{"id":8285,"date":"2016-03-19T12:24:57","date_gmt":"2016-03-19T12:24:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=8285"},"modified":"2016-03-19T12:25:52","modified_gmt":"2016-03-19T12:25:52","slug":"how-banking-profession-lost-its-soul-glow-sun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=8285","title":{"rendered":"How banking profession lost its soul, glow – Sun"},"content":{"rendered":"


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AGNES Esosa works in the mar\u00adketing unit of a popular commer\u00adcial bank and was given a N500m target in 2015. Coincidentally, that was the same year she was to wed, so she was caught in a web of con\u00adfusion as she ran around for two important projects.
\nOne of the projects was the struggle to meet her target and re\u00adtain her job and the other, a nice wedding to fulfil a lifetime dream.
\nThe lady weeps every morn\u00ading, for several reasons including how to maintain a tough balance; dodging men\u2019s laps while squeez\u00ading some deposits off them, yet remaining faithful to her fiancee.
\nWhen she spoke with Saturday Sun on phone a few days ago, she had this to say: \u201cI\u2019m on proba\u00adtion at work as I speak with you because I didn\u2019t meet my target and the marriage didn\u2019t work. That\u2019s even the worst thing. My fiancee complained bitterly that I never had time for him even dur\u00ading weekends. This is because I must chase one depositor or the other and when they fix weekend appointments, who am I to reject them? I\u2019m the first of six children and the breadwinner of the family after the death of my father and a poor mum. I tried my best. Some men would even insult you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shoe week<\/strong>
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On the frequent demand for sex by prospective depositors, she said \u201cImagine a man demanding to sleep with you as the only condi\u00adtion before obliging your request to open an account with your bank as if the money is mine. The bank even told me to resign about two weeks before my fiancee ended our relationship, but some people pleaded for my retention. That was in January. So, I\u2019m one leg in, one leg out. Women are endangered species in Nigeria and I really don\u2019t know when this would end.\u201d
\nUnfortunately, that is Nigeria\u2019s version of 21st century banking where the traditional banking ide\u00adals have been overtaken by insa\u00adtiable appetite for deposits which has also put immense pressure on staff, especially the women; who are now largely seen as corporate prostitutes.
\nUntil the fall of the 1990s, the dream of several young school leavers was to work in the banks since the oil sector was seen as the exclusive preserve of influential Nigerians.
\nIn those days, an average graduate undergoing the mandatory National Youth Service saw banks as good place to work and even as they pre\u00adpare toward writing the necessary ex\u00adaminations that would land them the plum job.
\nThe attractions then, which includ\u00aded fat salaries, housing\/furniture loans and free medical care made the bank jobs almost irresistible. Bankers too knew how to flaunt their jobs through their well-tailored suits, shining shoes and trendy cars which made them the envy of many.
\nToday, after over 10 years, the glamour seems to be fading slowly leaving many of them to ask, what went wrong? Experts and ex-bankers heap the blame on a lot of factors in\u00adcluding dwindling economy, casuali\u00adsation, desperate search for deposits, unhealthy competition among the banks, army of jobless youths among others.
\nHowever, one of the reasons the banking profession appear to have lost its glamour according to some experts is the numerous abuses that some managers have brought into the practice.
\nOgbonnaya Nwosu, a former bank executive blamed the declining sta\u00adtus of the industry on the emmergen ce of new generation banks in the 90s which according to him, changed the banking landscape.
\n\u201cA bank like Standard Trust, now UBA was a game changer. It was one of the new generation banks that brought some new innovations into the sector but changed a lot of things also. The traditional ones like Union Bank, First Bank, Bank of the North and all that, were not as aggressive as the new generation banks in terms of their desperation for deposits.
\n\u201cThe old first generation banks maintain the sanctity of banking un\u00adlike their new generation counter\u00adparts\u2019 insatiable appetite for deposits which has since reduced bankers to corporate beggars. It\u2019s no longer news that female marketers are now veiled prostitutes who hustle every\u00adwhere in search of deposits. Many marriages have been destroyed as the new generation banks have changed everything. Throughout my 35-year in the industry, there was nothing like marketing executives runing around for deposits. Bankers were respected. In fact, they were worshipped I dare say. Everyone wanted to become a banker. Today, I don\u2019t want my last daughter to become a banker. I can\u2019t stand the fright. The finer you are, the more likely you\u2019ll be thrown into the dreaded marketing unit with unrealis\u00adtic deposit targets. I don\u2019t wish that for my enemy, let alone my daughter\u201d, he said.
