Otudeko as chairman cannot completely absolve himself of First Bank’s woes, questionable credit risk management pre-2016, and the insider loans he had taken from the bank which exceeded regulatory limits for shareholders and directors, anyone with a knowledge of the bank knows that much of the blame should be placed mainly on Bisi Onasanya, MD/CEO of First Bank between June 2009 and December 2015.
At the end of Onasanya’s tenure, First Bank had been so badly mismanaged that a former executive director of the bank and later Minister of State for Finance, Remi Babalola, sent a stinker via WhatsApp to the departing chief executive and copied other directors, accusing him of mismanaging First Bank and concealing several infractions under his watch from the board”.
Life is good for Onasanya who currently the Chairman/CEO of a real estate business, Address Homes Limited. He literally lives in a bubble; unfettered access to tons of money, all things bright, bubbly and beautiful; and a growing rock star reputation as a new generation property guru. Many of his peers and protégés would give a limb to swap places with him for just one day.
And for a man that had been likened to Nero, the Roman Emperor who fiddled while Rome burned, Onasanya has been working hard to shake off that perception.
Born in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, Onasanya hails from the Onasanya Family in Ijebu Land, Ogun State. He grew up in Lagos, where he attended St Paul’s Anglican Primary School (Mushin), Eko Boys High School (Mushin), and the then Lagos State College of Science and Technology. Onasanya is the eldest of four children from his mother, and the third of his father’s children.