@Saxywale

You see whatever a man does behind closed doors will come into the open one day. When someone suddenly gets slapped beside you, you had better speak up because when it happens to you someone else will speak up for you. Sanusi sold Intercontinental bank to Aig Imokhuede (Whose company United Alliance owes Intercontinental bank N16B) for N50B after government has injected N650B into the bank. Govt got 15% for its investment while Aig got 75%. Please work out that mathematics and explain how this one came to stand.

Power is transient my friend and in years to come, Sanusi will face the music to explain how this transaction scaled through. It is a question of time. He wants to become an Emir right. Let hm be reminded that Dasuki got to the Sultanate but got deposed when his cup became full. We can only watch as events unfold. I will say Scene 3 comes to a close, more to come. May God grant us longer life to witness when the dawn will come. We have not heard the last

For me I think the Judge was right in his judgement. You see it is unethical the way someone in the mould of the NBA President has been conducting himself since he got to that position. Anyone who has been following events will recall how he was begging for jobs for the boys. He eventually got on the saddle eventually on this case and has been messing up. Remember his altercation with a judge in open court in one case not too long. This is the first NBA President that I have ever seen prosecuting a case on behalf of government. That goes to show he has soiled his hands. As lawyers would say, if the citadel of justice is corrupt what will happen to the body politic
Let us be reminded that in prosecuting these cases, government is paying these SANs heavily. No be free service. Even though I was a kid then, I could watch people like Priscillia Kuye in those days as NBA President, Olisa Agbakoba, Rotimi Akeredolu and so on they never behaved the way of this Daodu of a guy. If a guy has committed an infraction against the law, his case should be dispensed with within a short period and he must also be availed of his offence in clear terms without any ambiguity. That is the law and that is what the Judge is saying.
It is not the position of the law to sensationalise a case because you want to be seen as prosecuting a case. Law is based on evidence and not sensation. That is the position of the Judge and I agree with his Lordship totally

@eguerilla

Please go through what the Judge is saying here.
This prosecution team or any part of it shall not be given any further audience in this court in relation to the charges against this accused either before this presiding judge or any other judge of the Federal High Court for the reason I have given in the foregoing.
“Furthermore, I take judicial notice that the accused is presently facing charges before the Lagos High Court emanating from his tenure as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Intercontinental Bank Plc, the AGF may wish to regain control of this process. This he can of course do at anytime of his choice.
“Meanwhile, the prosecution team presently employed indulged in their professional incompetent to the extreme, had been unmindful of the accused rights for him to have the case against him clearly stated. They have been dismissive of his right to speedy trial which in reality should be a credible procedure.

He is not saying that Akingbola has stolen or not. What he is asking for here is due process. For God's sake, the legal team of EFCC are learned SANs. One of them is even the president of NBA which goes a long way to show the kind of leadership this country has. These guys create unnecessary delay tactics thereby elongating the trial to the detriment of the accused. He has mentioned that an accused has a right to know in clear terms what his offences are. In reality, we all knew where this case would end because Sanusi used all those tactics to demonise those CEOs in order to carry out his 'REFORMS'. Initially he said Akingbola stole N350b, now the case is about N42.4B.
What the Judge is urging is that we should be civil in our approach to issues. An accused is presumed innocent until proven otherwise by a court of competent jurisdction. That is the position of the law, that is civilised conduct and is the way our modern society should be administered

Aig has bitten more than he can chew. That is why all these issues are coming up. Only time will tell

Access Bank has always been clear on its strategy and has enjoyed measurable success in its own level of field in the industry. However, just like other successful organization in the world, continuous growth is always an aspiration to ensure that all stakeholders are constantly happy. Now to address to you point, you keep referring to laying off of people or losing people, it is better to have 10 committed unlearned staff members who shares in your vision than to have 100 experienced disgruntled staff members, you definitely should know the outcome. I can clearly tell you from a good standpoint that Access Bank is a bank that rewards staff regardless of cadre. Are you aware that staff members from the defunct ICB were promoted? Because they met Key Performance Indicators given to them.