\nWhen Saturday Sun visited the electronic section at the popular Alaba International Market in La\u00adgos last Friday, three female bank\u00aders from one of the new generation banks were spotted dancing skel\u00adewu before an importer, all in a bid to make him open an account with their bank. One of them who iden\u00adtified herself as Rose told Saturday Sun that dancing for the importer and his boys was much easier than be\u00ading harrassed sexually.
\n\u201cMy brother, this bank work is something you\u2019ll do because there is no job out there anymore. Every man wants to sleep with you before giving you as little as N10,000 deposit. No man wants to deal with you decently and professionally. It\u2019s that bad. If you refuse, a thousand and one girls are ready to take such deposit because in today\u2019s banking, every kobo counts. The bank management knew there are thousands of jobless graduates and it\u2019s soldier go, soldier come thing\u201d, she lamented.
\nCasualisation
\nAnother worrisome trend that has made banking profession lose its at\u00adtraction is the degrading practice\u00adcalled casualisation.
\nAccording to Remi Oladunjoye, a banker with one of the newly-merged banks, most of the staffers in the banking halls and some other units are contract\/casual workers as some banks don\u2019t want their workers union\u00adised under any guise.
\n\u201cThese bank managements prefer National Diploma holders to universi\u00adty degree holders.They register firms for consultancy services and outsource some jobs to them. These guys now bring in ND holders as causal staff\u00aders. Only some intakes with univer\u00adsity degrees are staffed. So, the two categories of staffers have different career paths and as such different pay packets. Banks prefer the ND hold\u00aders or casual staff because they are cheaper for them pay. They are not entitled to a lot of things and they are okay for the banks since there are no jobs out there. So, with a good num\u00adber of staff being contract workers, and earning slashed emoluments, the allure of job is gone\u201d, he said.
\nMeanwhile, some financial experts are of the view that the banking sec\u00adtor has lost its focus having been distracted by the search for deposits from customers without serious com\u00admitment to core business of financial intermediation for national economic growth .
\nThis is more so as dwindling econ\u00adomy and the introduction of the Trea\u00adsury Single Account (TSA) has dealt a hard blow on banks having been prematurely weaned from govern\u00adment\u2019s liquidity breasts.
\nMany banks are being forced to think outside the box to remain afloat and not relying on deposits from gov\u00adernment\u2019s ministries, departments and agencies. These developments have also created such other chal\u00adlenges as unhealthy competition among banks now putting immense pressure on staff and management.
\nFor many who sadly had taking to banking as a profession, it has been lamentations and stories of re\u00adgrets and unfulfilled dreams.
\nJob insecurity
\nConfirming the trend in the sec\u00adtor to Saturday Sun, an ex-banker, Nze Wilfred Nwachukwu, said \u201cI was a victim of this wicked and ex\u00adploitative act in 2012 after putting in three-year of service and I was retrenched without any benefit of pre-information. I was only sent off the job without genuine reason.\u201d
\nHe explained that in December 2012, more than 500 outsourced staff including himself were re\u00adtrenched through SMS without any benefits from the bank.
\n\u201cThe current practice now is re\u00adcruiting people without employ\u00adment letter as outsourced staff and at the end send them off after using them to achieve their objectives. Contract staffers in most banks don\u2019t have leave, allowances or medical capitation but render the same service with those who are staffed.
\n\u201cThe outsourced staffers are be\u00ading used as cheap labour and sacri\u00adficed at any time without due pro\u00adcess. The ugly side of this is that they are the ones that perform the \u2018heart of the job\u2019 while most of the top shots relax and earn fat salary.
\n\u201cIt is so pathetic that people will be indiscriminately retrenched all because they are contract staff or \u2018restructuring\u2019 which is the dubious term banks use,\u201d he stated.
\nHe called on Nigerian Labour Congress to urgently look into the issue of downsizing in the banking industry and other employers of la\u00adbour.
\nA staff of another highly rated new generation bank that just an\u00adnounced the downsizing of its staff with the claim of shoring up perfor\u00admance, opening opportunities for new hands and enhancing service delivery, who simply gave his name as Kingsley said, \u201cI got my letter of disengagement on a Wednesday, I was devastated, but at the same time I knew it will get to this point, because most of the commercial banks in Nigeria hold very fat ac\u00adcounts of government agencies and ministries that run into billions of naira.
