Okonkwo Samuel
By Obi Trice Emeka
The Media has always sought to project those with elegant CVs, or those who are products of the private sector as the only ones who are capable of leadership. This, however, has often turned out not to be true, as leadership, especially public leadership, is much more complicated than what we are compelled to believe. In fact, we have a retinue of professors and technocrats who have failed woefully in leadership.
For instance, Willy Obiano, current governor of Anambra state, had retired as an executive director of a bank; just as the present Governor of Abia State, Ikpeazu is a PhD holder. For both men, the jury is out there with a decision: they failed in leadership.
Yet, there appears to be an attempt by very few persons to ceaselessly project Professor Soludo as the best thing to happen to Anambra state since the discovery of Ofe Akwu. They use all manner of flowery words and adjectives to describe him, claiming in extreme circumstances that he is infallible and has all solutions to all of Nigeria’s problems.
But this is not true. Like Soludo, those who have never had practical experience running any business – whether personal or paid – have always failed at critical moments.
Soludo, for example, in his over six decades on earth has had only one real experience in practical leadership, outside mouthing boardroom theories. That was at the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN – and you know what: it almost ended in catastrophe.
Few instance would suffice.
At the CBN:
1. Soludo’s incompetence ensured that the CBN became a weak regulator as it failed to closely monitor the activities of the banks, leading to unethical practices that nearly destroyed the Nigerian economy.
2. Soludo was nepotistic, looking the other way as his friends cooked the books in their various banks and engaged in huge insider trading.
3. Soludo lacked the courage and brevity to take hard decisions. He allowed his friends run the banks like the Mafia.
4. Soludo couldn’t protect and stand up for depositors, as hr encouraged the banks to create fictitious share value which the banks dumped on their investors. Twelve years after Soludo left the CBN, the shares he authorised have remained worthless.
5. Because Soludo couldn’t manage the Banks’ consolidation programme properly, most banks lied about their capital bases and soon became frail, leading to a second round of merger and consolidation under Mallam Sanusi before sanity returned to the Nigerian banking system.
6. The total debt bought over by Nigeria because of Soludo’s weak regulation of the banks stood at over N4 Trillion( a large chunk of the AMCON debt is due to Soludo’s ‘Do Nothing’ attitude at the CBN).
7. Consolidation wasn’t, and still isn’t a new programme across the globe or in Nigeria, yet Soludo couldn’t even implement the programme properly because this was the first idea in his whole life that he was asked to execute himself. In fact, the banking consolidation programme which Soludo presided over was the brainchild of Joseph Sanusi, his predecessor at the CBN.
The legendary journalist and editor, Simon Kolawole was so pissed off that he wrote a scathing article titled “Soludo: Banking is no Ludo.”
Of his tenure, ace Columnist, Dele Shobowale of the Vanguard thoughtfully wrote:”The calamity which five more years of the former CBN governor(Soludo), could have produced is unimaginable.”
Instructively, a Leopard never ever changes its spots. Soludo has never had any practical experience at anything, as his ideas have never gone beyond the confines of the boardroom.
In the unlikely event of a Soludo emerging as governor of Anambra state, he will:
– encourage prebendalism and allow his friends run amok
– He will display an obvious lack of patience and dexterity to see through any policy
– His policies will hurt ndi Anambra for decades
– his haphazard approach to problem solving will leave the entire state in a mess.
Is this a gamble worth taking?
The answer flies ominously in the winds
