Akingbola Is Smart After All
I was shocked when I heard the news that the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Intercontinental Bank Plc, Mr. Erastus Akingbola, sneaked into the country and allegedly went into hiding apparently as a result of the Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) looking for him.
I was shocked because I thought that bankers are very smart people. I still believe they are. These are people that provide a very short process for us to deposit our money with them and then take us through a long process to get our money out and we don’t see any contradiction in that.
These are people that pay the lowest interest on saving and we still ask them to save our hard earned monies anyway. They pay peanuts as dividend to shareholders and yet we bandier about our share certificates which they claim is a collateral if we ever want to borrow. And when we borrow, they put some much interest, that we become their slaves.
Akingbola and Co were the ones telling us that our economy is robust and that we should put our life savings into banks’ shares. Because they know the numbers better than many of us they made the value of their shares to rise while we scramble to lay our hands on them. Once we finished with the process and were stepping out of the stock broker’s office, we hear that the shares have plummeted.
When we raise alarm they remind us that share values are cyclic. When it is low, they advise us to wait that it would soon rise, but some of us has immediate needs. House rents to pay and school fees to settle. The shares have become almost a worthless paper as we can’t dispose them to settle pressing needs.
In the midst of this, the bank CEO’s are busy acquiring latest toys, private jets, fancy cars, and choice property in cities around the world like London, New York, Paris, French Riviera, Dubai, Johannesburg among others.
To me, the bankers who could do all these and more are smart people. As smart as our political leaders. Or so I think.
But I am now beginning to doubt the smartness of Akingbola. This is a man that has been rewarded with many awards that stands him out as the bankers’ banker. Now they say he is on the run. A fugitive of the law.
Has his banking brain gone soft? Why should he be running from the EFCC. What is it that he has done that others have never done. How much did they allege that he has stolen, to make him urinate on his trouser.
How much! That he allegedly granted non-performing loans totalling N700 billion and faces 28 count charges bordering on economic and financial crimes including money laundering, theft, capital market manipulation, tax fraud, obtaining money through false pretenses, criminal granting of loans and facilities, insider abuse, insider trading and abuse of office.
So what! Didn’t our former governors steal more and even have longer charges and they are still walking the streets shoulder and head high.
Many of them after stealing from their states’ treasury as governors are now stealing from the Senate Treasury! The only official link between them and corruption are the unending charges against them compiled by the EFCC.
Akingbola’s brains must have gone soft caused by his sudden removal a bank he nurtured from infancy. His brain child. His legacy with history. He lost all that because a certain Sanusi said no to the old ways of doing things. If his brain is still the banking brain that used to convince money bags to put their money in his bank, he would have known that all that he needed is a smart lawyer. A senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) who would slog it out with EFCC lawyers.
They said he should account for N700 billion, but with a smart SAN, he can drag the case endlessly and when the case is eventually heard, Akingbola’s lawyer who must have a way round judge could earn for him a victory verdict.
The N700billion forgotten and EFCC made to pay him damages “for dragging his good name to the mud.” Ask the Vaswani brothers. They have just been dashed N5million by a court and the EFCC can only appeal.
Just as I was rounding up this piece a colleague drew my attention to a story in the net which claim that Akingbola in fact did not sneak into the country. The headline of the online story was,” Fraud. Akingbola returns, submits self to EFCC.” The report say Akingbola flew in and met with his team of lawyers. So his brain is not dead after all. Leave matter with lawyers and the EFCC and you see it settled while you enjoy your loot. Ask the ex-governors.
I was shocked because I thought that bankers are very smart people. I still believe they are. These are people that provide a very short process for us to deposit our money with them and then take us through a long process to get our money out and we don’t see any contradiction in that.
These are people that pay the lowest interest on saving and we still ask them to save our hard earned monies anyway. They pay peanuts as dividend to shareholders and yet we bandier about our share certificates which they claim is a collateral if we ever want to borrow. And when we borrow, they put some much interest, that we become their slaves.
Akingbola and Co were the ones telling us that our economy is robust and that we should put our life savings into banks’ shares. Because they know the numbers better than many of us they made the value of their shares to rise while we scramble to lay our hands on them. Once we finished with the process and were stepping out of the stock broker’s office, we hear that the shares have plummeted.
When we raise alarm they remind us that share values are cyclic. When it is low, they advise us to wait that it would soon rise, but some of us has immediate needs. House rents to pay and school fees to settle. The shares have become almost a worthless paper as we can’t dispose them to settle pressing needs.
In the midst of this, the bank CEO’s are busy acquiring latest toys, private jets, fancy cars, and choice property in cities around the world like London, New York, Paris, French Riviera, Dubai, Johannesburg among others.
To me, the bankers who could do all these and more are smart people. As smart as our political leaders. Or so I think.
But I am now beginning to doubt the smartness of Akingbola. This is a man that has been rewarded with many awards that stands him out as the bankers’ banker. Now they say he is on the run. A fugitive of the law.
Has his banking brain gone soft? Why should he be running from the EFCC. What is it that he has done that others have never done. How much did they allege that he has stolen, to make him urinate on his trouser.
How much! That he allegedly granted non-performing loans totalling N700 billion and faces 28 count charges bordering on economic and financial crimes including money laundering, theft, capital market manipulation, tax fraud, obtaining money through false pretenses, criminal granting of loans and facilities, insider abuse, insider trading and abuse of office.
So what! Didn’t our former governors steal more and even have longer charges and they are still walking the streets shoulder and head high.
Many of them after stealing from their states’ treasury as governors are now stealing from the Senate Treasury! The only official link between them and corruption are the unending charges against them compiled by the EFCC.
Akingbola’s brains must have gone soft caused by his sudden removal a bank he nurtured from infancy. His brain child. His legacy with history. He lost all that because a certain Sanusi said no to the old ways of doing things. If his brain is still the banking brain that used to convince money bags to put their money in his bank, he would have known that all that he needed is a smart lawyer. A senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) who would slog it out with EFCC lawyers.
They said he should account for N700 billion, but with a smart SAN, he can drag the case endlessly and when the case is eventually heard, Akingbola’s lawyer who must have a way round judge could earn for him a victory verdict.
The N700billion forgotten and EFCC made to pay him damages “for dragging his good name to the mud.” Ask the Vaswani brothers. They have just been dashed N5million by a court and the EFCC can only appeal.
Just as I was rounding up this piece a colleague drew my attention to a story in the net which claim that Akingbola in fact did not sneak into the country. The headline of the online story was,” Fraud. Akingbola returns, submits self to EFCC.” The report say Akingbola flew in and met with his team of lawyers. So his brain is not dead after all. Leave matter with lawyers and the EFCC and you see it settled while you enjoy your loot. Ask the ex-governors.
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