Corporate Governance In The Nigerian Banking Sector: An Ethical Analysis Of The 2009 Regulator Intervention And Operators’ Behaviors

This paper conducts an ethical analysis of the 2009 Central Bank of Nigeria intervention: the firing of the CEOs of eight banks in Nigeria and their boards of directors, their replacement with CBN-appointed officers and the injection of government funds into the affected banks; as well as an analysis of the behaviors of the fired executives as leaders of operator banks in the Nigerian Banking system. Within the ethical frameworks of the Stakeholder theory, the Systems theory of Ethics and the Caux Round Table Business Principles, the results of the analysis justify the actions of the CBN as ethical and label the behaviors of the bank operator executives as unethical. The basis of this analysis stems from the selected frameworks that view the Nigerian banking system as an inter play of relationships amongst stakeholders with different but unique responsibilities and which must operate within the boundaries of ethics, for to operate outside these boundaries is to act inimically to the essence and purposes for which these institutions were initially set up and to the detriment of the banking system. The above position underscores the underlying tenet that business and ethical actions cannot be separated. As such this paper recommends the investment in ethics programs and ethics investigation models by the stakeholders in the Nigerian banking system.