How Bank CEOS were threatened, forced out of NESG Board
Three bank CEOS who are also directors of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) were called separately Wednesday by a senior official of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to leave the NESG immediately.
One said he was told if he did not want his bank to face severe consequences, he must resign from the board of the NESG.
Not long after the separate encounters, the three bank CEOS began to send in their letters one after the other, each of them offering to discontinue membership of the board of the summit group. The banks CEOS feared their banks would be denied access to foreign exchange by the regulator.
The three directors Kennedy Uzoka, group managing director, UBA plc; Adesola Adeduntan, managing director, First Bank, and Abubakar Suleiman, managing director, Sterling Bank plc, all handed in their letters Wednesday and this was confirmed by the NESG.
In a statement to the board seen by Businessday, NESG chairman Asue Ighodalo, who himself is a frontline corporate lawyer, said to his colleagues “by now we have all seen the rejoinder by the CBN to our press release on ‘Urgent Matters of the Nation’ that we agreed require immediate attention.
“As surprising as the tone of the
it is now clear we have bigger issues to contend with. Earlier today, I was duly informed by three members of the board who are bank chief executives of their immediate intention to resign from the board. It appears they were coerced into this decision by the powers that be.
“While still considering our next line of action these resignations have been published in the media. We will continue to engage with all key stakeholders in the knowledge that our duties and responsibilities to the Nation sustain.
“We must protect and uphold our institution and its integrity. In the interim, I will advise that we all stay calm. I will revert with periodic updates and as events unfold.”
An official of the NESG told our reporter that there had never been a single dispute among the board members of the NESG in all of the group’s history, none so recorded anywhere in the books of the summit.
According to him, even the statement by the NESG which has been attacked by the Governor of the CBN received unanimous support from the directors and there is no record to show that any director had taken exception to any section of the statement in question.
In the main, directors of the NESG are invited to the board in recognition of the position they hold in their respective companies and become directors of the NESG when their predecessors who are directors of the NESG depart the seat. The CEOS of UBA and First Bank were invited to the board when the former CEOS of their respective banks ceased being bank CEOS.
The current saga began playing out after Businessday’s well sourced story revealed that the NESG as well as other business groups including a former governor and former deputy governor of the central bank had railed against a new bill awaiting presidential assent and which seeks to grant sweeping powers to the CBN governor.
So far, the CBN has neither responded to specific fears raised in the story about how the bill nor has the apex bank said how this controversial bill will foster Nigeria’s desperate quest for inward investment.