Society Gists

Uneasy, indeed, lies the head that wears a crown. There is no better, more realistic example for this than the prevailing king-sized predicament of Segun Agbaje, MD/CEO of Guaranty Trust Bank. Though an otherwise slim and athletically-built man, Segun has lost so much weight in the last couple of months.

His eyes are now sunken while his cheeks have lost their rosiness. Now wizened and sometimes wobbly, many initially passed his weight loss off as deliberate but those who know are aware that is far from being the case.

Segun has never been at risk of bloating. The cause of his headache has been traced to the huge debt portfolio of Guaranty Trust Bank’s A-list customers.

Among the bank’s biggest debtors is the late Ibadan-based billionaire businessman, Alao Arisekola who died recently. He is reportedly hugely indebted to the bank to the tune of about N10 billion. Now that he is no more, Agbaje reckons that recovering the loan would be easier than finding the Malaysian Airline Flight MH370 that mysteriously disappeared from all radar since March.

There are other  many debtors too and Segun is no longer comfortable especially with the shareholders preparing to turn the heat on him but his hands are tied. He is in a catch 22 situation. These debtors make his bank one of the biggest in the country with their transactions yet, make his job one of the hardest because of the unpaid loans. Interestingly, when he celebrated his birthday in London recently, he could not but treat some of these people like royalty. All the debtors are all his friends.

He put his best hospitable mien forward and everybody had a ball and a blast. His beautiful wife, Derin was by his side all through, ensuring that those Segun despises but has no choice but to court had the best of time. Apart from the obvious weight loss, Segun now wears permanent furrows of exasperation and is reportedly huffing and puffing that he would go all out to retrieve the bank’s loans, a situation many adduce to the clampdown on some of their customers in recent time.

The issue of debt recovery has always bedevilled GTB even from the days of the late Tayo Aderinokun but it seems to have reached stratospheric proportions these days. Of course, Segun never knew how bad things were until he stepped in as MD. Now, the rot in GTB seems to be all out to consume the bank but Segun is not ready to go. Are you indebted to Gtbank? Watch your back; Segun Agbaje is coming for you!