Uncovered! Why GTB MD, Miriam Olusanya is tagged a stooge …The Segun Agbaje connection

Uncovered! Why GTB MD, Miriam Olusanya is tagged a stooge …The Segun Agbaje connection

Yes, she is neither gifted nor versed in performing disappearing acts.

Her appointment last July as the new managing director of Guaranty Trust Bank Plc ended months of speculations and permutations regarding the successor of Segun Agbaje whose tenure had elapsed. Fate smiled on Miriam Olusanya, then the Group Treasurer and Head of Wholesale Banking Division of the bank, as she emerged the first woman to head GTB since it started operations in 1991. The euphoria around her appointment was palpable and pervasive.

The expectation was on the high side! Indeed, many a banker thought she would hit the ground running

Coming on the heel of the appointment of Nneka Onyeali-Ikpe as the MD/CEO of Fidelity Bank, Ms. Olusanya was supposed to be in good company among other bank CEOS. It was expected that with her over two decades experience in banking and knowledge of GTB’s ins and outs, having joined the bank in 1998, she would fit in snugly into her new role.

But the reverse has been the case. About six months down the line, Olusanya had neither been visible nor voluble. Many members of staff are complaining bitterly that they do not even see or hear from her. No official statement has been attributed to her. Neither has she made any policy statement. A random Google search of her name only produced news of her appointment in July 2021.

Nothing new!

A source in the bank said the new MD still carries on like she was in her previous position. Though regarded as a banker’s banker with a proactive and pragmatic approach to 21st Century banking, Olusanya has reportedly not grown into her new position.

Another source said that this may not be unconnected with the fact that Agbaje still has a viselike grip on the power levers of the company. While announcing her appointment, the bank also stated that it had reorganized and restructured and would now operate under a holding company known as ‘Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc’ (GTCo). Agbaje oversees GTCo as Group Chief Executive Officer.

As such, there is a groundswell of speculations that Olusanya is no more than a stooge, a figurehead of some sort in the bank because Agbaje is still very much in control and that she cannot unilaterally take any decision without cross-checking with him. Some staff begged to cut her some slack on the premise that she has so much to deal with, citing the upheaval in her marriage.

Indeed, her husband, Abiodun, had filed for divorce in Lincolnwood, Illinois, United States. Sources disclosed that harmony and love had left the couple, which led to an acrimonious separation.

The divorce proceeding is still on and it almost hampered her chances during the selection process of GTB’s new MD but she found favour in Agbaje who has now refused to let go of the noose on her neck.