The-!ingering Wema Bank crisis seem to be heading for a peaceful resolution as the bank's staff are calling on the Presidency, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) to appoint, without delay, a new substantive Group Managing Director and a new board to further stabilize the bank.

The group known as Concerned Staff of Wema Bank said their intention was to bring to the notice of relevant authorities the necessity to make public the findings of various investigative panels and authorities on the issues of corporate governance at the bank.

According to the spokesperson Mr. Akorede Olorunsogo, a senior management staff of the bank, the appointment of a substantive chief executive has become overdue, considering the issue of public confidence that is very critical if the regulatory authorities want the bank to survive the confidence crisis that it’s now going through.

Olorunsogo said: "We want the Presidency to act in a way that would prevent the bank's corporate governance crisis from degenerating into political issue.
He said that the bank staff, among other things, would want the CBN to urgently reconstitute the board of the bank with the appointment of a substantive GMD/CEO that is ratified by the regulatory authorities, while the Presidency should put an end to the subversive activities of the former GMD/CEO of the bank."

The genesis of the current impasse in the bank, started when the former GMD, Mr. Adebisi Omoyeni, was asked to proceed on compulsory leave by the regulatory authorities on January 18, 2008. The reasons for the action by the regulatory bodies bothered on corporate governance issues, as it would be recalled that authorities said there was no good corporate governance in the bank, endangering the safety of depositors’ funds, balance of national economy and the jobs and livelihood of various stakeholders are put on the line.

The bank's staff union which represents all cadres of staff in the bank, including management, and junior staff, categorically declared support for the actions taken by the CBN and NDIC."
Regulatory authorities had on January 18, 2008 appointed a new acting managing director, Mr. John Aboh ane executive director at FirstBank to manage the affairs of the bank, pending the appointment of a substantive Group Managing Director.

The feeling of most of the staff of the bank as at last week was that since banking is about public confidence after the trust reposed in the personalities on the bank's board including the GMD, the long period without a substantive GMD and lack of a full complement of members of the board has affected the bank in terms of ability to do new businesses and even keep existing customers.

This they said was impacting negatively on the market share of the bank, and it's the ability to forge ahead, they argued that Wema under Aboh has made tremendous progress in the past six months but that the period was too long a time for any institution, particularly one that is dependent on public trust, to move ahead without a substantive GMD/CEO. . .

Furthennore, the litany of litigations strewn across many jurisdictions constitute serious obstacles before the CBN and NDIC with particular reference to the numerous court cases instituted by the former managing director and others against the bank. It is pertinent that the Presidency, Odu'a Investment Company Limited, the CBN and NDIC should make public the executive summary of various reports prepared by the regulatory authorities, Economic Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practice Commission (ICPC) and Special Fraud Investigation Unit of the Nigeria Police (SFIU), the staff argued.

This automatically takes care of the petitions written by the former managing director against some individuals in the bank but they are insisting that anyone involved in frauds perpetrated at Wema Bank must be brought to book.

The various factions in the bank must not forget the fact that if the bank collapsed not only would their investment go down the drain, but thousands of Nigerians would become jobless just because of power play among the various parties and former directors of the bank that were sacked along with Omoyeni.
Wema Bank was originally known and called Agbonmagbe (endless flow), without an urgent action to appoint a new GMD and constitute a new board, it sure looks like the endless resources might soon become a dry land.