I’m totally uninterested in tribal wars. I just can’t stand it. So, I naturally stood aloof as Nigerians had their fill of last week’s scandal. I think many Nigerians have developed a Nollywood state of mind. You remember Nollywood? The place where they sometimes cook up some of the blandest plots? Some practitioners there are doing great these days, but maybe the damage done to the minds of Nigerians while we slummed, is impossible to correct.
Both parties have told totally different stories. Innoson said he borrowed money but GTBank bank overcharged him almost N800 million… The bank said it lent the company N2.4 billion. The loan was for importation of motorcycle parts…GTBank said they did not know when Innoson cleared the goods, and sold them off, abandoning his account with the bank
Or maybe we were born this way; very superstitious, quick to believe fables, credulous of magic and ‘miracles’, never having an eye out to find out facts, quick to make up our minds on unproductive ventures, heavily sentimental, always seeking for enemies and traducers even where they don’t exist… just the very thing the old Nollywood used to portray. God help us.
So long as a story touches a sentimental nerve in us – tribe or religion – we lap it up. We are like the warrior that goes to war with tears in his eyes. Perhaps, that is why we often lose. The truth is that we should have by now developed barriers to stories that play up these sentiments and they should be the last we believe, because they are often designed to mislead.
Let us, therefore, understand Innoson versus Guaranty Trust Bank saga.
Both parties have told totally different stories. Mr. Innocent Chukwuma, the Chief Executive Officer of Innoson Nigeria Limited, said he borrowed money but the bank overcharged him almost N800 million, and he wrote to them. They agreed that it was around N600 million. He then calculated the compounded interest for so many years at 22 percent and what they owed him became N8 billion. He took them to court, got a judgment. GTBank couldn’t pay. He asked them to give him shares, instead. Sad story.
Anyone will identify with Innoson and feel anger well up against GT. Let us hold that in our left hand first and hear GTBank’s story.
The bank said it lent the company N2.4 billion. The loan was for importation of motorcycle parts. That is Innoson’s original business, anyway. GT said the transaction went well, and they held on to the documents (Bill of lading and the rest), without which Innoson could not clear the goods.
In short, GTBank could have cleared the motorcycles from the ports and issued one each to its staff ,if Innoson could not meet its side of the bargain. For such transactions, Innoson will pay down the loan gradually, after clearing the goods, under the bank’s supervision.
GT said they did not know when Innoson cleared the goods, and sold them off, abandoning his account with the bank. That was between 2011 and 2012. He had left a debit balance of N1.6 billion, which they had been asking him to pay and he didn’t agree. He would twist them here and there. According to the bank, he was once arrested (I think in 2012), and he promised Economic and Financial Crimes Commission he would pay in installments. Once out, he reneged.
These two stories have no nexus. No connection. Both sides have polished their stories and are sticking to it. Whose report do we believe?
Here’s what I believe happened. There are smart chaps around who can help you audit your accounts and they will always find scenarios where the bank overcharged you; especially if your account is large enough. These are the guys Innoson probably employed and they possibly came up with N800 million overcharge. That is fine. I know that these professional ‘auditors’ have fantastic ways of jacking up what the banks have charged accounts wrongly, and they often rely on old rules of the CBN, which may no longer be in force. There is a lacuna they are exploiting against the banks.
Innoson has not availed the world with the letter showing where GTBank accepted to pay N600 million though. With the allegation of forgery hanging on him, his credibility is in question. That he calculated back after a supposed gentleman’s agreement has been reached, and N600 billion became N8billion, for which he is demanding shares that will probably make him the largest shareholder in the bank, means he’s acting in bad faith and is out on a mission against the bank. He is playing hardball. Now I know that type of customer. Trouble!
The only problem in Innoson’s case is that he is no longer an Idumota trader but a national figure and should have since quit such business model. However, if indeed GTBank accepted to pay him that much, then they are bound by their promise. GT then has to negotiate the N8billion part with Innoson – because he has them by the balls (whether wrongly or rightly).
If I am asked, I will say Innoson is being sensational for the wrong reasons and this path will damage his fledgling brand and cast him in bad light among millions of people-eventually.
In a way, the GT’s story sounds plausible. Even I didn’t know some of the tricks of international trade until when in 2011 I sat in a training conducted by Captain Moh’d Rosdi, a Singaporean, at the Emirates Maritime Institute in Dubai. My mouth was agape, when he said a bill of lading could actually be negotiated at sea four times; that means on the high sea, a captain can sell your goods to someone else four times over. The loopholes of international trade are just too many and the high seas are a different world entirely.
Many conventions are also reached that tilt the balance against countries like ours and for which we have no answer. In short, it is possible for Innoson to clear the goods without GT knowing, more so in a corrupt country such as ours.
The motorcycles could be diverted to Benin Republic, or Ivory Coast, and sold off for cash. Documentary credit in Nigeria has become a huge joke.
*Fasua, a public affairs analyst, lives in Abuja
