Attention: CBN Governor-Nigerian Banks And Their Outsourcing 419 Strategies

We are standing resolute & united for a just cause that transcends grades / levels but is borne out of the genuine desire to see our members treated with the dignity & respect we truly deserve. The era of cheap emotional blackmail is OVER - using our deep love of the Bank to create fear @ seeing the Bank crumble to arrest our emotions & cause us to waver while holding us hostage will NO longer work - Our Bank is far bigger / greater than ALL our detractors rolled into one. Their evil intentions towards our Beloved Bank that was built through the years by the dedication, commitment & passion of our family / friends / ourselves will NEVER succeed - HE that's in us is far greater than he that's in the world!!!

Comrades, knowledge is power & information shared empowers us - giving us an edge over & above our detractors. I want to throw more light on the $13m that Funke flushed down the drain shortly after taking over last year by releasing the funds from our UBUK to BIBE- ignoring all the facts / information @ her disposal clearly pointing otherwise - what we have now is $7m which was returned. With this, the Q to ask her when she claims the publication erroneously stated $70m instead of $7m is "If $13m (over N2b then) was released & $7m (over 1.06b) returned, basic Math's shows that $6m (over N.91b) is unaccounted for"!!!

I need to explain the BIBE subsidiary to you - some zones are far greater than the whole bank in Benin Republic put together (it can be likened to a glorified struggling BDC with 11 branches). It was an investment that our Bank over 20yrs ago hoped to be a bridge into other Francophone Countries - but like most things, the vision got overtaken by personal interest. BIBE had eroded their capital & needed to recapitalize or close shop & while I personally pushed for the latter based on the facts on ground, our colleague - an AGM, Bola Badmus (BIBE's MD) decided the former would serve his selfish interest & BIBE cooked their books to show "profitability" & the previous Mgt decided to dangle a "red herring" of $13m (out of the needed $40m needed to fully recapitalize) to woo investors into mopping up the IPO they intended to come out with - this money was supposed to show the seriousness of UBN while watching to see the outcome of the IPO. The $13m was then wired to UBUK with explicit written instructions not to, under any circumstance release the funds to BIBE (the fact was that the same people who had ruined the bank were the same mgt staff that were still in the employ of the bank & they wanted their hands on that money desperately) but send the bank a confirmation of placement in their favor - under the guise that it was to be used for trade financing @ 2% int.

That was the position that was on ground when the Funke took over - all the $13m was still intact in UBUK. Then Funke came on board & Bola kept coming into Lag to "meet" with her then she visited us in Cotonou for the 1st time & that was when I realized that not only had Bola sold his dignity but also his honor - he (suit, tie & all) went flat on the floor in the office to greet Funke then went further to carry her handbag all around - I was still getting over those displays when I heard same thing had been happening all the times he came to H/O - he was her official handbag carrier - an AGM of the Bank???

It was shortly after that, based on the cooked books & stories Bola sold to her that the $13m was sent to BIBE & suddenly, she realized that her golden boy's tales weren't adding up & CBN auditors discovered the $13m was used to recapitalize a bank out of the Country without their approval & asked that the funds be returned immediately - that led to the Board meeting of BIBE to be cancelled @ short notice & a riot act read to Bola to return the money within 7 working days or face the music - the result dear Comrades is the refund of $7m to UBUK. So when next she talks of it being $7m not $70m - ask her about the Balance + 2% interest that should've been paid on that - what is the value of that $13m in our books as @ today - the last time I checked a couple of Months back, it was classified as LOST - maybe the status has changed now.

Can you imagine Comrades what impact $13m (N2b) could've had if deployed to provide the much needed infrastructure in the Branches? We are saddled with no working tools to give the excellent service we are capable of rendering - the working environment is not conducive & our members moral is on an all-time low - yes I agree we have huge debt portfolio, but should we then flush the meager resources we have left when we haven't recovered much?

Now, the GEMCO meeting of y'day - I asked a DGM what moral justification he has to tell us to lie to our members? Where were they when Funke came on board - they were all busy identifying / consolidating their comfort zones & only now when they realized that if Mgt goes ahead & cuts off pension in 2005, it'll affect them most as most were PM's then! How come Funke's excesses were not discussed @ that meeting? They should also have asked "If we are in lean times, why then are our salaries cut while those of the GMD tripled? If she says she's entitled to 4 cars - going by her utterances, shouldn't she settle for 1 - considering these cars are ALL LUXURIES that can be avoided in the overall interest of the Bank - whatever happened to the luxury vehicles recovered from the previous Mgt? We in Branches don't have vehicles to move out & maintain & grow our business - did that stop them from giving us double our targets with positive results expected & negative results leading to decreased pay??? That goes to show that GEMCO only deliberated on the things that affected them personally & not our collective interests, so why expect us to hail them for having "a fruitful meeting"?

