal of Soludo as CBN governor, and the appointment of Lamido, to see her nakedness. And it is ugly.
No sooner did Lamido take over than he confirmed her as a fake. He confirmed her, a mistress of deceit. Sanusi confirmed that she has been less than honest with people’s money put under her care. He confirmed that Oceanic bank, under her, was a painted Sepulcher, that it was a Greek gift to the people. That she had deceived the people. That all those awards were, well, how do I put it now: manipulated! Now, we know that even the profits declared were fake and the bank had been operating on borrowed time and borrowed funds. Sanusi stripped our role model naked, and dressed her in the robes of selfishness and greediness. She was ugly.
Cecilia Ibru made some moves which I hailed at the beginning. She tackled Sanusi, and quickly went to court. Then the EFCC moved in, and her world, and that of those who took her as their role model, fell apart. With each passing day, we were confronted with sleaze and more sleaze. Our eyes opened to the alleged greediness of one woman, a woman we admired, trusted and loved. A woman who succeeded where several men failed. Sanusi and the EFCC told us that this woman wantonly abused our admiration, trust, and love. They reeled out the billions, in both Naira, and US Dollars which she cornered to herself, and her family. We watched in disbelief. Perhaps, both Sanusi and the EFCC were lying. So, we held unto that shred of doubt. Then, the EFCC, led by a meticulous Farida Waziri, shocked us last week.
The Commission published over 100 prime properties owned by Cecilia and her family all over the world, allegedly bought with public funds. She owned hundreds of millions of shares in blue chip companies, including banks. She owned scores of luxury cars, luxury boats, and did I hear jets? This is madness. I mean, it is ridiculous. And I just wonder. Was Cecilia actually reading, and understanding the Holy Bible all those times she prayed? What does the Bible teach about greediness, about deceit?
My heart bleeds for this alleged grand deceit. Who would the youths look up to? Where are the role models? To worsen it, Soludo, who supervised this rot, and applauded every inch of the way, is not worried about this obvious indictment of his competence as the CBN boss. He wants to be Anambra State governor. If he couldn’t detect the rot that we are seeing now, I wonder what would become of Anambra State if he wins. In more civilised countries, would he have dared? God forbid.