Well it is typical of losers like you. I would have loved not to dignify your half-truths with a reply but I feel I owe the reading public some education.
In red - I would advise you stop murdering English. If you are of the corporate affairs department of your bank, I guess you need another designation. You seem not to understand the logic of your defenses. Does this bring out any sound logic? What was the position of Access bank in terms of deposit liabilities, profit or ROI, customer service/performance in terms of operation in the industry as a today? Success in terms of what? I seem not to see anything here? Do you know the meaning of that word you are using?
In Blue - What growth are you talking about here? and who are those stakeholders that are happy? Has an organisation ever existed in a cocoon? What about the investing publics. I think you guys have to go into the market and do a sampling to know where you belong
In Brown - I don't know where you got the committed staff anyway maybe from the stars. We spoke with alot of your guys and 90% of them are waiting for Aig to commit the type of blunder he did in asking people to take the option of leaving and see if 80% will not leave the system. So as part of your shortsighted policies where you want the most brilliant people (wherein you take only 2:1 and 1st class graduates) rather than intelligent people, you still prefer them to be unlearned. I shake my head in pity for your kind of organisation. In the industry your organisation boasts of having the highest rate of turnover if you do not know

Well if you say I wish you bad luck, you might be right to an extent. Any right thinking person would not wish you well because you guys stole someone's wealth. But I will not go the way of your line of thought. I will choose to be like Jesus Christ who despite being nailed on the cross of calvary still prayed for the transgressors by saying "Father forgive them for they know what they do" . If it is God's judgement that bad luck shall be yours, who am I to query God.

@Omosexy1[b]
. To conclude this, do not use normal operational inefficiencies to judge the integration as we experience these bottlenecks from all financial institutions in Africa. Organizations evolved and address issues and challenges it currently faces and I believe Access Bank is fully aware of its current challenges and is certainly addressing them squarely to avoid reoccurrence.[/b]

Refer to the above. We know the antics of people like you. You are never bold enough to say where you belong in all of this but reading you, I now know where exactly you are. So you call the harrowing experience customers are experiencing NORMAL? What School did you graduate from? Your school should be ashamed of you. Well that is a matter for another day. I am glad you know a little about M&As but I doubt if you know about Organisational Process Assets as against Organisation Cultural shock (you mentioned). You mentioned it here because that was what your organisation dwelt more on. You left the perception of the publics out of the whole thing. You forgot that in any customer's mind, they see Intercontinental bank rather than Access bank. Intercontinental bank operates a purely retail model while you guys do Corporate. The biz models would have been harmonised strategically to suit the current realities but just as the saying goes " a man cannot give what he does not own". Your team lack the depth of experience (or I should say no experience at all) to manage the kind of biz model inherited. You would recall some made a comment on this thread to say Access bank's response time has been wonderful before now. Do you know why? Because in a branch of Access of old, transaction count cannot be more than 400 (at the most in a day) as compared to that of Intercontinental that does more than 3M transactions in a day. As a consultant to the bank then, these are things we see on a daily basis. So you guys lost the organisational process assets and the result is what is going on now. We have dealt with the 2 of you and know the depth in the 2 institutions. Access is like Lagos City Polytechnic compared to Great Ife (Intercontinental).

So let me educate you more on what you lost sight of. In M&A laying off staff is inevitable anyday. The day a new manegement takes over, people are aware that there will be job loss but you see coming from a disadvantaged angle like Access in terms of experience it requires wisdom for business continuity. People who worked with Akingbola are not saying he was a saint or that they all agreed with him. Even for some of us who were Consultants then, we frown at some of peolicies but he was a better people management person. Even though he was cheating you to favour his organisation one feels obliged to want to deal with him because he had a listening personality. He was not treating people like filth. So I want you to agree that you guys goofed in all of this. A sensible management will not throw a window open asking people to leave the system the way you guys did. In a modern era of banking, you lost experienced operations people, you lost loan recovery guys, you lost financial control guys, you lost so much channels people, you lost IT people, good marketing hands, you lost Internal Control guys and even Inspection guys and you come here to tell the whole world that what you are experiencing now is "these inefficiencies or I would prefer to call them bottlenecks "


