*Customers, pundits stunned as bank shuns legal means of conflict resolution
*Alleges picket line was meant to save jobs, recover depositors’ fund
*How the impasse truly portrays MD Sekibo
Anger could be an effective negotiating tool. And yet a frantic recourse for bullies. It becomes the sinew to Ifie Sekibo’s soul. The Managing Director (MD) of Heritage Bank is very angry right now. And the tumult of his rage makes him look like a lion yelping in rage like a cub, although his true intent is to roar and make the forest howl.
By channeling anger, Sekibo intends to commands the fear and propriety of many a billionaire; his bank’s politician debtors to be precise.
Years after enduring in silence, its preeminent customers’ persistent loan defaulting, Sekibo, spat in the air and turned a defiant cheek to receive its torrent in wild rage. Without a recourse to second thought, he recently authorised the deployment of chaos by his underlings at the bank in reclaiming what has undoubtedly become a bad debt from one of its prominent customers and Anambra political juggernaut, Sen. Andy Uba.
On Monday, June 21, a motley crew of protesters from Heritage Bank stormed Uba’s residence in Abuja, to mount a picket line. The intent was clearly to embarrass the politician with the hope that he would settle his debt with the bank. His failure, to do that, argued the protesters, would result in job losses for the bank employees keeping vigil in front of his house.
In a video shared by one of the protesters, he stated that the huge loan secured by Uba was actually depositors’ money which must be refunded; he also lamented that the employees stationed in front of Uba’s residence stood the risk of losing their jobs, bemoaning the likely impact on their families if they should be laid off.
Without doubt, the recent plunge in the value of the Naira has begun to hit hard on the banking sector, as the Heritage bank has deemed it very necessary to take the war to its chronic debtors.
Pundits, however, argued that Heritage Bank’s resort to street justice and a picket line resonates very badly about the financial institution’s relationship with its clients and more importantly, it portrays the bank’s leadership as administratively uncouth and timid under pressure.
The bank’s resort to picketing to reclaim its money from Uba is particularly worrisome to its other prominent customers who feel unprotected and vulnerable to similar antics, should they default for unforeseen reasons.
If you could read between the lines, you just might decipher the saddening fable of the bank chief or MD, if you like, who led the bank to rack up a burden of debt in frantic quest of political and entrepreneurial acclaim. Having plunged the bank in indebtedness, incurring tons of liability, he resorted to anger and violence, forgetting that chaos has never been a dependable harbinger of good nor had it ever been a dependable status conferrer.
There is no gainsaying several financial institutions, like Heritage Bank, have doled out depositors’ savings in ill-advised loan drives that have put too many of them in a bind. When the going was good, and the foreign exchange rate humoured their frantic lusts, many of them gave out fancy loans to their billionaire customers, doling out as much as $10 million at the exchange rate of N350 to $1. The horizon seemed rid of storms and the crisis of perilous liabilities. But no sooner did the naira take a plunge, now exchanging at N502 to a dollar, their customers sank in the riotous waves of debt.
Due to the financial crisis, many of them have incurred millions of debts in dollars even though their earnings are in naira. Tough luck. While the naira exchanges at an unrealistic official rate of N450 to a dollar, they have to pay up their million-dollar debt and buy inflow at N515 or thereabouts.
Unfortunately for them, no help is coming from their cohorts in the banking industry as their bankers are caught up in the wave of debt and ugly liabilities. Even the banks are in crisis; a consequence of bad management, lack of visionary planning, and inability to recoup many of the bad loans they gave in the time of plenty.
In frustration, Heritage Bank’s MD, Sekibo resorted to use of force, channeling angst to muzzle Uba into repaying his loan. The bank’s MD is unarguably at his tethers end. But he must watch it, as anger, it is often said, is both an unforgiving master and a foul, cunning slave who assumes the aspect of a counselor, but whose advice is deadly poison.
To reclaim his bank’s debt, will Sekibo continue to scorn legal means of intervention through the courts and regulatory agencies? Will he plunge deeper in rage’s sewer and deploy more violent measures to reclaim his debt? Or will he ditch his bluster and quit trying to bully his way out of his disgraceful bind? The banking industry is watching.
