“Pull off a coup and you’re a national hero, fail and you’re an evil criminal; in business it’s the same difference between bankruptcy and making a fortune,” writes Jeffrey Archer, British politician and author. This perhaps explains the quandary of Festus Fadeyi, oil magnate cum Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of PanOcean oil and gas.
Yes, the truth dawned on Festus Fadeyi in a moment of profound terror. The boss of Pan Ocean finally understands that status and affluence are ephemeral like the early dew before the morning sun.
As you read, Fadeyi is caught up in the turbulence of steep and unforgiving commerce and the good fact is that he has the instinct and judgment required to wade through the scary storm.
However, some years back, when defaulting on bank loans did not occasion countless sleepless nights, the oil and gas billionaire got a multi-billion naira loan from Skye Bank where he was a director cum shareholder. His son, Jason, an Ivy League product of medicine, was also a non-executive of the bank. The economy was still buoyant and nothing in the forecast showed that the business he invested the money in would tank atrociously. Well, it did. And his money went down the drain.
Festus is reportedly indebted to the bank to the tune of about N190billion. Alas, the loan is non-performing. Neither are there indices that the loan would perform anytime soon in view of the current economic headwinds. Fadeyi has been cliffhanging since.
To compound his troubles, in 2016, the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, sacked the board of directors of the bank, Fadeyi inclusive. The directors had to go to save the bank from further ruination apparently. The CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, contended that the intervention became inevitable in view of the bank’s liquidity and non-performing loan ratios which had been below and above the required thresholds respectively for quite a while.