Peterside, Sanusi and Soludo

Comfort Obi

I don’t mean to hold brief for anybody here, especially, the former Central Bank Governor, Professor Chukwuma Charles Soludo. If anything, I find it embarrassing that just a couple of months after he was unexpectedly removed from office, his successor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, cut him down to size without as much as mentioning his name. In cutting him down, Sanusi simply sacked five bank Chief Executive Officers, namely: Erastus Akingbola of Intercontinental Bank, Cecilia Ibru of Oceanic, Barth Ebong of Union, Sebastain Adigwe of Afribank, and Okey Nwosu of Finbank. Meaning: My predecessor turned a blind eye to the rot. What irks most is that three of the CEOs were regarded as top of the shelf. Their banks were seen as solid. They were regarded as icons and role models. Along with them, Soludo threw away the garb of conservatism which bankers usually wore, and became celebrities. He wined and dined with them. He endorsed them, publicly, without a blink of the eye. He swore by them. Yet, I was outraged when I read what Atedo Peterside, the Chairman of Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc, said about him in London.
I want to say two things for the records. One, I believe that the five banks whose management Sanusi sacked were painted sepulchers. And, they were not telling all the truth. Two, drawing from the above, I don't believe that Sanusi has a Northern agenda. He, perhaps, may have his own personal agenda, and a style which I don’t endorse. I find the way he sensationalised the actions he took condemnable. And his utterances since then have not helped. He began to talk about a possible selling of the banks a few days after he struck. Why? He began to talk about the imperativeness of an Islamic bank. And suddenly, he is no longer very eager to send another set of bank bosses packing, even though he had examined only 10 out of 24 banks. Indeed, he has already said that the problems of the remaining 14 banks will not be insurmountable. That, when Nigerians know, that at least three of them are as good as dead, is worrisome. What is delaying the verdict on the remaining 14?
I believe that Sanusi had good intentions when he sent the five bank chiefs packing. But it was carried out recklessly. He did not need to sensationalise it. In doing that, Sanusi has, of course, attracted applause from the masses, most of whom are happy seeing that the rich also cry. But there are a number of reasons why this applause will be short-lived.
Sanusi has by his action killed the Nigerian banking industry, and criminalised bank loans. This is bad for genuine business. Banks survive on perception and confidence. Sanusi has killed both. They have lost credibility. The perception the general public, inspite of Sanusi’s explanations, has of banks now is very negative. We may well go back to the era of hiding money under mattresses, clay pots, and/or other such crazy places. He has also broken the confidence that exists between banks and their customers. What did he gain by publishing, publicly, the names of bank debtors, including the names of people who genuinely took loans for genuine businesses? Why didn’t Sanusi distinguish between genuine loan-takers, and those who simply borrow money to live big?
I am not in support of people whose loans were not performing. I am amazed at the speed with which some of them have paid back billions and millions of Naira since the EFCC waded in. The interpretation is that they deliberately refused to service the loans. That is criminal. Yet, I submit that Nigeria will be the worst for Sanusi's sensation. Which country will honour our Letters of Credit? And which investors will come to Nigeria when our Chief banker has painted such an ugly picture of our banks?
Lest we forget, what Sanusi did is not entirely new. Former Central Bank Governor, Joseph Sanusi, had sacked the Board of the defunct FSB. Soludo equally did the same thing with the defunct Citizens Bank International. But in both cases, there was no sensation, and nobody was arrested and detained. But the points were made. Since the global economic meltdown, billion- dollar companies in more developed countries had filed for bankruptcy. Nobody arrested or detained their CEOs. Sanusi would have achieved the same result without the drama which he resorted to. And there are these other points.
Did he give the bank bosses the opportunity to defend themselves after examining their books? Did they have the opportunity to comment on the alleged lapses found in their books. Did he tell them what would happen if they failed to disclose their bad debts, and go after the debtors? Would the debtors not have paid back, as they are doing now, if they were threatened, in writing, about what would happen to them if they failed to pay back, and told that their names have been sent to the airports and other such places to stop them from traveling out of the country? Yet, the biggest blunder ever committed by Sanusi was allowing Peterside to introduce him to International Bankers at the CBN Road show in London.
Peterside always had issues with Soludo. He publicly disagreed with him during the Soludo bank consolidation period. Soludo’s consolidation robbed him of owning about 50 per cent of IBTC. He celebrated Soludo's exit from CBN. Yet, he was Sanusi's choice to introduce him. So, instead of merely introducing Sanusi, he picked on Soludo personally. That was cheap. And there are more serious reasons why Sanusi should not have allowed Peterside to introduce him.
His bank is one of those which books are being examined by the CBN. It has not yet been given a clean bill. It was, therefore, unethical to have allowed him to introduce him, emphasising his closeness to him. Now, will Sanusi have the will to sack Peterside, or his MD/CEO, if anything is wrong with his bank? Will Sanusi ever, even, find anything wrong with Peterside’s bank?
But it serves Soludo right. Why didn’t he see the rot coming? After the serious indictment, he is not sober. He has, instead, thrown himself into politics. He wants to be the governor of Anambra State. And, dear readers, see who is even backing him!