We are saddled with suit-wearing, well-educated and internationally exposed hypocrites running our financial system.
Sitting down at meetings in the hallowed halls of our finance giants and in their numerous HR seminars and conferences, you hear all sorts of hypocritical allusions to the fine tenets of Corporate Governance, integrity and professionalism
These are just buzzwords that are emitted by our finance leaders to make themselves feel good and look connected to the international best practices.
But they know absolutely nothing about what that means
Almost every financial institution in our market suffers from corporate governance issues, especially at the level of ownership and leadership
Keyman risks are the order of the day, corporate despotism is more the norm than the exception and you see different colourations daily all to maintain power
From holdco structure, to M&As, down to structuring and all of that highfalutin configurations all aimed at avoiding tenor limits, collective decision taking, devolution of power and other such testaments of strong corporate culture
The ongoing issue at the NASD is a failure of corporate governance, fair and square.
Nothing is more bizarre than having a Board stay on, two years after its tenor, then foist a Chairman on the system without the other chairman resigning and pushing for an AGM where decisions would be taken by people who emerged from a faulty process
Corporate Governance is key to the sustainability of institutions as it depersonalises the system and allows for an automated running of its processes
It ensures standards and merit-based positioning of personnel which would in turn impact the bottom line and growth
We seem to have regressed from the era of biological engagements at the top to an area of almost anything goes.
A situation where the father was chairman, the wife MD and sons EDs or where one man was both Chairman and MD led to a systematic rape of the system
We finally won the battle against such profligacy and seem to have ended in the trough of corporate banditry
We are all live witnesses to how the Old Man raped one of the oldest institutions into a stupor only finally caving in when a stronger force emerged
He first collapsed Corporate Governance which enabled him to appoint boogey men into key positions who now had no other duty but to aid and abet
Some schools of thought have posited that the corruption in the private sector especially in the finance sector far outstrips that of the public sector and I am beginning to believe
Those ones remain crass in their strategy but our suit wearing bandits are more sophisticated in their style with complex gateways for looting and maintaining control
The case of the finance henchmen is like the description of a slay queen who says – ohhh I’m not a prostitute but still takes money to open her legs
The financier man looks down at the thief or bandit but does even worse with his biro while wearing expensive suits
Since this wahala started, I have carefully avoided calling out the regulatory bodies cos if for nothing else, I have seen two things they have tried to do to reign in these bandits
The CBN’s forbearance policy and the SEC’s circular of July which stipulates tenor limits and the transmutation of independent directors to Executive directors which was just a musical Chairs of rogery
What can be done? I think it’s time to bring back shareholder activism.
Shareholders have the powers and justification to hold these demagogues to question even if the Regulatory bodies are weak, shareholders can shout and vote out these people
The financial system is sick, I tell you and what we have seen in the last 24 hours is but a tip of a very smelly iceberg
We need to save our markets from these Barbarians who have captured it.
Who will do it? Is it me? Rubbish
Someone shd come and beat me now, im waiting
Duke of Shomolu