ALL we are saying is ENOUGH IS ENOUGH - the years of talking-the-talk is gone forever - now we are walking-the-talk & we would neither waiver nor be blackmailed into deviating from our objective. We have lost confidence in Funke & since she has shown no confidence in us, she should step aside for our shareholders to elect someone whose motive isn't suspect. We are not kids to be dribbled with buying-time mechanisms - We must stand up for this cause that we're passionate about - Let's not let our dynamic NLC seem to be crying more-than-the-bereaved by chickening out on them when they've taken up our cause & invested unltd resources to drive it through. History will not forgive us if we compromise our position. The French & Russian Revolution should teach us something - The masses believed in something & they dared to take their stance amidst trials & tribulations that came their way - We will surely succeed!!!

I am proudly a CUB (Core Union Banker) & I'm proudly a member of our dynamic Union.

Er.....excuse me Mr Know it all Anonymous,

It's spelt Academic, not Accademic...

Quoting your:
"define the accademic and job platform sequel to this complaint." comment u made earlier

....u even used it twice to show how dumb sorry smart u are....lol

And were you trying to say...

Common ?

Or Come on? referring to your last post below?

"Common, I believe you did not pass English Language in secondary school.Go and work on this first."

Lol.....its so sad!....i reckon its you that needs to go back to school and learn proper grammar!

someone is raised a valid issue affecting the youth today...and your busy attacking his grammar with your own grammatical missiles trying to shut him down...you ought to be ashamed!!

Do something more productive with your time, like keeping your trap shut!

Er.....excuse me Mr Know it all Anonymous,

It's spelt Academic, not Accademic...

Quoting your:
"define the accademic and job platform sequel to this complaint." comment u made earlier

....u even used it twice to show how dumb sorry smart u are....lol

And were you trying to say...

Common ?

Or Come on? referring to your last post below?

"Common, I believe you did not pass English Language in secondary school.Go and work on this first."

Lol.....its so sad!....i reckon its you that needs to go back to school and learn proper grammar!

someone is raised a valid issue affecting the youth today...and your busy attacking his grammar with your own grammatical missiles trying to shut him down...you ought to be ashamed!!

Do something more productive with your time, like keeping your trap shut!

I do not support rudeness, i do not condone allegations of misappropriation, fraud and the likes. But one question must be asked: IS THIS REALLY AN ARTICLE? DID SOMEONE ACTUALLY VET THIS IS THERE NOT AN EDITOR IN THE HOUSE?

Kindly vet your articles before publishing, there is no point printing grammatically incorrect write-ups, it only takes away from the essence being conveyed. Now i can honestly say i don't know what the paper is all about all i know is it is badly written. Terrible.

Nigerians it's not only in the banking sector you find these kind of situation we also have same apply in the Oil sector. It's a Nigerian factor issue. We truely need REVOLUTION in these country PERIOD!

what about corporate prostitution which is the biggest of the evil that the banks practice. selling our daughters,mothers, wives, and girlfriends for a current account only to fire them after they have been sexed up?

@ Oba you are utterly correct about your description of what a contract staff is in Uk and other part of the world....a contract staff isn't entitled to work all hours of the day and he is paid based on the amount of hours invested in the work calculated on a minimum wage bases per hour....its so unfortunate that first Nigerian do not know their rights and I think what the writer is doing at present is to highlight the menace associated with contract staffs working in the Nigerian banks....if the banks want to employee contract staffs they should do it appropriately....employing them for full hours without commensurate pay should be not be admitted and also if banks wish to get the best out of their employees and also stop fraud they should value their employees, most especially those whom are contract staffs.....banks do not seem to value their workers and see them as mere inputs or resources into the organisational productive process....it is a shame and i think its time this needs to be corrected

I agree that this is a summary of the situation in the banking industry today. However, the picture (gloomy indeed) of inequality being painted by the writer only holds if all graduates are equals.

