The Present ordeal of bankers in Nigeria

The sack of Bank employees in Nigeria has become extremely imperative because banks spent much of their organizational strategies in the pursuit of Global status at the detriment of domestic problems. In doing this, they failed to belong to the class of world local banks and are therefore conspicuously neck deep in this financial crisis. Banks are massively laying off their workers in a bid to stem the tide of this financial imbroglio by claiming that the same strategy is obtainable in the western world. Whilst not arguing that this is not true, the West have provisions like unemployment benefits, Child benefits, and Housing benefits for their citizens but in Nigeria, once you are sacked, a terrible ordeal of complete abandonment sets in. The system has been mauled by Authorities at the top, who in response to the sweeping arms of the CBN governor, have now decided to be abruptly proactive and mercilessly realistic.

A situation where one is promoted today and sacked the next day is a very ugly trend indeed. Man-made gift such as 'Promotion' often glues one to the system and fails to make one realize that it's purely ephemeral. In banking, the movement of promotion does not necessarily mean forward. The best promotion is one's innate ability to deeply re-discover oneself and be who one truly is and that's a rare quality from God that one often brushes aside in one's pursuit for what one really wants to be. Banking is an organization where the older one is, the more one's chances of being laid off. It is not a place for someone who is ageing which implies that every birthday draws one nearer to the cul-de-sac. Most workers are young graduates and in fact, post-civil war individuals, who are in touch with the world and every manner of development. One draws attention to the executive management if one's body physique shows that one is old and unattractive in the industry. This is the stark truth about the critical nature of our banking system.

So, one shouldn't be deceived by promises that the system will be alright after this exercise. We've heard it before and it's not different from our Nigerian system of always using ready-made-answers to plug into every question. We have been hearing promises on Power, employment, education, and good governance since 1960 but where we are today, is a clear testament to the fact that nothing has really changed. After Sanusi, another Governor will come with a sweeping strategy that will show how different he/she approaches banking without necessarily copying from predecessors. All these will be to the detriment of employees that are usually the raw materials for these experiments. Whilst Soludo started with Consolidation, Sanusi continued with Recapitalization and there is every likelihood that another Governor will definitely complete the journey with a 'post recapitalization strategy' that will further hit banks' employees negatively. Presently, the system is killing and at the same time waiting to shovel out the ashes of those so fated.

The message the current predicament sends out is that Banks are no longer willing to shed blood for their employees in forms of bonuses, loans and fat salaries. To survive, bank employees must be willing to die for the system, show very high level of drive and unimaginable commitment and be able to sustain these attributes with continuous improvements but this is only possible in a stable and vibrant economy with little or no impact of the past credit crunch. This therefore confirms the nature of this war for deposits where the weapon is not available for a war that banks cannot afford to lose. To put it simply, bankers should either get the deposit or turn themselves into one.

This is the grim Circumstance under which bankers earn their salaries. Apart from drastically reduced salaries, some bankers are faced with huge debts from credit cards, car loans, share loans, personal loans and mortgage loans. These loans were previously tied to their salaries before CBN intervention and whilst salaries were being reduced or tied to unimaginable targets, interest rates remain the same. With this, an affected banker is left to sink further in debt or sell some personal belongings in order to ensure regular repayments of these loans. In some banks, the implication of leaving one's account in red is outright termination which has now been strongly re-emphasised as an inexcusable offense, but the conditions leading to this are so inescapable that the bankers' fate are simply in God's hand.

To be well established as a banker, one must continue to grovel to one's bosses and be available for work on weekends and public holidays even when there is nothing to do. Excellence has been completely eroded and if one has all degrees and professional qualifications, but out of favour with one's bosses, then one's days of remaining in the system are numbered. One dares not make a mistake to show the right way of doing things, especially when it conflicts with the wrong way one's bosses want it. This is why banks have bad loans because they are deliberate acts of gross misconduct and recklessness.

Despicable acts like corporate prostitution and slander make me wonder about a future that could be borne out of these. Even promotion is no longer based on excellence, whilst some drive cars and own houses that are much more than their gross earnings. In some cases, subordinate officers are more powerful than their supervisors, because their connection at the top often devitalizes the influence of their line managers. To put it succinctly, one must have a God-father, whose birthdays must not be forgotten and whose office always witnesses the stepping feet of desperate subjects. The growth and spread of this phenomenon has been deeply enshrined in the system, such that makes one appear helpless or vulnerable should one have no reference to Head office, when one is irked by another employee.

