By Owei Lakemfa

I DO not know what school of thought produced Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Sanusi Lamido Aminu Sanusi. I know that he read Economics at Ahmadu Bello University  before reading Sharia and Islamic Studies in Sudan. So I am not talking about literacy, but education. I am aware he has at least two degrees, but my concern is the degree of his thought process. I am not referring to ideology, but common sense.

The reason I am interested in the constellation of ideas propelling Sanusi is his comments  at the press conference at the  212th Monetary Policy Committee meeting in Abuja on the massive lay-offs in the banks and government’s attempts to stem them.

The scenario was that the CBN under Sanusi detected that some banks were failing. It sacked the chief executives of the affected banks and imposed new helmsmen. These new chief executives had then began a mindless mass sack of bank  employees and cutting the salaries of those left. Some banks which were not affected by the CBN reorganisation had also taken the opportunity to carry out mass sack.

A usually reticent government had become so alarmed that it convened a meeting of the CBN, the banks and the bank labour unions to discuss the issue. Thrice the meeting was called, thrice it failed to hold because Sanusi did not attend. At the press conference, he derided the meeting, asking the media the venue of the meeting. On the on- going mass sack for which the Federal Government,  through the Labour Minister, had tried to convene the meetings, Sanusi said contemptuously: “ I do not think it is the place of the regulator(CBN) or the government to tell the private sector banker how many staff it requires…I have heard some saying that government has given the banks money so that they should retain the workers. We didn’t give the banks money; we gave you the money to make sure that you didn’t lose your money”. In other words, as far as Sanusi is concerned, the meeting called by the government is unnecessary, if not stupid, and he has no time for such inanities. I can imagine that the CBN governor must be quite busy!

The bank lay-offs had affected some 10,000 employees, including top management staff. Given a nuclei family of six, and a minimum four dependants, it means that within three months, some 100,000 Nigerians have had their means of livelihood cut off. And this is a country without social security.
Government knowing the social implications decided that it cannot be indifferent to the plight of these Nigerians, hence its decision to call the meeting.

In this wise, the Federal Government is right and Sanusi, completely wrong. Sanusi’s lack of appreciation of a social catastrophe is not based on any sound analysis  or ideological position. Bailing banks is not a Nigerian phenomenon; it happened in many countries last year, including Europe and America, the bastion of capitalism. When President Barack Obama, Sanusi’s age mate, bailed out private American banks and companies like Chrysler and GM,  it was not because he loved the faces of their CEOs. It was in the main, to save jobs. He also intervened to cut the outrageous severance pay of the private companies CEOs. When the bailout was linked with the stimulus package, Obama announced that the whole idea was to save or create three million jobs.

If the Sanusi bailout did not include saving jobs, then it was myopic.  It is shocking that after giving out N620 billion of our money to private banks, the CBN governor will claim that government has no business with how the banks are run.

Thirdly, as part of a government with mass employment as a cardinal in its Seven-Point Agenda, the CBN cannot pursue a contrary agendum of mass job losses, or be indifferent when such occur in its sector.

Fourthly, the banks action except in a single case, violated the laws of the country, especially Section 20 of the Labour Act which states that: “In the event of redundancy, the employer shall inform the trade union or workers representatives concerned of the reasons for and the extent of the anticipated redundancy”. The law goes on to  state criteria  to be applied in carrying out redundancy.  Fifthly, the banks violated the Collective Agreement between employers and employees in the banking industry.

On a sixth point, in cutting the salaries and entitlements of staff, the banks violated  Section 5 of the Labour Act which states that employers cannot make deductions from a worker’s agreed salary “except the person concerned has accepted, in writing”.

Also the banks method of disengagement was in many cases illegal and indecent. In one bank, once the staff could not log into his system in the office, it meant that he has been fired. In another, sacked staff got to know if their names had been deleted from the system!

Also there were issues of job insecurity, banker employees loss of self-esteem  and the attendant effect of these on banking operations.

These  and the agitations of bank staff against their managements were some of the reasons why the meeting Sanusi  derided was necessary. If Sanusi does not want dialogue, a peaceful resolution of crisis in the industry  or that banks should respect due process and the country’s laws, what does he want?  I am willing to assume that Sanusi is either uninformed about the issues at stake or has been misadvised. I do not want him to end up like the disaster Charles Soludo was in the CBN.