Prof. Charles Soludo who is a former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, on Sunday revealed that he received 19 written threats to his life when he kick-started the bank consolidation exercise as CBN chief.
He spoke with newsmen in Anambra State where he is vying for governorship seat under the platform of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in the elections scheduled for later this year.
According to Soludo, he is a very impatient person when it comes to wanting to see change happen, and that he is passionate about anything he focused on.
He said at that time, no bank in Nigeria was in the top 1,000 banks in the world and that if one needed to make an investment of $500m, one had had to go through the then 39 banks and that it was an impossible task.
Soludo added that if one wanted to borrow abroad, there was no bank here to guarantee that, and that he came to the realization that if ‘we wanted to build a private sector-driven economy, it was not possible with the rickety ‘mama and papa’ banks, which could not guarantee even N3m loan. We, therefore, needed to pull down the house and rebuild it.’
He said since he decided to carry out the bank consolidation, there was nothing he did not see, as he received 19 written threats to his life.
According to him, attempts were made to kidnap his children in Offa in Kwara State.
‘So, it was a very brutal revolution. I had to evacuate my family during the banking consolidation because when you want to uproot a system, it is usually a deadly routine,’ he said.
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK