In what seem to be a real-life play out of Leon Festinger’s law of cognitive dissonance, the imperial cowboy of banking, Tony Elumelu, took a swine to the family’s dinner table with his viral tweet about governance and Nigeria’s economic realities. The post that has garnered over 20,000 seem to identify with critical concerns of the common man and topical issues on the state of the nation, while subtly positing bankable solutions.
Fact is, this sort of ‘wailing’ is not uncommon in Nigeria’s discussion forums, both formal and informal, online or offline. In fact, armchair analysts and newsstand commentators have more articulate positions on the why and where we are, when and what we should do to realise the elusive generational wish for a better Nigeria.
What strikes differently on this one is the handle from which the tweet emanated, ringing a voice from one of the princes of organised private sector, Heirs Holding’s chairman, Elumelu. An average Nigerian can relate with the real Nigeria, but for a first class citizen of this nation, who is living the American dream in a virtualised version of Nigeria to communicate that reality in a public space is often accepted with a pinch of salt.
It is therefore not strange that a few commentators came after the altruistic billionaire, questioning his moral authority and even motive for slinging against The Establishment.
Indeed in Nigeria there is The Establishment. No one nation is entirely run by the political office holders. There is often a tailored arrangement with money bags in persons of super-wealthy businessmen to draft the course of the nation’s sail. These two sects make up the 1% of the society and they determine the fate of the rest 99%. In political economic parlance, this bourgeoisie, control the factors of production and in a very unscrupulous nation like ours, often purchase authority for impunity and unperturbed avarice.
Tony Elumulu is star of the 1990 banking renaissance; famed for rising to the pinnacle of his career as a young man with almost zero pedigree, who through sheer hard-work, intelligence and diligence built a reputation for results. He moved on to building a successful global financial services conglomerate in record time. Who else could be more credible to echo down the mic – REPENT?
We know you: If you cue from public narratives, you would join the bandwagon that praised “his courage to speak truth to power with his tweet”. But when you match precedence against this his lonely opinion, one cannot but see the nudity of the well dressed outburst beyond the words.
Elumelu is a known friend of the so-called political class. He banks them, parties with them, help them plan their investments and even provide financial vehicles to help them achieve their goals. An average Joe does not have access to those Tony called out. Same people that are only a dial away. So it amounts to grandstanding if suddenly he joins the wailing rather than address the tormentors by delineating between his core business and political romanticising.
Take out the log in your own eyes: Let us not mention the numerous allegations of excessive charges that adds up to accentuate Tony’s billionaire status in the book of UBA Group. Of course, the repressed customers, who also battle with poor services (technical issues and largely unresolved customer complaint)s in the hand of UBA, make up the majority of the group known as the common man. The ones who are experiencing the reality of the nearly-failed Nigerian state, and not the ‘fly boys’ in red ties colleagues of Tony’s, that probably woke up to pinch of the people’s suffering because of the hike in diesel prices. That the concern is the hike in the price of diesel alone, gives them up as a member of the colluding middle class, who live princely lives in the face of despondence in the nation, because they are privy to the crumbs of the thieving politicians of our nation. Maybe this is a good point to tell Mr Tony to have his boys make UBA Mobile App work for once; provide enough infrastructure to carry your month-end data throughputs, so that your customers won’t continue to live with the epileptic services of surge transaction periods. If it’s beyond you, mobilise your fellow big bank boys to get NIBSS to fix up!
Taking a further delve into Tony’s tweet, it reads more like a businessman cry than a genuine outburst against the retrogression of our nation. In a world with growing case of Excessive Wealth Disorder, it is not strange to find the super-wealthy businessmen coming after The Establishment that they belong to, as a strategy to fish far-fetched opportunities.
The Russian-Ukrainian war provides a great opportunity for eruptive profits accumulated for major oil players in alternative markets. Tony’s Heirs Holding in early 2021 splashed $1.1billion in the acquisition of OML 17 from Shell, ENI and Total, definitely with a view of turning around its fortune and making tremendous profits. The current state of the global energy market presents an opportunity to recoup their investment. Of course, Elumelu will be enraged that insecurity around our waterways is not making this happen. In same vein, Transcorp (one of his babies) is a very major power generation investment company in Nigeria, with 2,000 MW of installed capacity, through ownership of Transcorp Power Plant and the recent acquisition of Afam Power Plc.
Let us align this fact with reports in recent news that GenCos have attributed low electricity generation to the National Grid to the N1.644 trillion owed them by the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc. Tony’s investment in this industry is experiencing same fate the average Nigerian daily face, so there’s suddenly a need to “Demand and advocate for leaders that deliver”.
Juxtaposing his business interests and the core of the concern raised in his tweet – Electricity and Oil production, it becomes crystal clear why this prince of corporate Nigeria chose to have a village square dance. It’s more of the case of ‘the rich also cries’ and less of a compassionate plea for the plight of the common man.
Festinger’s cognitive dissonance theory concludes that: First, if a person is induced to do or say something which is contrary to his private opinion, there will be a tendency for him to change his opinion so as to bring it into correspondence with what he has done or said.
I make bold to say that Mr Elumelu will in no distant time align his real private opinion with the narratives of the political class in the build up to this election. By action not words, he will once again show us all on which side he truly belongs – with the common man, or The Establishment?
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