Press Releases

Fashola Stresses Importance Of Strong Institutions In Governance

Feb 26, 2010 - Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN) on Friday stressed the need for strong and sustainable institutions as foundation for corporate and institutional governance in any nation saying to be able to play this role effectively; the institutions must be bigger than the individual.

Governor Fashola who spoke at the main campus of the Ado Bayero University, Kano as the Chairman of that institution’s Pre-Convocation lecture, pointed out that although all institutions need men to build and sustain them, they should be able to outlast their builders for them to play the needed role in governance.

The Governor told his audience, “As important as the role of man is in building or managing institutions, the most vital thing about corporate governance and institutional governance is that institutions are always bigger than men”, adding that when an institution fails or succeeds, it is men that have failed or succeeded.

The Guest Lecturer and Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, in his lecture titled “Nigerian Banks: What Went Wrong and the Way Forward”, said since the intervention by the Central Bank in the crisis in the banking sector, the sector has stabilized.

He explained that when the problem was discovered in 2009, about N620 billion equity was injected into the troubled banks to enable them remain afloat and not subject ordinary depositors to trauma of losing lifelong savings.

Mallam Sanusi said curiously, the academia and the ivory tower have remained very silent to happenings in the banking sector, leaving the debate and issues to be discussed only among media practitioners and very subjective public analysts.

He added that he has been at the receiving end of several smear campaigns by vested interests who are crossed with him for deciding to stand on the side of the commoners who have in the past been fraudulently dispossessed of their savings through the classification of insolvent banks as failed banks without any one answering for the transgressions.

According to the CBN boss, “There are several high ranking political office holders who have perfected the act of running commercial banks and taking loans without providing collaterals and end up using depositors funds to further personal aims and objective while such helpless people only end up getting a pittance as reimbursement after depositing life savings in failed banks”.

The Central Bank Governor said the inspections of the books of the troubled banks after he assumed office showed that the officials who inspected the record books discovered anomalies and forwarded same to the management of the Central Bank but were rebuffed.

While agreeing that a system does not change overnight, Mallam Sanusi promised that under the new dispensation, there would be no cover up of any wrong doing in the banking sector.

Governor Babatunde Fashola (SAN) had earlier paid a courtesy call on Governor Ibrahim Shekarau in his office and commended him for the renewal of urban infrastructure and the engagement of public private capital as engine of growth to renew public infrastructure in Kano.

Governor Fashola, who said Lagos and Kano share historical antecedents, added that he has seen democracy at work in Kano. “The fortune of our people and country will continue to improve as democracy deepens and the states exercise their powers as component states in the Federation”, the Governor said

Responding, Governor Shekarau commended the work being done by Governor Fashola in Lagos, adding that as governors of the two most populous states in Nigeria, he understands the kind of work Governor Fashola is doing adding that Lagos and Kano States have also become symbols of the ability of the people of Nigeria to defend their votes and return their popularly elected leaders into office.

“Though we are regarded as being in opposition, we are progressively moving the nation forward. It is not about how big or how many states a particular party is controlling, but it is about how effectively it has governed and made the people feel purposeful governance”, Governor Shekarau said.

Among the members of the Executive Council who accompanied the Governor on the trip were the Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Rotimi Oyekan and the Special Adviser on Central Business Districts, Hon Oyinlomo Danmole.