New Dawn for UBASS

Emeka Ogene

Union Bank Association of Senior Staff (UBASS) elects a new executive, with Emeka Ogene, former Vice President, Benin/Ibadan as new President
By Walid Ogunseri, Benin City
For Peter Ozo-Eson, Chief Economist, Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), the current crisis of confidence rocking country's banking industry is traceable to the failure of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to set standards of regulation and ensure strict compliance with such regulations. Ozo-Eson was speaking penultimate weekend in Benin city, Edo state, at the 8th delegates’ conference of the Union Bank Association of Senior Staff (UBASS).
 In a lecture entitled “Rec-apitalisation of Rescued Banks: Implications for Stakeholders”, Ozo-Eson said that there is an inherent problem in the Nigerian banking system owing to the failure of the CBN.
The Central Bank of Nigeria, he said, has “failed to put regulations in place and ensure compliance with such regulations. This led to the current financial crisis in the banking sector. And the panic measures of the Central Bank further compounded the problem.”
Observing that certain legal rules and guidelines ought to dictate the sale of private enterprises, Ozo-Eson opined that the Central Bank has no legal right to sell any bank, reason being that the shareholders are the rightful owners of such banks. He, howevers said that the CBN has the right to be interested in what goes on in the banks, because what is happening in the sector is crucial to the overall economy of the country.
For the transformation of the distressed banks in particular and the economy in general, however, Ozo-Eson emphasised the importance of collective commitment of all bank workers, while urging that the CBN must improve on management of public pronouncements, and desist from dictatorial tendencies.
He criticised certain “gambling” utterances credited to the CBN governor, Lamido Sanusi, contending that they were are enough to crash the economy.
Earlier, the outgone President of UBASS, Fredrick Ojeh had faulted the proposed sale of distressed banks by the Central Bank of Nigeria, describing the move as illegal and immoral.
 While admitting that the banking industry is facing greater challenges than ever before, Ojeh said that the erosion of the share value of most companies, including banks has brought untold hardship and grave reduction in the share capital value of the banks.
“To worsen the situation, the ill-timed and hatched intervention of the Central Bank of Nigeria on August 14th, 2009, popularly called "the banking sector reforms" swept aside the banks legitimately appointed executive management,” he said.
He accused the CBN of double standards by frustrating all efforts made by Union Bank to raise its capital base through shares and right issues as well as bonds.   
“While [Union Bank] was fraudulently being forced into distress, some others with more toxic debts of up to between 45 and 55 percent were allowed to continue operation unhindered,” Ojeh alleged.
According to him, if Union Banks N103 billion pension fund, N80 billion recovered bad debts, and N84 billion of unbalanced books, making a total of N267 billion is applied appropriately, it will not have a negative capital. For this reason, Ojeh concluded that Union Bank must not be sold, but rather should be recapitalised by shareholders without interference from the CBN.  
 The conference came to a climax with the election of a 15-man executive committee to pilot the affairs of UBASS for the next three years.In a keenly contested election, former Vice President, Benin and Ibadan chapters, Emeka Ogene was elected unopposed as the new President of the Association, Staff, while Soji Ogundeyi and T C Ogbonna among other elective positions were elected as Deputy President and General Secretary respectively.
Ogene in an acceptance speech stated that he was overwhelmed by the mandate given to him by his colleagues, explaining that his emergence as the new President of UBASS would mark a new dawn for all senior staffers of the bank and the bank in particular.