Of Banks, Banking And Bankers
By Taiye Olaniyi
Money, from time immemorial has been a means of exchange and legal tender for various acquisitions. It is such a powerful instrument by which the fortunes, misfortunes and even fates of many are determined. Individuals, communities and even nations of the world have their successes or failures measured based on the financial power and clouts which money only could guarantee in most instances.
Ebenezer Obey once sang of money as " Owo, owo, owo le se oungbogbo," money can make possible all things while the Yoruba say," Ailowo lowo Baba Ijaiya," thus describing how frightening the lack of money could be to one.
My friend Toro would always remind one that "O lowo, lowo O ni o ni ideas," which means lack of money often makes good ideas perish in many people and that money again is the chariot of evangelism.
Plenty of money is not advisable to be kept at home and to be able to bank on the safety of one's possession in monetary form, various banking measures were devised.
Prior to use of coins and currencies during ancient days, cowries were usually kept inside pots and buried at secret places only to be exhumed when needed but not with the watchful eyes of every Dick, Tom and Harry.
During our childhood days at Offa when the colonialists had introduced coins in pence and shillings and currencies in pounds, such coins were kept inside pots like the cowries earlier mentioned while pounds, the major currency of that time was more the portion of novae rich in the society.
It is as if it were yesterday, cowries or coins' pots we used to call "Oru" were like ATM machines of today.
The rudimentary nature of modern banks and banking methods in Nigeria was first at the Post Office in late 19th century and later we had the Savings Banks which translated into banks.
During our childhood days, Barclays, Standard Bank, Union, Agbonmogbe, National and a few ones were the popular banks we used to know. What could again be likened to collective institutional savings was from itinerant money collectors on daily market days , weekly or monthly. Thrifts and cooperatives emerged from this system but the sole aim then was saving and having deposit and where to loan from when the need arose then. The womenfolk in Offa and environ first introduced what could be likened to ATM machine when deposit and withdrawal was done using "Igbanu" cloth aprons they tied round their narrow and broad girdles or waists even till date in many of our village markets. Please don't ask me if such were bedbug or cockroach infested those days as they could be.
The growth of commercial banking in Nigeria introduced different dimensions to banks' growth, banking and sectoral banking such as agric, mortgage bank, and bank of industry etc.
The Central Bank is the apex of all banks and banker to all banks. Bankers in years past till mid 90s were respectable individuals while banking was a noble profession until recent time when the proliferation of banks and financial houses made mess the integrity and ethics once attributed to the banks, banking and bankers.
Banks and banking had their portion of superiority/ inferiority complexes as many of the "once upon a time banks" became highly archaic if compared to the newly improved New Generation banks as they are called. The old school banks though considered as bureaucratic as institution, museumic in terms of their MSDos computers still in vogue in this era of alleged laundering and the jetting and merchandising of hot dollars. Everything we know has two sides to its story. Old banks have more stone age and tribal marks like humans that tend to be more ethical and less prone to corruption hence they still stand and survive like the Rock of Gibraltar.
Many of the so called "New Generation" banks like amoeba and paramecium embark on binary fission , multiply in amplitudes, partake and abet in alleged laundering and hacking. They are said to always targeting all sorts of money gigolos, polithiefcians, false men of gods and goddesses, kidnappers, war merchants, robbers and all sorts of men of shady character and women of easy virtues all in the name of unending deposits without giving corresponding loans to citizens that genuinely need them.
As many generation banks prosper on filthy deposits through unending target setting, unending and unsolicited deductions tagged "Stamp Duties" without affixing of "postage stamps," so the family fabrics of many bankers daily get broken because of suspicion of infidelity in marriage.
With broken homes, integrity suffers, economy goes down the drain and the national image gets soiled.
The target setting which escalates insanely in many of our new generation banks has brought calamities to our nation like Ebola virus and if not redressed now immorality in banks will culminate in total systemic failures in the economy, for money seems to be oozing as "Root of all evils."
Yahoo boys escalating to and fro movement of illicit trade in money amongst the Nigerian youth, and celebrities in the entertainment world, including laundering associated with highly placed, business transactions of all sorts and escalating bank debts by "Ex-this, Ex-that" to whom nothing can be done because they remain sacred cows in Nigeria.
The question then is, in which banks should Nigerians anchor their trust as years roll in and out especially now that the Central Bank is being alleged of trying to compound woes of depositors and withdrawers by whatever economic paradigms, models and econometrics?
Hmmmm Time will Tell.
Taiye Olaniyi, a retired Postman of the Nigeria Postal Service, lives in Lagos