GODWIN EMEFIELE THE ALI BABA OF THE CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA.

I am not surprised that we have an Ali Baba presiding over the vault warehousing our commonwealth. Anyone in Nigeria showing or pretending to be outraged by by the revelation coming out of the report of the investigation must either be someone who is not a keen watcher of the interplay concerning politics and financial economic cum monetary policy during the reigns of Ex president Mohammudu Buhari. 

It was signposted by ineptitude, cronyism and clannish consideration. Ebora of Owu put it succinctly in many of his missives to Ex president Muhammudu Buhari. 

A look at the basket of findings by the investigator as reported in the news confirmed that Ex president Mohammudu Buhari aloofness, inadequacy in respect of financial economic matters and his penchant for cabalistic governance, contributed to the malfeasance, unbridled impunity and corruption that we are unravelling based on the outcome of the investigation by Obazee. 

These are some of the statements of the investigator as reported in the public domain. “When carrying out our investigation, we discovered that some persons were used as proxies by Mr Godwin Emefiele to set up Titan Trust Bank and acquire Union Bank, all from ill-gotten wealth. We were able to secure some documents, and investigation reports will lead to the forfeiture of the two banks by the federal government. 

All these shinanigans were going on under the nose of the Ex president and the minister of finance. There are newspapers reports during the period intimating us with the fact that such acquisition was/is illegal yet nothing much was done to stop it despite the fact that people like Isa Funtua, Sabiu and the uncle of Ex president Muhammudu Buhari were mentioned at the time to be a leading collaborators in concert with Emefiele and some of the deputy governors of the central bank.

 I refer you to the report quoted below as signpost of my statement above. 

 “Report of the Investigation of the Acquisition of Keystone Bank,” submitted by the special investigator to President Tinubu. 

In the report the investigator led us into macabre of manipulations, corruption, influence peddling, outright stealing, insider trading, abuse of trust and statutory position. 

The investigation due diligence led to the unearthing that some individuals acted as instruments, mulls of impunity in concert with  Emefiele and the CBN to acquire the bank without evidence of payment. “AMCON MD moved N20billion to Heritage Bank as placement sometime in 2010. On the back of that, Heritage Bank granted a loan of N25billion to the promoters of Isa Funtua/Emefiele group’s acquisition vehicles to buy Keystone Bank.

“The loan was further backed by the shareholders of the bank. Upon acquisition, Keystone Bank returned the N20bn back to Heritage Bank as placement. Thereafter, Heritage Bank repaid AMCON from the cash flow created.

“When the loan granted by Heritage Bank to Isa Funtua/Emefiele’s acquisition vehicles matured with outstanding balance, the MD of Heritage Bank (which was then in serious liquidity crisis), called for repayment. Unfortunately for the shareholders of the bank, the Isa Funtua/Emefiele Group could not repay.

“Consequently, the MD of Heritage got his lawyers to write to the bank on two occasions, threatening to take over Keystone Bank based on the shares they had pledged as security.

“After much pressure from him, Keystone Bank created internal loans of about N50bn between June and October 2019 and moved the proceeds to repay Heritage Bank on behalf of their group. However, the MD of the bank at that time had resigned due to consistent pressure from him and the shareholders to comply. The internal loans so created are not being serviced and have gone bad.

Again if you go back to the first paragraph of this article and juxtaposed it with the findings of the investigation concerning the banks acquisition. As a keen  watchers of Nigeria banking and business environment you wouldn't be surprised. It has always been a cesspool of illegality supported by the powers that be using proxies to hide their connections only to come back later after exiting their statutory position to enjoy the looted commonwealth

The security agencies and financial watchdog all went into a state of nonexistence because the cabals running Nigeria true to the words of Ayisha Buhari have decided to sabotage the rule of law in business transaction for selfish personal gains. 

Let us interrogate further the statement of the investigator. 

“We have completed our investigation on this acquisition and have also held meetings with relevant parties except for Mr Cornelius Vink (currently hospitalised in Switzerland). We are on the verge of recovering these two banks for the federal government,” 

Returning the banks to the federal government is a good idea. However, I wonder what would be the faith of the banks afterwards. My circumspection is predicated on the historiography of forfeited businesses and sundry to the federal government and the politicking that followed by ways of disposal has not been to the benefit of Nigerians. 

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has a difficult task ahead of him concerning this matter and he must prove to Nigerians that he can take difficult decisions no matter whose horse is affected. 

We are watching, Ex president Muhammudu Buhari cannot be excused from this debacle. The buck passing exercises stop at his table.