Union Bank’s Pyrrhic Victory. . .
UNION Bank will not die, after all! That was the subject of all the hues and cries from all corners since the last one and half years. Because Union Bank  has been like primus inter paris in the Nigerian banking sector, it was seen as the major bank used  in many parts of the world as the Nigerian banking exemplar. Many had seen the actions and inactions around it as simply debilitating and were driven by emotion and passion in passing both admiration and aspersion. The simple aim of all these was to retrieve the bank from a seeming dive into the abyss. There are  indications that, that goal is about to be met, other things that may be linked to this may be considered as mere embellishments. But one saving grace for the bank and its many stakeholders is the fact that, unlike other bailed-out banks, where cans of improprieties were allegedly opened, linking some to their executive management, Union Bank is the only one where issues of stolen monies have not been expressed . The allegations on bad loans are understandable and acceptable. What this means is that all that the apex bank found missing in the bank are not in personal pockets but in bad loans, which when fully recovered become bank’s money again. This must have been a great attraction for the consortium that is about buying the bank.
That was why many had really thought that the hullabaloo that trailed the bank since the appointment of Funke Osibodu as chief executive was grossly unnecessary because it would be contributing to the erosion of the value of the bank. It did, as the bank had to go through streams of stop-start processes which led to about six work stoppages that lasted not less than an average of three days in each case. This is the only sour part of this merger that many Union Bank enthusiasts will remember and frown. Many things in the bank have been completely disjointed and the structure in the bank quite largely abused. The image of the bank has suffered some deep cuts while its perception conjures an arrant failure in the industry. The totality of its 50 years existence on the shores of this land became a mere reference to failed national monuments and milestone.
This is why many would want to liken Union Bank to Pyrrhus, the King of Epirus who defeated the Romans in a protracted war in 279 BC but lost many of his own men. Union Bank as an institution has lost a lot of what held it intact. This, however, may be said to be a victory because it signals  hope that the bank will not die contrary to the machinations of many who had plotted its demise, including the current executives.
However, this development where a memorandum of Agreement has been signed is a plus for the bank and its large employees who have suffered over the years , working for the future of the nation and those of their families. We expect that very soon, African Capital Alliance and the bank will agree to finally get through an MOU that will enable them drive the bank 360 degrees so as to cover all the damage that poor administration and inconsistent policies had done to the bank just in the last  one and half years ago.
With sure-footed hands like Okey Enalama, there is no doubt that the deal will get through and put smiles in the faces of all Union Bank stakeholders. My concern is that this deal should not go the way of the Bank PHB/SpringBank merger which raised a lot of dust by going deeper to repurchase some shares from willing shareholders  but finally failed woefully. After all these, the bank went into the worst situation ever known in its history. Suffice it to say that getting an agreement done is not all the guarantees for a new, strong and reliable Union Bank but doing all the other things that come out of a box which Osibodu did not posess the capacity to do. Recapitalising the bank to the tune of 750 million dollars is a big deal , but I still feel that money was not the main issue in Union Bank re-emergence. The bank needs a super ego who will think with his head upside down. This is where the question of who drives the donkey comes to play. This is a challenge to banking sector technocrats whose minds do not work like those of the interim managing directors of the eight bailed-out banks.
Without calling for any gratis from African Capital Alliance, I would assume that this deal is done and over with. I would also advice that they should be able to operate with a defined direction. They should avoid the existing style of congregational administration applied by Union Bank where everybody was like a Lord. They should be ready to discourage people from getting obligated to them selves because they own some pieces of shares in the bank. What I mean here is that the ownership should be defined and people have to know who the owners of the pipe are, and who really are the pipers. In First Bank today, the topmost owner of the bank is known, so also in UBA , GTBank, Zenith and FCMB among others. Business of banking should not be run by being obliged to a group of workers or a collegiate group. The fact remains that Union Bank typifies a company owned by workers where decisions and opinions are always drowned in the rising voices of a motley or maddening crowd. They are always right because the law gave them the right but most of the time it makes business go wrong. But the best way to go about correcting such an impasse is not by or by appointing a negative mind who will spill the beans.
May be, this could be an opportunity to bring into Nigeria such big names in international finance and banking. Nigeria is not bereft of such icons, but due to the make-up of the consortium’s equity holders, one person off our shores may be the elixir. But CBN needs more due diligence to ascertain who are behind The Keffi Group of investors in that consortium. If it is our own Keffi near Mina, let us know now.
This consortium must set fort at dawn so as get this victory worthy of a song in a very short time. Now that Union Bank has survived an epitaph, let this prologue guide these investors right for a serenade.