It was on November 2019 when the staff members of United Bank for Africa, with friends and family, gathered at the Lekki Special Event Centre to merry and celebrate to the successful end of a year. The hall swarm with people, all in happy and cheerful moods. Drinks and food were in abundance. Fun filled activities kept the place in steady motion. In attendance were top Nigerian celebrities; high profile musicians like WizKid, Burna Boy, Olamide, and Jidenna graced the occasion with their artistry, singing and keeping the crowd engaged with great performances. While everyone enjoyed the euphoric ambience, UBA Chairman, Tony Elumelu, and CEO of UBA, Kennedy Uzoka, played host, mingling with people and making sure everything was the way it should be. The staff members, like every other person who attended, were happy. Little did they know that, for some of them, their days with UBA as a staff were coming to an abrupt end.
Fast forward to January 2020. People resumed work pumped up with all the energy that comes with the start of a new year. On a Friday, January 3, some staff members were asked to wait behind after work hours. It is a common occurrence in corporate organisations. So they did, unsuspecting, only for them to be informed that their services were no longer required. They were asked to tender their resignation letters.
After this awful layoff, which affected more than 2000 staff members, and has come to be known as one of the greatest layoffs in the history of Nigeria, UBA Chairman, Tony Elumelu, who claimed the layoff had to happen because the bank suffered an ill financial health, was reportedly found in France where he was splashing cash on a personal holiday filled with opulence. And while the thousands who have been displaced, without prior notice, from their place of work seat at home in grief, lacking a plan to contain the surprise hit, Mr Elumelu lies on a plush bed in a fancy suite of an expensive hotel in France, kicking his feet up and mulling on the good times the abundance of money is bringing him.
