Even in
Nigeria, in the midst of the crisis, some CEOs, especially those of banks were
busy buying private jets and fancy vehicles for themselves and acquiring properties all
over the world. But after the then Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, took over
some of these banks, there were several allegations of how these CEOs who were
living big were actually deploying their organisations’ finances
including those of shareholders and depositors to cater to their lavish
lifestyles. While some of these CEOs were deprived of their banks, others
managed to return to those institutions in higher capacities as chairmen. But
before the crisis eased, some shareholders of these banks who sold their
houses and used all their life savings to invest in them had taken
their own lives.
Recent
developments at MTN, a
telecommunications giant, evoke the sad memories of the global
recession. The MTN forced its CEO in South Africa and his
counterpart in Nigeria to resign when they bungled a directive by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC)
to register the telephone numbers of its subscribers in Nigeria.
Outraged,
the Nigerian government through the NCC asked the company to
pay a N1.4 trillion fine. The matter has dragged on, and despite the MTN’s
hiring of a U.S. attorney to negotiate with the Nigerian government, no
truce has been brokered. The crisis has inflicted a heavy toll: the prices of
the company’s shares have crashed on the South African stock
exchange, jobs have been lost and some subscribers of the company
have switched patronage. It was amid these developments that the news broke some
days ago that MTN had paid the two former CEOs a severance package worth
N560 million.
All these
developments tend to reinforce the notion that in the world of
business, there is neither justice nor morality. Or else why should the CEOs
who created problems for the company be the ones to be rewarded while the other
stakeholders in the company, including employees and shareholders
are made to either suffer job loss or a cut in salary if at all they are still
employed while investors have the value of their shares whittled
down? In justifying the payment of CEOs after taking their organisations
through paths that are paved with calamitous consequences, there is often the
argument that they are experts who take risks on behalf of their companies. But
such an argument is invalidated in so far as whatever risk the CEOs may
have taken that does not redound to the bottom line of their companies should
elicit censure and not seeming approbation. Indeed, it is not because the
CEOs are right that they succeed in paying themselves heavy compensation
after making their companies to suffer huge losses. It is rather that
through a certain canny dispensation of favour to those who could have
challenged them, they rather get their support.
The CEOs
often get the support of their board members. The board members approve such outrageous compensation
because it is the CEOs who put them on the board. They also enjoy the support
of some shareholders on the board because the latter have been silenced by
some iniquitous compensation. But by supporting such compensation, the
shareholders do not properly represent the interest of the bulk of the
investors who put them on the board. They only cater to their own selfish
interest. In the long run, it is the shareholders whose stock value
has been weakened who suffer. The workers who are dismissed or whose
salaries are cut also suffer.
This
criminal and self-serving way of running corporations could be seen in the
management of the Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). In the light of the persistent fuel
shortage, it is clear that the managers of the nation’s petroleum sector do not
have the answers that are urgently needed. The refineries are not performing
optimally to serve the purpose for which they were established.
Yet, the managers of
NNPC are not only being paid heavily, they have severally been
indicted for mismanaging the funds that ought to go to the national treasury.
And when the Minister of State for Petroleum, Barrister Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Ikachikwu, blamed the
country’s persistent fuel shortage on the diversion of the product to
Chad and Cameroun, he needed not be reminded that the saboteurs could be within
the corporation he is presiding over. So, the issue is not just planning
to put trackers in trucks and all that, the minister should equally take
cognisance of the need to ferret out those within the corporation who are
colluding with outsiders to sabotage effective fuel supply in the country.
Our
officials who are entrusted with state responsibilities often disappoint the
citizens. Yet they are rewarded. This is why coupists who truncated democratic
dispensations in which huge resources had been invested are given
pensions and other benefits at the end of their misadventures. This is why
instead of the National Judicial Council
(NJC) appropriately sanctioning erring judges they are only retired for
them to enjoy the proceeds of their corruption in peace. How many members of
the bench whom the NJC has indicted for corruption have been tried in court,
found guilty and are now getting their well-deserved comeuppance in prison?
It is the
same way that politicians are given all manner of rewards after not
only failing to redeem their electioneering promises but also
emptying the treasury. It is why a person like the Senate president, Dr. Bukola Saraki, may just be
sniggering at those who do not understand the ways of politicians and
are calling for his resignation.
With the
reward for those who ought to be reprimanded and exited ignominiously, the
impression is being given that the easiest place to be is at the
top – it does not need to task your intelligence and competence. And this
is why there is so much jostle for the top in our national life. After
all, when you fail as a leader and you are unable to pay the salaries
of your civil servants and pile up debts for the generation
unborn, your reward is assured. You would end your tenure and go
home with your fat severance compensation not only for yourself
but your entire family. And you would even be rewarded with another more
lucrative public office. It is only the poor who would suffer
the baleful consequences of the leader’s incompetence and who would
continue to be afflicted with a regime of austerity measures. (Guardian)
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