It takes a steel heart and keen will to make money. It takes character and wisdom to tame it. But very few bankers are aware of this fact. Thus many have fallen to the lure of money, the common whore and procurer of people and nations. But where their peer flounder and stumble, a privileged band of Nigerian bankers soar like falcons.
These privileged few affect the depth of the ancients thus their capacity to command the bittersweet complexities of money and its steep per cents.
These fortunate breed of entrepreneurs emerge as Nigeria’s richest bankers because unlike too many of their peers, they understand the actual value of the world’s hard currencies. Thus they engage in their pursuit and acquisition with the vigour and tact of the proverbial merchants of the Orient Express. Their industry glistens like polished gold even as it emits the sweet, heady fragrance of rare and exotic olive vines.
There is an innate strength in them that defies notions of valour applicable to their peer. In fact, very few men and women of their age and class can handle the onerous tasks of running formidable banking institutions with all the attendant headaches and challenges. But Tony Elumelu and Jim Ovia, Chairmen of United Bank of Africa (UBA) and Zenith Bank respectively unfurl into the task without a crease in their brows or the oft dreaded fear of failure and exhaustion.
But they aren’t the only breed of bankers with remarkable exploits in the nation’s banking sector.
Others include Herbert, Wigwe, Phillip Oduoza, Aig Imoukhuede, Bisi Onasanya, Ladi Balogun, Kennedy Udoza, Alex Otti, among others.
Having honed their fiscal skills and matured through the years, these breed of genii have learnt the fine art of excelling in the cutthroat and extremely challenging world of global banking.
Like medieval knights with unrivalled valour, they did not crumble in fear or anticipation of failure in their march for excellence thus their extraordinary ascent the ladder of success.
These banking magnates among other things, believed that even the greatest challenges and darkest days were made to hone their wit and burnish their shine.
While older men struggle to keep pace with the demands of less tasking jobs and smaller degree of responsibilities, Elumelu, Ovia and company internalize strength in their sinewy frames to further establish their success. They epitomise the strength and compassion of the proverbial guardians of providence, carrying the fates of their clients and staff in their hearts.
Their genius is indeed matchless and of no common descent. Thus their attainment of the zenith of excellence in their prime. Their sterling exploits resonate extraordinary brilliance. Few men are wrought of such transcendent capacity for greatness that singular forthrightness that imbues commerce with logic and sound pragmatism.
