Dr. Erastus Bankole Oladipo Akingbola, Former Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (MD/CEO) of one of the top three financial intermediating institution in Nigeria – Intercontinental Bank Plc, present predicament in the hands of those who honestly do not care for the well being of majority of the Nigerian Populace and are ready to use whatever guise to pursue personal vendetta and implement the agenda of a few by using state institutions to fight perceived imaginary foes and intimidate them into submitting Businesses that was built from scratch with hard labor is frightening.
Achievements of this Noble Banker speak for themselves. From a humble beginning as a bank Clerk with Union Bank of Nigeria Limited in 1971, He worked with several Banks before rising to the post of The CEO of Intercontinental Bank Plc in February 1989. He was president of Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), a Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Management, Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators, Institute of Directors, Institute of Operations Research and The Chartered Institute of Arbitrators among other degrees including a MBA from the University of Lagos.
He handled the Recapitalization of the great financial institution above the 25 Billion Naira target, during the Banking consolidation era of the former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Prof Charles Soludo in 2004 and acquired 3 other Banks – Gateway, Global and Equity – afterwards. During these years Intercontinental Bank won several awards including that of The Banker – a Publication of The Economist.
Then comes Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, perhaps zealous to justify his appointment, he recklessly attacked major players in the Banking industry and rushed to declare some selected Banks as failing, went ahead to sack top management of these targeted Banks, appointed his loyalist to ‘enjoy’ themselves, used well recognized institutions of ‘any government in power’ to drive this CEO’s from their motherland and is in further hurry to sell this National Institutions at peanuts to his foreign cohorts to justify his antagonism.
Recent development has obviously made the Incumbent CBN Governor realize that Nigerians would not just fold their hands, He has not only( under some excuse of giving a deadline) refrain from declaring some truly well know worthless Banking Brands in Nigeria as failed, he has been battling to explain the criteria used in determining that the likes of Intercontinental Banks, Union Bank and Oceanic Bank was failing, availing himself of every opportunity to issue threats to the CEO’s, He has also promoted the financial institution he left after being appointed CBN Governor, to be the most fit of his Banks.
However, it has not been as easy a battle as he thought, the likes of Akingbola and Cecelia Ibru – CEO of Oceanic Bank – have returned to Nigeria, disregarding warnings from relatives of impending threats to their lives and hard earned properties, the shareholders are not also folding their arms to see our collective wealth given away by going to courts to seek an order restraining the CBN or its agents from acting on their behalf and selling the Banks.
The last thing we should expect from the current CBN Governor is Objectivity in implementation of Government Policies as he has satisfactorily demonstrated and hopefully time would pass very quickly, so his tenure would expire saving us from his operation destroy the Bank and the Banker.
Written by: Oshioke
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