- Official brigandage has left Savannah Bank comatose for 15 years, yet no respite for customers
At the dawn of February 15, 2002, what may be described as the worst kind of carnage to be meted by a government against organised business happened. Customers of a once thriving bank known as Savannah Bank of Nigeria (SBN) woke up to the shocking news that government had overnight, withdrawn the licence of the bank and closed it – all without prior warning.
In other words, while the world slept during the night, SBN was being shut. It was therefore high drama when workers and customers alike got to the bank’s premises the following day only to be confronted by barricades manned by police and soldiers. Access to the various premises of the bank was restricted to only few senior staff.
If members of the staff were shocked, customers were stupefied. As the day wore on, customers surged and milled around the bank’s premises. And most came with woe tales. Some made huge lodgments only the day before; some just got their pension paid into the bank and yet some others had just made huge transfers for staff salaries.
On the ‘bright’ side, quite a number may have just consummated and even drawn down on a huge loan from the bank. While yet another set of customers may be debtors to the bank who would be secretly elated that they had been able to buy some time.
Perhaps there was a mistake somewhere, this seeming joke would dissipate by evening or the following day and life would return to normalcy as some of the customers had known it with their bank for decades. Well, 15 years have passed since that surreal morning of February 15, 2002. Nothing has changed.
But what seemed like a joke became a nightmare and then an extended tragedy for many. The same bizarre manner the Federal Government influenced the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to seize the licence of a bank and shut it down, the same way everything stood ever since. Imagine numerous businesses left hanging mid-transaction – letters of credit about to be opened; overdrafts, advances, suppliers and contractors, salaries and hundreds of jobs. And of course, careers abruptly terminated and businesses damaged for good.
SBN had challenged the withdrawal of its licence in court and in 2009, after seven years, the Court of Appeal had ordered its restoration but since then, the bank has not been able to come back to life. Upon its closure in 2002, the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) moved in and held forth while litigation lasted. After the court’s ruling however, NDIC had made way for the owners of the bank, returning the assets and liabilities.
But another eight years have rolled by yet SBN could not resume operations. Not even a joint committee of the CBN, NDIC and SBN to pursue recommencement has worked. And not one word has been said to customers, shareholders and especially, depositors who have huge sums and valuables trapped in the bank.
So why would the Federal Government working through its agency, the CBN act so irrationally and exhibit such insouciance against a going financial concern in the first place? According to analysts, the SBN of 2002 was in no serious distress nor was there an imminent danger of collapse. The bank had transacted normal business the day before and was not in default to depositors.
Observers therefore suggested that the seemingly rash decision to move against the bank was fallout of the extreme politics of that era in which players in the quest for power took no prisoners. Some had likened the move against SBN as akin to crashing a fully-loaded jetliner just to get at one passenger.
While we condemn this manner of seeming zero-sum game in politics if it were true, we urge the Federal Government to direct the CBN to make the requisite restitution and ensure urgent and appropriate closure to the Savannah Bank debacle. We also ask the National Assembly (NASS) to pass a law if necessary to see that this manner of brigandage never happens again to any going concern in Nigeria.
