Posted by Politics X on August 23, 2009 at 10:09pm
By Reuben Abati"If I have my way, I'd have all Nigerian journalists shot." "Excuse me?" "Yes. Including the ones that I know personally.""Hello o""Hi - i""Well, you won't be the first man to think journalists are pests; it is always easy to kill the messenger, but facts are facts.""The way the media is sensationalising the story of the five banks that are having problems with the Central Bank of Nigeria, I am concerned that not enough questions are being asked. Yes, Sanusi is showing great courage, and don't misunderstand me, I don't care whether anybody goes to jail or not. I don't bloody care. In fact, I believe that many bankers are crooks. Nobody can impress me with lapel pins, pin stripe skirts, yatchs or private jets. But I am concerned that the CBN is also over-exposing itself.""I guess all of that is part of the story. And you can't blame the media. If you ask me, it is a small part of the story though.""I am talking about the sloppiness that has been reported in the naming and shaming of debtors. The CBN should have been sure of all its facts before going public. Coming back later to correct typographical errors is a way of saying that the CBN itself needs supervision.""Come on, you are referring to all that hair-splitting over the difference between Okeke and Okereke. That's nothing.""This is a sensitive matter that is open to different interpretations. The CBN should have anticipated the responses. Now, the debtors are all over the newspapers challenging the figures and CBN procedures. If they end up creating doubt, then Sanusi and the CBN will become part of the story in a way that they may not like.""Let the debtors go and pay what they are owing. Simple. Are you not aware that Afribank has already received about N3 billion? Look the end justifies the means. The Sanusi formula is working. That is what matters. All these big men living on borrowed funds, we now know what it means to be rich in Nigeria. Just borrow money and advertise yourself as a big man. You can't take money belonging to pepper sellers, mechanics, civil servants and begin to talk about your right to borrow money. I am not interested in theory. Let them just return the money and stop turning an innocent man like me into an Ovie-Whiskey.""What has Ovie-Whiskey got to do with this? You always like to ridicule yourself and triviliase serious discussions""…vie-Whiskey was Chairman of the Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO) in the Second Republic. INEC used to be known as FEDECO. Ovie-Whiskey used to say at the time that if he saw a million naira he would faint. But have you seen the kind of big figures that the papers have been quoting? One man will just borrow N30 billion, N10 billion...""You are a very ignorant man. All that money was borrowed not to finance the taking of a second wife, but to finance activities within the economy. You borrow as much as you need for business. It is the duty of banks to lend money; businesses cannot really function without seeking loan advances. Some of the affected companies borrowed money to finance oil importation, power projects, and so on and many of those projects are Federal Government projects, also guaranteed by the same government.""But if you take loans there must be a collateral and the loans must be serviced.""That is between the debtor and the bank. There is no law in Nigeria that says a man should not borrow money.""But the loan must perform and the CBN has made it clear that it is only the regulator that can define performance because it is a technical term.""I don't agree. What are the details of each loan? What are the terms of repayment? ""I need you to make a confession. please. Because I don't understand you again. When this whole thing started, you were one of the most vocal defenders of Sanusi and the CBN. Tell me, are you owing any bank some money? If you are, I advise you to go and pay back before the EFCC deadline expires. I don't want to be subjected to the ordeal of coming to visit you at EFCC detention camp or having to explain to people why you had to run away from the country""It is small money. But this is not about me. I insist that you can't achieve the objective of economic growth if businesses are demonised because they have borrowed money. Look at what is happening now. Rockson Engineering says the country's power project may be jeopardised if it is forced to pay back all the money it borrowed and if the CBN compromises its own letters of credit. Foreign banks have also cancelled credit lines to Nigerian banks. Rating agencies have downgraded the country. And what is worse is that the CBN stands the risk of losing the support of people like me.""The CBN is not looking for the support of debtors in this matter. It wants to recover all borrowed funds. But tell me, how small is your own exposure? In confidence, tell me. I won't tell anybody. ""ì took twelve million to start a fish farm. But I have already paid more than twelve million and the bank is saying I am still owing 4 million and they are holding on to my land papers as collateral. Before this whole thing started the bank was even threatening to seize the collateral. What am I saying? I am saying that part of the responsibility of the CBN should be to look into the management of loans by the banks, investigate the abuses, and protect even the debtors as you try to sanitise the banks. People who take loans from Nigerian banks are also victims of the failure of corporate governance. Can we focus on that?""Well, what do I expect you to say, being a member of the Other People's Money Association of Nigeria (OPMAN). The rich also cry. But have you heard what the EFCC madam said? You are required to obey first and then complain. Going to court, throwing tantrums, does not remove the fact that people are owing. Simple.""Are we now in a miltary regime? In fact, if care is not taken, I will start believing some of the things that are now coming out. For example, someone sent me a story published in the Monday, March 23, 2009 edition of The Vanguard newspaper titled "Group plots takeover of five top banks." The story blew the whistle on everything that is now happening. And now it is precisely five banks that are being targeted. Even the CBN Governor gives the impression that the audit of the remaining 14 banks would be a mere formality. If there is no conspiracy, why target only five banks, why not complete the audit exercise before identifying all the erring banks and then you deal with all the issues at once?""