You had better go back to your masters to inform them that they have failed and it is not too late for them to ask for help from CBN (since they arranged the acquisition for you). This is not a Capital bank that you bought. This is Intercontinental that has spread beyond the shores of this country and making waves everywhere it goes. How far this can go, time will tell. Just as you have advised, I wish you well as an individual

@omosexy1:

I never wanted to comment on this post because it was emotional and from all indication coming from an ex-staff who is dissatisfied with the present condition of things. While some comments here are true. Some are just way out of context. First and foremost, lets break this down. Intercontinental bank was mainly a retail bank with high branch network and huge customer base. The integration is a huge success coming from a strategic point of view, never in Africa history has such ever occurred. Access Bank seems to break records each time. The poor service experienced now is a snagged which will phase out very soon as all hands are on deck. Now if you have ever own a business or ever being a top executive you would definitely know that your main purpose is to keep your stakeholders smiling. Decision such as using a higher or lower version of software will still revolve on your core objectives, who are we and what do we intend to achieve. I was privilege to see the strategic objectives of Access Bank in 2008 and I thought it was never possible to achieve them. However and surprisingly in 2012 they have not only achieved but surpassed them. I envy the strategic point of view of the Bank (very challenging yet achievable), it makes you actually confirm the popular adage "if you can think it, you can achieve it". Negative comments on this post reveals poor knowledge about the bank . The bank is clear about what it intends to do, the resources and technology it intends to use in order to achieve its objectives and that also includes excellent customer service.

Please check the bolded. If the present situation in Access bank is a success then those who coined the word failure should have a rethink. Are you aware that since morning nobody can use the ATM? This was not an integration issue right. Since Feb 3 when Aig forced staff leave the system, all e-channels have not been working effectively. Well being emotional is mostly a woman thing (apologies to the women ) so you are in order. However, I guess you need to get your facts right and then do a re-assessment of what you call "huge success". When we write on forums like this, we should be mindful of the fact that the whole world reads it. So in trying to educate people we should desist from misinforming people.

@koolkodes. Nobody is contesting that. You are looking at things from the perspective of what you feel is the ideal situation. I would rather look at it from a wholistic point of view based on the information available. In a M&A you don't throw away the human resource you meet on ground while integration is still ongoing. It is a wrong strategy. Aig did that arrogantly and d result s what you are seeing. Customers are being made to go through this avoidable hassles because of the arrogance of a man. Another topic for another day is the mode of acquisition. I know on some months to come the chicken shall come home o roost.

I think we need to get some things right here. We as a nation are not likely to get things right until we stop behaving like cannibals. We just lack decorum in our dealings. That is why we are where we are today. A certain man who calls himself Sanusi sold a bank to an Aig who is a debtor (to the tune of 16B) to the same bank he is acquiring. I don't know where this is done in a civilised setting. Now the guy buys the bank and then wants everything to happen so fast. Rather than manage the bank, they are stripping it of its assets. And then you want to do staff rationalisation at the same time integration is going on. Meanwhile he is acquiring a bank that has a completely different model from his own. Then arrogantly, you asked people to take option of leaving the bank within 1 week. If you were in their shoes, will you not take that opportunity? Anyway close to 2000 people left the system as a result of that arrogant ranting of a so-called CEO. The result of people leaving the system is what you are seeing in the banking halls. Nigeria has no labour law at all. An employer keeps people in the office till 12am on a daily basis. What do you expect the next morning in the banking halls? You have tired men and women who internally are angry with themselves. Are disenchanted with the system and all what's not. So please when next you go to an Access bank branch, please bear with the guys at the banking hall. They are overworked and angry staff demotivated by their employers. Please bear with the management. People here are free to comment otherwise because none has had a taste of what goes on at Access bank. The other guy who mentioned that they have never been like this should ask of what their transaction count was before this acquisition and what it will be after the acquisition.