\n\u201cSome of these funds are not withdrawn for six months or even more and banks trade with them and make profits. So, once you shut that angle of business, certainly, the banks will bleed. So, if, other people are not expecting sacks, then they must be day dreaming\u201d.
\nA worker with another bank, who proffered anonymity, said that the Nigerian economic policies right now is directly or indirectly affect\u00ading every sector.
\nAccording to him, with the im\u00adplementation of TSA, removal of CoT and the restrictions on foreign currency transactions, banks no longer make enough profit thereby making them to resort to downsiz\u00ading.
\n\u201cSecondly, the incidence of out\u00adsourcing in the banking industry cannot be over emphasised in the recent times. This is done so as to reduce the cost of doing business, however, the issue of the employee welfare varies from bank to bank but people have not got much choice but to endure it because of the unemployment problem in the system,\u201d the source said.
\nAnother bank executive in one of the tier-2 banks confirmed to Satur\u00adday Sun that plans are ongoing to downsize for the reason of restruc\u00adturing the bank for better perfor\u00admances.
\nThe source stated further that most of the staff to be laid off are those on temporary appointments. He said, \u201cThe problem is that, if you lay off permanent staff at once, you also have to pay them all their entitlements otherwise they will take you to court. Yes, majority of the people we truly do not need are unfortunately the permanent staff, but because of the confusion and litigation that will follow, we de\u00adcided to sack those with temporary appointments. It was a painful deci\u00adsion, but we have to do it in order to save the bank.
\n\u201cThe bank is planning to prepare their disengagement letters and most of them will be communicated soon. I tell you, not only here, all the banks will follow this line. That is the situation\u201d.
\nFor Thomas Ayeni, who had a dream to work in a bank ever since he was in the high school, it was a long wait of about five years after graduation before his dream could be fulfilled. During the waiting pe\u00adriod he took appointment as a teach\u00ader, and eventually, one of his uncles, who equally worked in a bank pro\u00advided the link for him. It was indeed a dream come true as he worked in the logistic department of one of the old generation banks then. He was paid a good salary and lived in a standard apartment, which he could not afford as a teacher.
\nIt was all a good story as he moved up the ladder. But a twist came to his upmobile and secured world in 2004, when the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) came up with the policy to prune the existing 89 banks in the country to 25. This brought a lot of challenges to the banks coupled with the N25 billion capitalisation target.
\nThe banks had to devise several ways to survive. Though his bank survived and he likewise was lucky to be counted among the last men standing after a huge rationalisation that shook the industry. But since then, it has never been business as usual. Things have really fallen apart with lots of undue pressure.
\nWhen the heat was too much, he sought a way out. He discovered that some of his colleagues who had left the sector in the heat of the merger had sought greener pastures abroad. He contacted them and he eventually joined the bandwagon. Though he had been able to move his family with him, but he was not happy with the job he does, which is a way apart from his career line. But his case as he said, \u201c it\u2019s that of a bird in hand, I have no choice now than to take what I have . If I have my way I won\u2019t hesitate to return home, but even the present eco\u00adnomic situation in the country has further put us all in a tight corner.\u201d
\nIf Ayeni, an ex-bank worker, was disillusioned, Mofe Ajani, (not real name), a much younger banker still in the system is presently devas\u00adtated. Ajani, an HND holder joined his bank in 2008, but he was em\u00adployed with his ND certificate, and from 2008 to 2015, he has never been promoted and still remains on the same salary he earned when he joined the bank eight years ago.
\nAccording to him, the practice in most of the banks was to employ ND holders as tellers, whom they will pay poorly as against the uni\u00adversity graduate.
\nTo say that he is frustrated is an understatement as he said he could not wait to get out of the system. He said, \u201cI had high hopes of working in the bank after bagging a degree in accountancy. I was told I could only be employed with my ND certificate, I didn\u2019t really mind, because I thought things would be normalised later. But I was wrong, as I\u2019ve been on the same salary now for eight years, no promotion and even the new staff just coming into the bank, earn the same salary as those of us who have spent these long years. The implication is that even if we spend 15 years, we will still be on the same salary, as we have some of our colleagues who have spent up to those years earn\u00ading the same salary.\u201d
\nSpeaking on why banking job is no longer attractive to him, Ayeni said there is no job security in addi\u00adtion to lack of promotion.
\n\u201cThere is no job security, which is the most important thing for an employee. You can go to the of\u00adfice in the morning and get booted out in the evening. You will only be directed to report at the head\u00adquarters and before you return, you are off the system. There is a case of a senior manager who was just employed and because he said he could not work with some top man\u00adagers, those managers were asked to go, just like that.
