By Atinuke Ogunsakin
There seems to be a culture of corporate quietude at the top echelon of Zenith Bank Plc since the assumption of Auchi Polytechnic-trained accountant, Ebenezer Onyeagwu as the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Zenith Bank Plc.
It is understandable when a leader is seen as reserved but it calls for concern when such a leader occupies an enviable height in a bank of global repute like Zenith and chooses to be a recluse. Unlike most bank managing directors who have been visible across several channels of communication doing sensitization and awareness about coronavirus, Onyeagwu’s muteness is unbecoming of a business leader.
Bank’s CEOs have continued to be seen online releasing videos urging people to embrace social distancing and safe lifestyle to stem the COVID-19 rise among the popular. Several have even thrown social media challenges to their counterparts and/or their subordinates while others have resorted to soft-power to get the message of safety to people out there.
From Twitter thread to Instagram Live, finance sector leaders have been intentional in their participating in the campaign and crusade the pandemic scourge. In all of these, Onyeagwu, who is cousin to the founder and chairman of Zenith Bank, Jim Ovia, has maintained a reclusive posture and a silence that suggests insensitivity.
Attempts to find cyber-evidence of any humanitarian gesture, if any, returned nothing. On Twitter when men and women of his calibre interact with people, it does not appear like he has an account, except a stated parody account that bears his image, name and designation. An Instagram account bearing his name is set as a private account with zero posts and a handful of followers.
On Facebook, there are two accounts in his name and image; and one needs no skills of a fact-checker to know they are false accounts perhaps opened to perpetrate scam, as one displayed an ID that shows he is trade agent born 34 years ago.
In this age of manipulative media and fake news, it is increasingly becoming easy for fraudsters to counterfeit identities, especially people of influence like Onyeagwu. It becomes an easy task for the unscrupulous in the society to fill the void created by reclusive leaders and scam the unsuspecting public when such leaders go absent.
It is high time Onyeagwu broke the shell of anonymity he has been living in, unless there is an unwritten instruction from the original owner(s) of the bank that he should be extremely reticent or he is still living in the stone-age.
By design or hardwork, Onyeagwu has attained prominence with his current designation; there are certain social demands that come with that office that the strategy of deliberate oblivion cannot deliver. This COVID-19 period presents him an opportunity to get out of his anonymous cocoon and embrace social media tools to interact.