Power show of shame at Arik Air
America’s 40th President Ronald Reagan is reported to have made the utterly bewildering declaration: ‘’The most terrifying words in the English language are I’m from the government and I’m here to help’’.
The Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) according to its own website was created to be a key stabilizing and re-vitalizing tool aimed at reviving the financial system by efficiently resolving the non-performing loan assets of the banks in the Nigerian economy. It declares that its business philosophy is to Acquire Eligible Bank Assets (EBAs) from Eligible Financial Institutions (EFIs) at a fair value and put these assets to economic use in a profitable manner.
So, we can safely conclude that AMCON, the economic redeemer for bad bank debts, predestined to die (at sunset) to take away all the sins of debtors, is a bonafide epitome of help from Government.
Its special mission required special powers to enhance its performance, after all, what can be super about a superhero (helper) without his/her superpowers. These special powers include but are not limited to the following:
A protected receivership regime which enables it to appoint its own receiver for a debtor company; power to apply ex-parte for possession of a debtor’s property while filing a debt recovery action within 14 days of the grant of such order; power to apply ex-parte for attachment and freezing of a debtor’s funds while filing a debt recovery action within 14 (fourteen) days of the grant of such order; special powers in bankruptcy proceedings where a debtor can be adjudged bankrupt by virtue of a receiving order made pursuant to the Act; simpler set of winding up rules; and special debt recovery procedure where the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court was obligated to designate Judges for the swift hearing and determination of AMCON debt recovery matters.
The government may have unwittingly created a judge, Jury and executioner, a Dr Frankenstein. AMCON by virtue of its powers seems to have created Victor Frankenstein, ‘’the monster’’ – something that cannot be controlled and that attacks or destroys the person who invented it.
In the form of a receiver manager of Arik Air, exparte orders, as we usually find, may have a dubious reputation or tendency of sacrificing justice on the altar of expedience. A 14-day temporary order became the basis for a six-year stay without any report of stewardship. The icing on the odious cake is the receiver manager (usually court appointed) who has reportedly disobeyed court orders. Yet AMCON has maintained a deafening silence.
IT is understood that according to CAMA, the general ground upon which an application for appointment of a receiver is granted is the protection or preservation of the property or corporate entity, for the benefit of persons with a vested interest in it. It’s is also explained that where a receiver is also appointed as a manager, he may manage the charged asset until the debt is realised after which the asset reverts to the debtor.
So, who has the receiver manager’s stay benefited? The Aviation agencies who have not received any kobo from the outstanding N10 billion debt claim, AMCON who had to bail out ARIK in receivership? Or the owners who await a report for reconciliation so they can have their company back.
It’s the 8th real wonder of the world that such a lofty aim of help, rescue and redemption has degenerated into a show of shame, an open refusal of the rights of the owners and most of all the refusal of the receiver manager to render any accounts of its stewardship.
All this while, the clear signs of the destruction of value have continued unabated in staggering proportions. Reminds one of the military era where the rescuers take over and loot more than the civilians they condemned in their take over broadcasts!
This is a shocking tale of two “undertakers’’, one who undertakes the risk and management of business (the Entrepreneur) and another who misunderstands his business to mean preparing the dead for burial and to arrange and manage funerals. but whose responsibility extends to the continuation and management of the business and subsequent handover of a going concern to the owners while having recovered the debts of its creditors.
The entrepreneur is Sir A. I. Arumemi Johnson who started Arik Air with the defining question “Why is it that Nigerians flying in their homeland do not enjoy the same level of safety and comfort that exists in Europe and North America?’’ He invested enormous capital, blood tears and sweat and bet goodwill earned from decades of exceling as a world class Engineer in a Leading brand world and an entrepreneur of high repute. He delivered a world class flag carrier in cooperation with top in class manufacturers like Boeing, General Electric and leading Maintenance teams like Lufthansa All for the greater good and some possible profit. When economic shocks brought about an existential crisis, one would have expected saner minds to prevail with the helpful support to navigate the headwinds. Arik got instead the “help from Government” with the unleashing of an undertaker manager – Kamilu Alaba Omokhide. An AMCON staff with the dubious claim of being a turnaround and restructuring expert with absolutely no previous track record of successful project delivery at any scale, suddenly handed the reigns of an international multibillion naira enterprise.
Kamilu had described his role in Arik as that of an AMCON appointed administrator running a fully supported company to deliver improved services. He had predicated his exit would be through shareholder funding, foreign direct investment, or asset sale. These were in his own words on his own page even while his watch turned Nigeria’s foremost carrier to a lagging one, with no evidence of any proper account or report of any progress that could interest any foreign investor or elicit the shareholder investment.
All that is discernible is the aggressive and destructive plunder of assets he was sent to support and turnaround as an’ expert’’. Alas our accountant has failed even in the most basic duty to render any accounts after six years! Not surprising, he also has the unenviable record for throwing away the multimillion-dollar Heathrow and JFK slots of any private Nigerian airline ever.
= The court has interpreted and applied the law and determined the liability of the receiver manager under the law. The taxpayers must not end up picking up a bill of close N5 trillion for AMCON’s colossal failure while officers walk away unhurt after sinking the ship they were appointed to rescue.
The words ‘’I am from the government, and I am here to help’’ must no longer terrify those who they are appointed to serve but must be the reasons why officers under the law must be made to account for their stewardship.
