I’ve told this story so many times, that some people can retell it word for word
Anyways, I just feel like retelling it as i recline on my couch waiting for my sister to bring her twins to greet me.
I didnt stay in the Labour market immediately after school like a lot of you
I was young, bursting with confidence and eager to go
Right from my Masters degree, I had started work with an advertising agency and from there, I moved in rapid succession thru two stockbroking firms, two Banks and the massively Influential BGL
That is how I found myself in this little investment banking outfit that had just undergone a management buy out.
It was at first a subsidiary of a giant banking franchise with the Orange logo whose GMD remains an ambitious eccentric
Despite it, inheriting a huge portfolio from its esthwile parent bank, It was then still little in the scheme of things compared to the humongous BGL in every facet of Investment banking
Its MD was impish in outlook and was really very shy both in his approach to the business and in his outlook to life
So he designed an incestuous approach to his business which saw him trade on his huge portfolio and charging fees rather than expand and leverage on his strong brand equity to take the market
I had left the giant BGL as Deputy Managing Director to the little Investment house whose daily trade figures wasn’t up to say about 20% of what I was used to
Immediately, I felt like a giant warship in a canal and to make matters worse they gave me a high falutin nomenclature that I had never heard in all of my years in banking
Church service was more paramount than relationship management and the impish MD ran the place like one religous cult with his closest being the ones who prayed harder during the many church services and those who could tell very easily on the rest
Very early, we both knew we had both made a mistake
For him, I was too loud, vulgar and intemprate to be his person and for me, he was too petty, inexperienced and impish for me to call my boss
I was older, far better experienced and had seen more things in the market than he could ever imagine
So very quickly, the relationship was strained to the point that he started reducing my influence by cutting my reports into tiny chunks and empowering my subordinates
So I had gone from managing over 50 staff at BGL to about 10 in my first missionary journey in his firm to about two or three.
Port harcout, Abuja and Ilorin were carved out, Private Wealth – the team that managed High Networth Individuals was taken and given to my surbodinate who was very very wet behind the ears
Despite this, I brought in some very juicy accounts – a N5b portfolio from an Insurance Firm and a multi billion Portfolio from a well known Family Office tied to UBA Plc
Once these portfolios landed, the inexperience went into a frenzy as all traders went into a buy rant mimicking the order I had just brought in leading to a cancellation of the order and a near damage to my relationship with the people who gave me the mandate.
The relationship from then onwards went downhill very quickly.
Promises on both sides were not kept, I had lost interest and had started looking for other options, I had stopped being spoken to at the many meetings called.
My surbidnates where made to deliver my reports, I didnt mind cos the meetings were more or less just a one man show different from what I was used to at BGL
By this time, I had sent a signal to Albert Okumagba that I wanted to come back, he rebuffed me saying that nobody drove me away that I should take whatever I was seeing as a man
Then there was a huge shouting match between me and my MD
He had promoted someone two steps ahead of me just like dt
No appraisal, nothing just promotion and to make it worse he now declared a new position over my head, vacant
What this meant was that, he would one day employ someone to man that position effectively making me one man away from him
This was very humiliating if you consider the fact that as DMD at BGL Securities and also as ED BGL Asset Management, I had garnered much more experience in my little finger than the whole of his company.
I knew who my contemporaries were so who was he going to bring to come and head me that would not be my junior
So I went in to ask questions and he lost it. Shouted at me and I shouted back
I had been promised a stake in the business to cover the over N1m salary cut I took to come there.
The stake was a pie in the sky and on top of that, there was one stupid 20% compulsory savings that he took from our monthly salary which didnt make sense to me.
Here was I earning N1m less than my BGL salary and this imp was taking 20% of the crap he was paying me claiming that he was saving for me like I was a boy scout.
To really worsen my case, I was servicing a N50m mortgage loan I had taken from BGL that was taking over N500, 000 from my salary monthly
Basically, I was bankrupt and working for nothing.
So one day, I went to him to give me back my compulsory savings, that I was not interested in saving anything again
He went into a long sermon about Fola Adeola and Tayo Aderinokun – those were his favourite heroes and every story or issue always ended with Fola and Tayo
Today, I was not in the mood for any Fola and Tayo story, I just wanted to feed my children
He made a statement – any Banker who cannot manage his personal finance cannot work in the financial sector.
I hissed and said, please give me my money
He said I shd see him the next day.
The next day, he was seated with the Head of HR as I walked in
I noticed she had a dwncast face and cdnt hold my gaze
With no waste of time, he stretched a plain sheet of paper towards me with a biro and like a mafia lord, he said, resign
I looked at him, looked at HR and felt a lump in my throat
The humiliation was too much and to make matters worse, I had less than N20,000 in my life and here I was with this imp asking me to resign to uncertainty
I took the paper, looked at HR whose head was still bowed, looked at him, he stared back and..
To be continued
Thanks
Duke of Shomolu