Due to differing circumstances, brilliant students graduate with below average grades and some dont even get into universities. However, i cannot overlook the use grammer in the article and wonder if all Nigerian graduates are indeed equal and whether employment opportunities should mirror such equality.

As someone who has worked in recruitment and selection in Nigeria before, i know for sure that one of the main reasons many companies restrict entry to a Second class upper division degree from select universities is to limit the number of applicants.

It is extremely difficult to search for bright graduates from the pool of all Nigerian graduates and so limiting it to just the first two classes, makes it a faster and effective process although at the loss of a few good ones.

Since the rich men have resolved not to let the poor rest. The metal lead will always chase them around no matter the number of bullet proof cars they buy.

If they are affecting their environment, why are they afraid of their brothers and neighbours.

Managing Director of Zenith Bank Sierra Leone in Trouble
Posted by Kadijatu Savage on Jul 25, 2010, 01:56

To hear vulgar and unprintable words coming from the mouth of a Managing Director of a financial institution should be a surprise, but not the case of the Managing Director of Zenith Bank in Sierra Leone, Madam Oby Ikeh Unekwe a Nigerian national, who is in Sierra Leone to teach Sierra Leoneans how to be rude and nasty to journalists and how to deprive workers in this small state called Sierra Leone of their entitlements. It is not known why the Headquarter of the Zenith Bank in Nigeria decides to transfer a rude; impolite and indecent Executive staff member to Sierra Leone to head their foreign branch office.

Since the establishment of Zenith Bank in Sierra Leone, its clientele base has not been encouraging, not to talk about customer care and satisfaction. Last Friday 23rd July, 2008, Madam Oby Ikeh Unekwe reached her Zenith and demonstrated to a female journalist working for the Observer Newspaper that she is a happy- lucky-go- high- timer who has no respect for humanity, not even for journalists. She was called by the Observer female journalist from a cell phone to cross check allegations of abuse of human rights, fraud and misappropriation of funds meant to pay staff of the bank.

Immediately she picked up the call and listened to the allegations, her response was incredible “You bastard, go and write, you prostitute…fo...” and refused to say whether it was true or not”

Madam Oby has refused to pay her staff their productivity bonus which is an allowance paid based on individual performance, and such payment depends on the level of staff. Staff of the bank had alleged that she had used their allowance to buy a new Customed Design Range Rover Sport Jeep costing about Ninety-eight Thousand United States Dollars ($98,000,000)

Despite effort by the reporter to state her name and the media institution she works for, Madam Oby would not listen to her, but busy using obscene languages that ill-mannered Managing Directors of some Nigerian banks are aufait with and comfortable to use against female journalist in their country, which she imported to Sierra Leone and succeeded to showcase her expertise.

Zenith bank is reportedly on the down side with a financial loss of about Five Hundred Million Leones, which she cannot give adequate and appropriate explanation for and the only way she feels that she could console herself with to abuse nosy journalists is to scare them away with abuses.

Some members of staff who cannot put up with her rude behaviour are now on a job hunt in other institutions where the Managing Directors are decent and courteous to both customers and staff.

The Zenith Managing Director has no good words to describe Sierra Leone. If she is not quoted of saying that this is a miserable country and her presence is a worst punishment Jehovah has done to her, she would say there are grasses all over the city.

The message the writer was communicating is very direct so don't blame the grammar.The Governor of CBN Sanusi should address the issues raised.If this youths are not given opportunity.how will they rise??Tony Elumelu and Jim ovia all started at the lower level before attaining where they were before their retirement.Even Lemo the deputy Governor of CBN.this issue should be taken to the table of the CBN Governor if he does'nt blog on SR

Sure it is slavery! Inhuman degrading treatment of even graduates with the so called 2:1. Imagine being employed to be on a 1 year probation only to meet unimaginable targets and be refused 'Promotion', 'Elevation' or whatever u call it for another year....practical 2 year slavery for d 'lucky' ones....all through without a word or an explanation from d mgt of d bank! They take these graduates as slaves, simple!. That is what the 'Loudest' and 'Noisiest' Bank is doing. That Bank now has a case to answer in court along with its MD who was eased out of office in August by CBN!!! We shall soon hear that story!

they call dem contract staff. Pay dem as low as a miserable sum of 20k. (whereas som abuja prostitutes get as much as 200k per runs). N dey ll expect dem to work like d normal staff. Wear expensive suits too. Close dsame time if not even later and upon all of dat no bonus whatsoever. Thats d real meaning of slavery

