TheCapital

• How insatiable lust for fortune cost them their peace, freedom

Prosperity is only an instrument to be used, not a deity to be worshipped but Nigeria’s banking czars think otherwise. Like insatiable merchants, stricken by unarticulated fiscal lusts, they would stick an oar in every trade boat, and a finger in every pie, if it would fetch them a fortune, or at least, a farthing.

It doesn’t matter that many of them are men of accomplishments, who have made an enviable fortune as directors and chairmen of Nigeria’s most prominent banks, even after retirement, they wouldn’t hold still. They wouldn’t live their lives in peace; rather, they have committed body and soul, mind and resources, to the pursuit of random spoils across the nation’s business circuit.

While some of them retired at the expiration of their tenures, others voluntarily resigned from their plum positions in order to pursue their other mercantile dreams and interests.

Of course, pundits argue that there is no law that restricts them or anyone from committing to new mercantile interests on a whim, yet it must be averred that having made a mammoth fortune in the nation’s banking sector, these men could afford to spend the rest of their existence making peace with their lusts and retiring their aspirations for renown.

But like they say, ambition is the grand enemy of all peace, thus these characters have engaged in another mad dash for wealth and renown, hustling as their lives depended on the little pittance they make from their newfound business interests.

Consequently, many of them are forced to keep a diet of pills and expensive medical treatment at home and abroad for health issues often compounded by their hankering for money. Findings revealed that hitherto manageable diseases like hypertension, low blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, to mention a few, have become life-threatening to most of them due to their inability to retire from unhealthy business pursuits and manage their health.

Today, the list of bank chiefs doing well in other lines of business is long. Of course, not everyone of them is guilty of an ill-advised, juvenile hankering for money at great risk to their health and personal peace: these banking icons include names like Atedo Peterside, Pascal Dozie, Fola Adeola, Jim Ovia, Tony Elumelu, Bisi Onasanya, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, Akinsola Akinfemiwa and Adebola Adesola.

Others are Emeka Emuwa, Tunde Lemo, Nebolisa Arah, Peter Amangbo, Bisi Omoyeni, Tokunbo Abiru, Kehinde Durosimi-Etti, Fidelis Tilije, Alex Otti, Isa Yuguda, Philip Oduoza, Uzoma Dozie.

While many of them profess legitimate lust and the desire to exercise their mental acuity in pursuit of new business interests, many are simply too smitten with money to let go even after spending their prime acquiring too much of it.

The love of money is indeed the root of colossal evils. Every minute, thousands who could have overcome its darkness, expire and die, for the love of a lousy buck.

BREAKING: Ex-CBN Chief Obadiah Mailafia Is Dead

The Felons Within: Ex-Glencore Staff To Indict Nigerian Officials In Bribery Scandal