The system is conducted in such a way that fails younger bankers and robs them of greater hopes and aspiration. I will appreciate a strong judicial system or an effective employment tribunal that will save bankers from this servility and return them to services. Bankers have become corporate slaves, heavily enticed with ephemeral gestures for utopian targets, and chucked away like a piece of dirt. Unless employees' confidence is strengthened and bosses made to stop playing 'God', the system will continue to look like a Tube station. Bankers are always made to resume with a sack in their minds, whilst Human Resources has indeed failed as a department that protects employees' interests. Rather than go to this department for help, it has become the most dreaded office that most employees would prefer to wee on their pants, instead of using their loo.

It shouldn't be so. This uncertainty and apprehension have increased the level of internally coordinated fraud, because of high level of despair and failure of the system to recognise excellence and due process. The system is wrecked by greed, ego, hatred and inter-departmental fighting. Everyone at the top has suddenly become egotistical and opinionated with mini empires in form of offices. Lamido sanusi's approach may be reprehensible to some officers mostly affected by these developments but it teaches a great lesson about humility and that God is the only one with a 'carte blanche' to our service. This is one organization where employees do not retire, yet banks expect their officers to open a pension account and contribute to it.

Waking up by 4.00am daily and closing by 10.00pm is utterly unhealthy, whilst walking through the eye of a needle is much easier to do than achieve these targets given to some employees at this period. There is more to be addressed, because most banks' employees have been caught in the middle of a mission to nowhere, with many sacked, and a greater number pencilled down for another round of sack-tsunami before the end of the year, yet no one has gone to any employment tribunal to challenge the system. Within the last few days alone, banks have laid off almost 4,000 employees who are now wrecked faces in an immobile and well saturated labour market. The manner and style of employees' disengagements confirm the crudest method and the worst disregard of human dignity in recent days. With these developments, every other employee has been emotionally disengaged.

This is certainly not the time to panic because a situation as this portrays, clearly sets a new goal for some employees who are intelligent enough to find a new sense of direction. Continuing to believe and aspire to be great as a Nigerian banker has become a daring exploit. The promise of a good banking system did not begin with Sanusi, whilst the decision to wait until the situation normalizes could make one vulnerable for another experiment. The best thing to do right now is not to complain about these developments but to pray and emerge from it unscathed. Thereafter, one should embark on another profession and have rest of mind. The mistake one often makes is that one dwells so much on money instead of building a career. A career may not be a better paying job, but it offers one an opportunity to be oneself, feel one's weight and contribute meaningfully to one's family and society.

My advice is that one should begin now to re-strategize. Banking has been so popularized that it blights one's chances to re-assess oneself and check what else one can do better. The money it offers, sets one up fast but leaves one open for a huge fall, if not carefully invested. Our parents, who never earned half of what we earn, lived a fulfilled life, yet with all one's money, cars, lands, etc, one is constantly gripped with fear of uncertainty. The level of hostility in the industry creates morbid fear for fellow human beings, whose names alone can send chills down the spines. The politics of being a fearful persona has become endemic in the system that staff members do unofficially group themselves under one boss, in a bid to create a protective umbrella to hide under. Great Bosses like Bill Gate and Rupert Murdoch will rather be respected than feared because the fear culture is certainly non-existent in the western world but in Nigeria, no branch of any bank would really opt for an MD's visit because such visit, even when it is simply to inspect the installation of a Generator, may lead to the sack of someone, for either not greeting well or dressing properly. This is why I strongly suggest a complete overhaul of our working culture because what we have presently is professionally unacceptable.

Why can't one teach? Why can't one sing? Why can't one preach? Why can't one be independent? Why can't one do small business? Why can't one let go one's pride and delve into the terra-incognita and get bankers running after one? To continue to be a slave to the system with a family of four or five children is risky, especially when there is no back-up. Banking job should be an avenue to expand one's back-ups and not use your back-up to expand your banking job. What is yours, takes priority over what is not yours. One's job as a banker belongs to the bank and that's why one can't resist when one's job is taken.

There are however, some bankers who are utterly impervious to this development. The threat signifies nothing to them. Their entire lives have prepared them for a moment like this and thus welcome a challenge of this nature with perfunctory expressions. They've built and fortified their back-ups and can exit if the situation appears unbearably hostile. For others, this fear is yet to be conquered; the decision to swat every bias and prejudice, or clear every conceivable gridlock and strengthen one's back-ups is yet to be taken. But the moment of truth is so conspicuous that the effects reflect in every business activity in both the banking halls and customers' business areas. The pursuit of targets and the threat of not meeting them are so overwhelming that dignity is highly compromised. Efforts are far too greater than results and that is why the present ordeal of bankers in Nigeria drew my unalloyed attention.

Blessing Maduagwu is an alumnus of Hult International Business School London (Formerly Huron University USA in London). He writes from New York, USA.