“SO, WHO INDEED WAS MRS IBRU?”

I was devastated at the news two Fridays ago that Cecilia Ibru had sentenced to 18 months imprisonment in a plea bargaining deal that would see her spend six months in jail and forfeit assets worth N190billion to the state.

I was devastated because I had never, for once, thought she would be found guilty of anything but corporate governance issues of the poor judgment kind; or at worst some minor misdemeanors resulting from a desire to lend a helping hand to persons or institutions in need of support for which they may have been technically unqualified. In the a three-part serial I did  in 2009,when  the Central Bank of Nigeria sacked her and took over the running of Oceanic Bank Plc, among other persons and banks, I stated my position very clearly. While not giving her a premature bill of health, I certainly was unwilling to associate her with evil.

So enamoured was I of the woman’s mix of secular success and zeal for things of God that I once wrote inviting to her to speak at a Luncheon on “The Place of Christian Ethics in Business and Corporate Governance,” which I was organising as part of the launch activities of KINGDOMPeople. It was a demonstration of the very high esteem in which I held her (and her Intercontinental Bank Plc colleague, whose case is still in court) as a banker who exemplified a commitment to the faith she profess, in her public activities. Referring to that duo, I had written: “For me, they are people who made their name, fame and resources available for the propagation of the gospel and therefore role models who should have things to impart to others”.

I stated in that August 2009 piece: “Penultimate Friday, both banking icons were among chief executive officers and executive directors of five banks made to step down from office, on the orders of the Central Bank of Nigeria. My heart truly goes out to them, and I have joined many others in praying for them. As I perused the facts and figures that have been placed in the public domain, reactions from several quarters and the usual interplay of factors and interests in policy formulation and execution, a number of questions beg for answers…It is important to emphasise that these CEOs and their executive boards have, as I write this, not been accused of any criminal activities. The issues are those of risk management, which is basically one of judgment and its resultant effect on the strength of their operations; they are issues of corporate governance”.

Even CBN Governor Lamido Sanusi at the onset either didn’t know the extent of what he was unearthening or he sold a dummy when he told ThisDay Board of Editors: “…In every capitalist environment, if management loses a lot of money, it will go. It is not a crime. The MDs of all the banks behind the mortgage crisis in other parts of the world took the right action and resigned. They did not steal money. They did not commit a crime. But they ran an institution in a manner that cost it its franchise, or cost its shareholders money or placed their depositors at risk. They put their firms at risk and they took responsibility for it. So, it is in this light that the action that we have taken should be seen. “

However, I admitted to goose-stepping in the second article when charges began to fly around in the media and subsequently in court. I had written in part then: “…Chief Mrs Cecilia Ibru of Oceanic Bank (was) declared wanted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC ‘in connection with fraudulent abuse of credit process, insider trading, capital market manipulation and money laundering running into billions of Naira.’...Pause a bit, dear reader and contemplate this dramatic twist to the tale…Ibru, the stately wife of one of Nigeria’s foremost pioneer entrepreneurs, Michael Ibru, top member of one of Nigeria’s biggest Pentecostal churches, whose bank’s board of directors is chaired by the highly respected former capital market icon, Apostle Hayford Alile, being accused of money laundering and capital market manipulation?”

But, as events have now proven, the unthinkable did happen. Chief Mrs Ibru went on a grab binge, cornering for herself and her family as much as she could. In the end, assets to the humongous amount of N190 billion were traced to her. It’s absolutely unbelievable that anyone who sits under the Word of God, even occasionally, could sink to that depth of materialist abyss!

Tolu Ogunlesi put the size of the assets in perspective in his column last week this way: “ N190 billion - legally or illegally acquired - is not ‘chicken-change'. I needed to remind us about that, considering how inured to the word "billion" we have become, the fallout of the way our reckless politicians like to throw it around. Ibru's N190 billion is more than half of the Nigeria Police Force's total budget for 2010; and more than Nigeria's entire federal health budget. N190 billion will get you onto Forbes List. Femi Otedola got onto it in 2009 with roughly that same amount - $1.2 billion…I did a simple calculation: if you gave loans of $1,000 (N150,000) each to one million Nigerian small-business owners, you would only have spent N150 billion, still less than Mrs. Ibru's N190 billion”.

Yet, the culprit here is not a corrupt do-or-die politician, a drug dealer or some other devil’s disciple with no claim to knowing God or serving Him. Tolu recalled how that “a few years ago, at the invitation of a friend”, he “attended an evening fellowship at her home in Ikoyi, where she hosted the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God)…” You can therefore excuse him when he asked this question: “So, who indeed was Mrs. Ibru? Was she a devoted Pillar of the Church and Work of God in Nigeria …or was she a bank fraudster, or both?” If both, how many more of us are like that? I wonder now; I truly do. Lord, have mercy!