Wednesday
August 26, 2009 |
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Two years ago, I told a lawyer friend
of mine that the so-called elections of 2007 were absurd. He retorted,
“In Nigeria, my friend, absurdity makes sense.”
The scandal rocking the banking industry dramatizes the point. Thanks to
the courage and professionalism of the current leadership of the Central
Bank, we now know that Nigeria’s two entrees on the list of the world’s
billionaires make much of their hay with billions of naira borrowed from
banks. The secret’s out: many of the men and women the local press dubs
“stake holders” or “prominent Nigerians” owe their sheen to delinquent
bank loans.
Here’s what’s even more devastating: that several Nigerian banks cooked
their books. Year after year, they fudged figures, reported wholly
fictitious levels of profit, and misled the public with tall tales of
robust financial health.
Judging from the apex bank’s revelations, Nigerian banks are in sicker
shape than many suspected. The greater absurdity in all this disaster
lies, not in the details of hanky panky by banks and their cast of
well-heeled debtors, but in the as yet unknown, or little known, litany
of scandals.
Enlightened Nigerians ought to ponder how their country got to this
sordid, sorry pass. In a country where pickpockets are frequently
garlanded with tyres, doused with gasoline and put to instant, cruel
death, why does the citizenry appear unperturbed when governors steal
billions of naira? Why are too many unfazed when a few men and women use
their political contacts – lieu of collateral – to secure billions in
banks loans, default on their obligations, and walk away as the banks
crash?
Why do some judges and justices so readily lend themselves to the
designs of the criminal elements who hijack the resources of the state
for their personal aggrandizement? Why have Nigerian lawyers not called
for the resignation, or better still firing, of the judge who granted a
scandalous perpetual injunction barring the country’s law enforcement
agencies from investigating possible corrupt acts by former Governor
Peter Odili of Rivers? Why do numerous reporters, columnists and editors
trumpet the tomfoolery and inanities of public officials who work
tirelessly to wreck Nigeria?
This newspaper has offered some of the most thorough reports on the dire
state of the five banks rescued from what seemed certain collapse. In a
report titled “Ibori’s brain and the great bank heist,” Next’s Idris
Akinbajo drew a compelling portrait of the involvement of one Henry
Imasekha in the unfolding bank mess. Described in the report as a
“shadowy figure,” Imasekha is regarded by officials of the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as “the business front for James
Onafeni Ibori, the politically powerful former governor of Delta State.”
Imasekha is a recurring decimal in the shenanigans that now pass for
Ibori’s money laundering trial. The anti-corruption agency, whose
current leadership appears intent to botch Ibori’s prosecution, tagged
Imasekha as the “character moving funds in Celtel, Oando and NOTORE
Chemical Industries.”
If the information supplied by the Central Bank is dependable, then Mr.
Imasekha may be a serious contender for the title of bank
wrecker-in-chief. Next reported that this man’s businesses brought
Oceanic Bank and Intercontinental Bank to the brink of implosion. One of
his companies, Ascot Offshore – which may actually belong to Mr. Ibori –
owes N44.6 billion to Intercontinental. Another company, whose real
owner may again be Ibori, is indebted to Oceanic to the tune of N32.3
billion.
More astonishing than the size of the debts is the disclosure that Mr.
Imasekha got the loans without providing much by way of collateral. Yet,
the man who amassed this debt doesn’t concede that anything is
anomalous. Invoking his years as a banker to justify getting unsecured
loans, Mr. Imasekha waxed: “As an executive director in UBA and before
then I had done 20 years in banking in Nigeria, are you telling me that
if I walk into a bank, they will tell me that they don’t know me?”
Coming from a man who is described as “a brilliant accountant who holds
management degrees from Oxford and Harvard,” this reasoning should
inspire guffaws – except that, the scale of the scandal being so grave,
this is no laughing matter. One wonders if this was how the man
practiced banking, handing out huge loans to any face he recognized?
What would his Oxford and Harvard professors think of his statement? And
why didn’t he use the wizardry of his management training to meet his
loan obligations? Is this man really as hollow as his words advertised
him?
I have this sneaking suspicion that Imasekha and his ilk speak in their
unapologetic vein precisely because of their confidence that the
Yar’Adua regime lacks the spine and moral authority to make defrauders
pay. The fuss will pass. The despoilers of Nigeria will remind Yar’Adua
that they put him in power. Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi will be
invited to play the good boy or risk receiving the Nuhu Ribadu
treatment. When push comes to shove, I don’t see Yar’Adua standing
firmly behind Mr. Sanusi’s plan to sanitize the banks and expose the
rogues. That is, unless Nigerians collectively stand up and reject the
absurd goings-on.
