There is a Chinese proverb that goes like this: before one commits to beating a pet, one should consider the face of the pet’s master.
In many ways, this proverb applies to the current Naira situation in Nigeria. Even as many banks have been negatively affected, it is generally believed that Zenith Bank is the leading bank on the list.
The outrage of many Nigerians against Zenith Bank is enough to be shared among all the others.
There is no debating the fact that Nigerians are currently facing a lot of hardship on account of the scarcity of Naira notes. This scarcity emerged as a result of the policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Godwin Emefiele.
The governor planned to swap three Naira notes (N1,000, N500, and N200), thereby helping to reduce trends of kidnapping and vote-buying in Nigeria, and also recovering a lot of the notes that had seemingly disappeared over time.
Due to the scarcity, many Nigerians have had to rely on mobile transfers and smartphone applications from banks that enable such transfers. Naturally, many banks have been unable to keep up with the nearly infinite volume of requests, and Zenith Bank tops this list of banks.
The result is that the bank has come under attack for very poor service to customers, leading many to accuse Zenith Bank’s management board of conniving with Emefiele to make things unnecessarily difficult for Nigerians.
It is no secret that Zenith Bank boss, Jim Ovia, is very good friends with Emefiele. The former was included in Emefiele’s ‘Friends of Emefiele’ group who were rumored to have contributed the most to the CBN governor’s presidential ambition. It is on record that Ovia believes that Emefiele is the best CBN governor to date.
All of this is the material and evidence that critics are using to slam Zenith Bank for being on the side of CBN instead of customers.
As things stand, Zenith Bank needs to be rescued, and quickly. Otherwise, things would get worse.