Accountability and Responsibility From the Top:
The kind of re-branding we need
By Oliver Mbamara
It is with reluctant-hopefulness that I write this piece. Hopefulness
because as a Nigerian who continues to hope for the best for the
Nigerian people, I feel elated anytime someone in a leadership position
in Nigeria makes a daring, selfless, intelligent, and fearless move to
address the corruption and leadership mismanagement that has plagued
Nigeria for so long. Reluctant because I have almost given up on writing
public commentaries and editorials about Nigeria’s leadership problems
since every time a seeming leadership “hopeful” emerges in Nigeria, the
“powers that be” would somehow manage to stifle such leader. At other
times just when one begins to have confidence in a particular leader,
Nigerians would wake up one day to some revelation that such leader was
indeed never different from the rest of the pack. Yet as a Nigerian, one
is bound to applaud any light in the tunnel until the true “political
messiah” emerges, if ever.
Many Nigerians applaud the move by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)
Governor, Sanusi Lamido to sack five managing directors of banks over
financial misdemeanor that have resulted in unpaid debts running into
several billions of naira. Yet, the concern is, will the CBN Governor
follow through with this move and see that all culprits are brought to
book while future managers and directors of Nigeria’s financial
institutions are more responsible and held more accountable? Will he be
steadfast in this drive or will his drive falter, change, or fade away
along the line? If he is sincerely determined, will he succeed or will he be
stopped?
We have heard about the effort of Nigeria’s current Minister of
Information and Communications, Prof. Dora Akunyili to re-brand Nigeria.
Although there is high regard and respect for the Minister going by her
past impressive record in Nigeria, the grudge has been that any move to
re-brand Nigeria without first re-branding (or re-orientating) the
Nigerian leadership sort of amounts to an insult to the integrity of
Nigerians. One does not need to be told that we need massive
re-orientation and sweeping self-character reassessment in all sectors
of Nigeria’s leadership. The rule should be to lead by good example.
While many Nigerians would tend to agree that re-branding maybe a good
idea, it would be an exercise in futility, bound to fail if Nigerians
would not find the confidence and encouragement to look up to their
leaders for good examples.
Not quite long ago, there was a sort of rush to buy stocks and invest in
shares of many Nigerian companies as the returns seemed to be humongous.
Many Nigerians including yours sincerely, received advances to invest in
stock in Nigeria, but many of us remained skeptical that there were
barely any genuine logical basis for such rise in stock values. There
was barley appropriate transparency in the dealings of these companies
and banks. To make matters worse, ownership and management in many of
the banks were linked to past and present political leaders whose true
characters many Nigerians would not trust. It was only a question of
time before the revelations of the true workings behind these banks and
the sharp rise in stock values would be revealed. First was the
revelation that some known wealthy Nigerians were influencing stock
values. What happened to these wealthy ones? Have they been brought to
book? Now the new revelation is that banks were lending out billions of
naira without collateral. One of the sacked bank CEOs is said to be the
President of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) and a
Vice President of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Shouldn’t we be talking about re-branding (or re-orientating) the
Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria and the Securities and
Exchange Commission?
Incidentally this type of irresponsibility and lack of accountability
evident in Nigeria’s financial sector cuts across other sectors of the
country’s leadership and management. While commending the efforts of the
CBN Governor to cleanse the Nigerian financial system, it has to be
pointed out that where such an effort is isolated, little if any success
would be made to get the country out of the pit of leadership
mismanagement and the consequential socio-economic impasse. Every other
sector of leadership and management in Nigeria has to be addressed. That is the kind of
re-branding we need.
This only my opinion
CONCLUSION (PART TWO) NEXT
About the Author: Oliver O. Mbamara, Esq., is a
filmmaker, writer, and publisher. He is also a judge with New York State,
OAH.
©August 2009 Oliver Mbamara
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