ì think we should await the outcome of the second round of audit.""And we will go through this same process all over again? Or is it not likely that the other banks have been given enough time to clean up their books, enough time also for some people to escape?""I refuse to be drawn into such conspiracy theory in this matter. We all know that the banking sector is in need of environmental sanitation.""Yes, but the regulator in doing that must also realise that it is being watched. And I hope government has enough will-power to see this to its logical conclusion, and respond to all the legal actions that are coming its way. The EFCC is heaving and hemming; it has suddenly come alive, but we will wait and see.""For your information, the EFCC has relocated to Lagos. EFCC officials have taken over the banks.""And you think that is good for banking?""Yes. Yes. And yes.""Well, I don't think so. I think the CBN can manage the situation better.""You want the CBN to sanction the bank CEOs and managers, but you don't want debtors to be disturbed because neither the CBN nor the EFCC is a debt-collection agency? Do I understand that this is your position?""ìs that what I am saying?""Looks like. And if I really understand the way your mind is working, you are asking for amnesty for all bank debtors. You don't want a Boko Haram treatment in the banking sector""You are a confused man. And you are confused because you don't know banking, you don't know business, you are just interested in sensation and you think seeing big men in society rubbished offers you a sense of self-worth.""Go and pay your debt, my friend. Or I will be the one to tell the EFCC where you are hiding...You are lucky you are not a member of the private jet set, I would have asked you to go and sell your jet and pay back our money.""This being the month of Ramadan, I can only ask that Allah forgive all of you who think it is a sin to owe a bank money.""€re you fasting?""I don't wear my faith on my sleeves""Just don't behave like our good friend, Alhaji Gulder. Every Ramadan season, he breaks his fast in the evening religiously with a bottle of Gulder. And he says God is all-knowing. So we nicknamed him Alhaji Gulder. ""The Almighty knows those who are serving him. On the day of Judgement, every man shall answer for his deeds.""You are beginning to sound like Pete Edochie, the actor who was kidnapped in Anambra state on Sunday, August 16.""How?""Do you know that since the man was released by his abductors, he has been sounding as if he just returned from a five-star hotel and not the kidnappers'den. He says the boys treated him like a father. They offered him alcohol, they even allowed him to pray with his chaplets and they told him about the circumstances that led them to a life of crime. And he insists that no ransom was paid. He added that people are trying to sensationalise the incident. They loved me a lot, he said.""Since he enjoyed the experience so much, so why have I been losing sleep worrying so much about him? If he thinks this is another movie in which he is the main actor, so let it be.""Don't be nasty. My suspicion is that the experience of kidnapping affects people differently.""Have you been kidnapped before?""I have been following the reports. One missing link in this country is that there is no trauma care, no counselling for victims of kidnapping. Government often helps to pay the ransom, the kidnappers move on, and the victim is caught in a psychological trap, between condemning the abductors or ending up identifying with them. You can't expect the man to come out and condemn his abductors. Do you know what they told him? Has anybody bothered to find out what exactly he went through? At the end of the day, the experience is personal and there is so much that is buried in matters of this nature in unspoken silences.""Well, he is a lucky man. It could have been worse. But I don't think this is a rebranding of Nigeria. You know the man is Chairman of the Nigeria Rebranding Committee. What his abduction has shown is how vulnerable we all are. Nobody is safe anymore. Now anybody who has ever appeared on television or in a movie has to go about with bodyguards. It is an unsafe country.""ì picked something from Mr Edochie's statements which is that his abductors sounded very intelligent. They could rationalise their action. I won't be surprised if they are univesrity undergraduates. In the past month, I have been reading too many stories about undergraduates who are involved in kidnapping, armed robbery and all kinds of felony.""What do you expect? The Federal Government says it is not ready to negotitate with university teachers who have been on strike for three months. ASUU says it is ready to die on its feet fighting. The abandoned students are bound to find something to do.""In fact, I read one shocking story in The Vanguard of August 21. It is titled "Strike: Female students appeal to FG, ASUU...says strike turning some of them into prostitution (sic)" In the story, a group called the National Association of Nigerian Female Students (NANFS) is said to have issued a statement calling for an early resolution of the dispute between the Federal Government and university teachers because according to the ladies, many of their members not being in school, are already engaged in all kinds of vices including prostitution. They want schools re-opened because delay could be dangerous.""Delay could be dangerous. Very dangerous, I agree. But who is complaining, female students or the men who are patronising them?""èverywhere you turn in this country, there is a sad story waiting to be told. We can't even do well in Athletics. In Berlin, the Nigerian contingent at the 2009 IAAF World Championships is having to deal with allegations of drug use by some of its athletes. The country is being disgraced. Jamaica, a country that cannot boast of half the toilet water that is used in Mushin is being celebrated. ""Not quite. Some Nigerians are doing well too. Philip Idowu won the gold medal in triple jump.""For Great Britain.""ìt doesn't matter. The Idowu family house is in Nigeria. And don't mind the British. They are claiming Marilyn Okoro and Christine Ohurogu. Norway is parading Ezinne Okparaebo and Germany, Sorina Nwachukwu. These are Nigerians. In fact, there should be DNA tests in international sports.""I think you just like to talk. You know the truth. You want DNA test. Nigerian players for the Under-17 World Cup cannot even pass the age verification test. Have you not heard that 16 of them failed the MRI test? Now the Nigerian Football Federation is confused. We face the risk of not making it to the tournament because the country now has to start looking for young men who are actually under 17 not 30-year olds.""My brother, that story is emba-rra-ssi-ng. The number of players who failed the test is actually 22! And are we not supposed to be hosting the tournament in October? As we speak the Golden Eaglets camp in Bauchi has been disbanded.""Jesus is Lord."
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