First of all, I want to thank General Muhammadu Buhari (rtrd) and all those who supported his rise to power in 2015 and 2019 and up till this moment; for a job well done in ensuring that they inflicted great mental torture and emotional trauma on the over 150 million Nigerians that included the youths, the widows, the aged, the persons-with-disability, the Muslims, the Christians, the atheists as well as the traditional faithful, because of selfish ambitions. It is my heartfelt prayer that God will reserve an executive chamber in the fires of hell for all of you.
Sometime in August of 2008, I wrote an article that was published on the 10th of that month with the Sun Newspaper. And it was titled THESE MEGA BANKS ARE FAILING US! About 3 months later, the then CBN governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi carried out a massive purge of the banking system; felling in the process, Iroko personalities like Mrs Cecilia Ibru, Mr Erastus Akingbola, Mr. Okey Nwosu and Mr. Francis Atuche etc. How Mr. Anthony Elumelu of the UBA escaped that house cleaning remains a mystery. Nevertheless, I was glad at SLS’s effort.
Why did I write that article? I wrote the article because in 2008 (just like today) I noticed that most banks concentrated all of their energy on a department they called marketing department and kept hiring young people whom they allocated some ridiculous amount of money as target per month or got fired from the job! Then, these youngsters are told to do everything within their discretion to get these customers to bring in their monies even if it meant prostituting in order to achieve the said target.
Then, I was like damn; all is not well with these Soludo-nized Mega Banks, that handwork of the street-illiterate professor of economics. Thankfully, a man with balls and brain got on the saddle and carried out a thorough house cleaning exercise that confirmed that one doesn’t necessarily have to be a professor to know economics because a street-smart fellow – whether literate or not – is more than a professor! The current Naira crisis which has caused a lot of hardship to Nigerians since it was introduced in November of 2022 has got me thinking again.
Can anyone please provide some smart and sensible reasons why all the Nigerian local banks are suddenly having network glitches (in the face of the hardship Nigerians are going through already) while Opay – a Chinese fintech – continues to facilitate the same transactions at an alarmingly top speed? Is this Naira crisis signaling the end of all of our local banks? Should Mr. Yahui Zhou’s Opay become Nigeria’s new mega bank? Sometimes I shudder at the mentality that I see in this country!
Is there sabotage on the internet system or do we have some persons who manipulated the internet in favor of Opay or what? As I turned these questions on my mind, I become more and more befuddled as I observe the seamless takeover of Nigeria by the Chinese just because a group of charlatans that paraded themselves as leaders in this country do not even know that the ship they assumed to be steering across the ocean is sinking! That innocent Nigerians are dying daily due to high blood pressure, depression and suicide doesn’t seem to bother these rogues.
After more than 17 years of enjoying local patronage from the ever-friendly and business-minded Nigerian citizens, is this how the banking system planned to thank her customers? I was in the centre of Abuja today and I noticed how glowingly everyone was talking about Opay coming to their rescue in the face of what the Mr. Godwin Emefiele-led CBN and the commercial banks have put Nigerians into. Last week Thursday, I did a transfer from my bank to a client’s Access Bank account and as I’m writing this; she’s yet to get that money. Meanwhile, it left my account that same day!
A friend told of his transfer of N25, 000.00 to Wema bank since the 23rd February, 2023 and how it took 2 weeks of follow-up from him to get the money to drop into the beneficiary’s account. He even alleged that if he hadn’t being on their neck, Wema bank would’ve swallowed that money and continued to claim glitches. This has become a common experience for many Nigerians lately whether the haves or the have-nots. But what saddens me most is seeing the widows; single mothers and the aged pensioners go through pains to get money.
And you wonder what happened to the conscience of people of this generation? Since the Supreme Court’s ruling, Nigerians have waited eagerly for the CBN or the president to voice their stance to no avail. A government that has no remorse for the pains she is causing her citizens; why would she care to comment? Banks have continued to pay out in old notes since the judgment but are refusing to collect the same. And you wonder if this was really a redesign or an orchestrated attempt to plunge the country into a political chaos?
Opay has since increased her customer base and it is my prediction that in no time from now, we would see Opay commercial banks, mortgage banks as well as microfinance banks springing up everywhere across the country. And that will be bye-bye to indigenous banks. In the face of all these, why will a citizen like me not pray that an executive chamber of hell be reserved for these demons-in-human form leaders putting citizens through all these pains? Well, I strongly believe that judgment day is very close. For where you see the vultures gather, a carcass is near.
Mmoh, Executive director, Self-Awareness for Suicide Prevention Initiative, Africa writes from Abuja. He can be reached via phone: 08062577718
