By Adebayo Adedeji
It is no more news that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has rejected the nomination of Dr Wale Bolorunduro as representative of Osun State Government in the board of LivingTrust Mortgage Bank. The decision of the apex bank was communicated to the Managing Director of the LivingTrust Bank on March 21, 2025. Bolorunduro, according to the CBN, was rejected because of his unprofessional conduct and desperation to destroy the public image of the bank on the altar of unbridled and unhealthy politics.
Same day when the CBN served Bolorunduro a cold breakfast, the Osun State Government submitted a petition to the central bank, inadvertently calling for a review of a business transaction that took place in 2013 when Bolorunduro was Commissioner of Finance in Osun State. In the petition signed by Governor Ademola Adeleke, which I assume was authored by the embattled Bolorunduro going by the name-calling, bratty style and arrogant language characteristic of Bolorunduro’s writing, Governor Adeleke accused the CBN of bias and a plot to give entire control of the board as well as management of LivingTrust Mortgage Bank to CitiTrust Holdings Plc. According to Adeleke, the CBN “is on a special mission to give upperhand to CitiTrust. He claimed the officials of the CBN from the Other Financial Institution Supervision Department (OFIS) committed infractions while regulating the bank. My write-up will focus on two issues raised by Governor Adeleke in his petition which to my reasoning are fundamental to addressing the issues at hand: 1. That LivingTrust Bank has departed from its socio-economic development roles since 2019 when the SHARES ( “shares” here is capitalized for emphasis) of the State were sold to CitiTrust Holding Plc. 2. That the Memorandum of Understanding and the Shareholders’ Agreement signed by the two parties in LivingTrust in 2024 should not have been implemented by the apex bank but rather by the parties themselves.
The first allegation that the Osun State’s shares in LivingTrust Bank were sold to CitiTrust is untrue and unfounded. This narrative is part of the propaganda of the Ademola Adeleke-led government to soil the reputation of ex-Governor Adegboyega Oyetola and project him as an economic ruiner who sold the wealth and legacy of the state for pittance and pecuniary gains. If there was any share of the state that was sold in LivingTrust Mortgage Bank, it was done in 2013 when Oyetola was not yet the state governor. Oyetola was governor from 2018 to 2022.
The administration preceding Oyetola, in 2013, went to the Nigerian Stock Exchange to raise N1.6 billion in share capital to ensure LivingTrust Bank, which previously was wholly owned by the state, met the N2.5 billion capital baseline set by the Central Bank of Nigeria for mortgage banks. Wale Bolorunduro, who is now troubling the peace of the bank, was the finance commissioner who supervised the capital market processes at the time. Following the privatization, 60% of the bank’s shares were divested to Morgan Capital Securities Limited and UniCapital Limited, while the state government retained 40%.
It was this 40% equity that was inherited by the Oyetola government which was neither depleted nor sold for the four year Oyetola was in the saddle. However, during the period Oyetola was governor, the private investors in the mortgage bank divested 40% of their 60% to another company, CitiTrust, upon which Adeleke and his financial rabble rousers are struggling to tarnish the image of the minister of Marine and Blue Economy. The readers are invited to answer simple investment questions: could an investor direct another investor whom to divest its equity? I know you will answer NO. Could Osun State Government under Oyetola have stopped Morgan Capital and Unicorn Limited from selling their shares to CitiTrust when the industry regulators had no objection to such an arrangement? I know you will also answer NO. So why should Oyetola be held responsible, as Governor Adeleke is clearly doing now, for a transaction that was long completed before Oyetola assumed governorship?
The second allegation that the CBN should not have “interfered” in the implementation of the MOU signed in 2024, to accommodate governance structure reservations raised by the Osun State Government and other investors in the mortgage bank, is preposterous and disheartening. The suggestion of the state government is no doubt a continuation of the anyhowness that has become the order of the day in Osun. If not, the state governor would not have opined that the CBN should stand aloof while warring parties do whatever they like. Allowing the two parties to implement an MOU would have be an invitation to chaos in the management of the bank.
The rejection of Wale Bolorunduro as Chairman of LivingTrust by the CBN appears to be a well considered decision which would bring back sanity to the bank and engender mutual co-existence. Until his appointment by Governor Adeleke in April 2024 to replace Alhaji Adebayo Jimoh, a seasoned administrator and erstwhile chairman of the popular Oodua Investment Plc, there was relative peace in the bank. Bolorunduro’s coming, which many saw as economic disaster given his recent bad image, distasteful politics and controversy that engulfed his tenure as finance commissioner in the state, was a whirlwind which blew the state no good.
The transparent financial management experienced during the administration of Oyetola, an experience which gave room for nomination of decent and experienced professionals to represent the state, thus duly contributing to the bank’s growth, was truncated when the dancing governor assumed office. Under Oyetola, the fortune of the bank, which was on the path of imminent collapse during Bolorunduro’s tenure as Commissioner, was brought back to life, amounting to surge in the bank’s profit to N676.6 million, representing 347% increase, in 2021, and revenue to N1.6 billion, an increase of 149% in relation to the 2020 accruals. LivingTrust’s unaudited 2021 report also showed that total assets grew by 80.2% to N11. 35 billion, up from N6.3 billion. In 2021, the bank, for its stellar performance, earned the prestigious Africa Mortgage Bank of the Year award.
But Bolorunduro neglected his leadership responsibilities at LivingTrust, instead immersing himself in petty, divisive politics with no bearing on the bank’s success. He was more concerned on activities that would bring financial reward to him, burnish his self-exaggerated prestige and cast aspersions on officials that served in the defunct government of Oyetola. Like his principal, Adeleke, who came to government with bitterness and resentment towards Oyetola, the rejected chairman came to LivingTrust like a bull in a china shop, offering negative advisory to the government capable of tearing down the corporate image of the 32-year-old bank.
Meanwhile, one would have expected Governor Adeleke to pause and take stock of his relationship with the Ere-born politician, particularly following the embarrassment he courted the state government on the wrangling with Segilola mining company, where he advised the state government to demand a humongous N65 billion from the mining company for unpaid taxes and investment returns, a claim which has since been proven misleading and false; but strangely, Adeleke continues to act brazenly against industry regulations, threatening to disobey the directive of the CBN that three directors mandated to seek CBN approval “will continue to be on the Board (of LivingTrust)” in contravention of the CBN’s dictate.
Perhaps Adeleke thinks the CBN is annexation of Osun State where with his executive arrogance and monstrous rascality he can order traditional rulers to vacate their throne and heaven would not fall; where he thinks he could call the Attorney General of the Federation and the Inspector General of Police unprintable names without immediate repercussions. The recent flagrant disobedience to the court of appeal judgement re-instating local government executives elected in 2022 in the state is a travesty and sad reality of Osun which Adeleke wants to extend to the apex bank.
The directives of the CBN are clear: that the state should produce another nominee to replace the rejected Bolorunduro; that the three directors, who are representing Osun on the board of LivingTrust, should seek approval from the apex bank; that the Commissioner of Finance of Osun, Olushola Ogungbile, who is a non-executive director in the mortgage bank, should execute Code of Conduct form.
Rather than its usual grandstanding, the state government should comply with the simple and harmless requests of the regulators. Adeleke should not promote the lawlessness his government is known for to the corporate world where the state risks heavy sanctions and unmitigated consequences.