Unfortunately, this has been our lot in this country. we leave issues and chase shadows or attack personalities.@ Anonymous, Did the writter pass a message accross or not? Did he communicate or not? U mustn't understand english to be a genius. Go ask the Chinese and the Japanese who are fast becoming world powers while we sit back and speak turenchi like Fani-Kayode

@Anonymous you missed the point, the writer has successfully presented a good case on exploitation by banks.
You must first remove the mote in your eye before removing the log of wood in another person's eyes. Your comment is to say the least a mixture of substandard and broken (not even pidgin)English yet, you have the temerity to castigate another person. What do these expressions mean in English language
"If I were to take this your so called write-up..."
"Common, ... pass English Language in secondary school"
Be careful how you trample on people at least my primary school English is clear enough.

You are a complete idiot, someone is trying to fight against a social menace in our society you are attacking him. maybe you're one of those people who are enjoying free money from the so called outsourcing company. The message is important not the 'English' fool......

Nigeria system is very bad, every body just doing what they like and no body cares. Nigeria is fail Nation of all Nations. Why blaming armed robbers for robbing bank. We waisting time, revolution is the only the only option, cause our leaders don't care, if we talk till thy kindom come no any goverment official will talk.All the leaders are bad as any thing from the top to the bottom. Nigeria can never and ever move forward to any where. For jona is a weak leader and he cannt perform then where are we going? Jonathan giving award to dubious elements. Award turn to nonsense. Nigeria way is still far and far.The best is split the country,people have lost hope, all our honest pensioners find it difficult to get their money, and the senate, legislooters seeing all this.Instead to help our seniors they turn their faces to other side,knowing that their old men and women that have work very hard for the country, and even some die without collecting their entitlement cause of fraustration they go through, is this a country at all, where all our leaders are just bunch of rogues, 419 etc.

Let's call a spade a spade and not a farming tool!

The writer might not be a university graduate and this write up did not categorically define the accademic and job platform sequel to this complaint. So, excuse me the "Grammar" thing!

The case is clear and obvious to those who had suffered this pepetual slavery in Nigerian labour market, called contract staff, contract this and contract that! all translating to corruption and human trafficking in different hidden dimensions.

Must every body working in the banks have the same and equal accademic qualifications?. In other countries where contract personnel exist, their wages, salaries and conditiion of services are not packed in the same slavery quota as are done in the cases of Nigeria, not only in the banks, but in the oil companies. Are foreign contract workers in Nigeria being treated in the same slavery manners?

If I understand what the writer is saying contract staff is called part time staff in western world. Part time workers are employed through agencies and also some companies employ them direct.
Every young Nigerian wants to work in the bank. In UK they are two types of banks high street banks and investment bankers. The investment bankers are the once that work in the city and they earn good money.
An investment banker in UK earns over 70K in a year with an annual bonus of over 1m depending on the profit of the bank for that year while high street bankers earn around 22k in a year.
But in Nigeria who is a high street banker and who is an investment banker? What sort of banking do we practice in Nigeria? Nigerian bankers are sells boys and girls looking for deposit and if you meet you target your contract will not be terminated.
Bankers in Nigerian are not well trained into banking profession that is why they are made contract staffs. Do we still have Institute of bankers? How many bank staff belongs to that profession? Can you practice accounting or be a solicitor without belonging to the professional body?
As I said before contact staff in western world is called agency staff and some of them are well paid and working as an agency staff gives you the opportunity to control your time and the number of hours you will like to work.
When we copy things we should practice it the way it is done and improve on them that is development not the other way round as the contract staff are been done in Nigeria.

Mr anonymous,the young writer has communicated what is happening in the banks.Graduates are employed on contract and paid peanut after deducting for the ``master``.It must not be so as we must be fair to ourselves. We all, inclusive of these directors who owns the company employing contract staff attended same institutions. Why blame the whiteman in the past. The billions they declare every year what is it mearnt for if not ployed back into the society i.e paying fellow Nigerians reasonable salary.It is wickedness in the highest order.CBN governor knows it and must look into this very issue.

Hi Writer,

If I were to take this your so called write-up as a basis for employment as a full staff; you will forever be a contract staff. In fact, I will even sack you for this. Common, I believe you did not pass English Language in secondary school. Go and work on this first.