\n\u201cWe also have unrealistic tar\u00adget to meet, most especially those in the marketing department and failure to do that means end of the job. The female workers are more stressed. In the banking job, you resume at 7.30am, but there is no closing time. Though the bank clos\u00ades to customers at 4.00 pm, and we are mandated to leave the premises by 6pm, but that is only official, as most often,we have to reconcile our books and may have to attend meet\u00adings at other branches. At the end of the day, we may not get home until midnight, it is abysmal for a mar\u00adried woman who leaves home by 6.a.m and gets home 12 midnight.
\n\u201dOur appraisal module is equally unrealistic, it is done twice in a year, and you are expected to score above 80 percent, withunrealistic, it is done twice in a year, and you out no record of query, for those in market\u00ading if they fulfill this, they will be promoted in a year, for those of us in the operation it is two years of four appraisals. The target is so stringent that it\u2019s been very difficult for us to meet.\u201d \u00ad
\nOn the qualification, Ayeni said those who came in with ND were often advised to update their certificates for conversion, but lamented that even after doing that, the man\u00adagement failed to promote them.
\n\u201cIt is unfortunate, we train the new hands and still get paid the same salary. The man\u00adagement employs graduate now on contract as customer relations officers with lesser sal\u00adary, everyday the job gets lesser and lesser attractive\u201d, he lamented.
\nAyeni said the unfortunate thing is that bankers, due to the nature of their jobs are often cut off from the society. \u201cPractically, a banker after leaving the job finds it difficult to fit into the society. We hardly have any so\u00adcial life, leave the house as early as 6 in the morning and get back late in the night, Sat\u00adurday, we go to work to attend to the ATM and on Sunday, there may be some meetings to attend, so by the time you retire, you will find out that there is nobody to relate with, and all these with nothing to show for as re\u00adtirement benefits, unless you belong to the top management.\u201d
\nLabour unions react
\nFormer General Secretary of the Asso\u00adciation of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions (ASSBIFI), Peter Obukese Orere, traced the problem to 2004, when the CBN decided to reduce banks from 89 to 25 for more effectiveness and liquida\u00adtion. He recalled that this was followed with merger and acquisition as banks struggled to meet the N25 billion capitalization set by the apex bank.
\nHe said, \u201cThe result of this was that we see banks looking frantically for deposits. Therefore, they threw caution to the wind and devised all means to meet the CBN\u2019s target. The banks, most especially the new generation banks went all the way out to employ young girls to get deposits. There were times banks gave condoms to ladies to go about looking for new clients to bring in deposits, it\u2019s as bad as that.\u201d
\nOrere recalled one of the sordid cases the union had to intervene before the lady bank\u00ader\u2019s job was saved.
\n\u201c There was a pathetic case where a rich client specifically called a bank manager to send a female banker to his hotel room in Sheraton if ever the bank would get his de\u00adposit. The manager called the lady who had just delivered a baby to report at the hotel or else she would lose her job. The lady went to the hotel, with her baby and the husband, but equally reported to us. It was the union that saved the situation, there were several cases like that. Though the banks often denied the cases, but we got those reports on daily basis.
\nOrere said the merger period was the worst in the history of banking in Nigeria, adding that the banking institution never recovered from that damage.
\n\u201cThough as unions we protested, but the then CBN Governor assured us that job would not be lost, but rather more branches would be created, but the opposite was what we got, with more of our members losing their jobs without adequate severance pack\u00adages.
\nThe CBN had instructed the banks to pay the workers ten years exit packages, but some only paid five, while others refused to pay anything at all. So the society loses in\u00adterest in banking jobs, and it becomes less attractive.\u201d
\nHe explained that technology in form of ATM and others further worsen the situation, as banks now need to employ less hands to attend to customers.
\nThe new TSA, he believed may further spell more doom for the industry and may force most of the existing banks to return to the old ways of attracting depositors.
\nThe Vice President of ASSBIFI, Amina Danesi, in her candid opinion believed that the banking industry was losing the attrac\u00adtion primarily due to the unrealistic target given to the workers.
\nShe noted that banking industry is natu\u00adrally supposed to mediate between those who have surplus and the destitute, but la\u00admented that the capitalists of this world have no satisfaction with what they have and the undue rivalry among the banks has further destroyed the tenets of the industry.
\n\u201cThe quality of people running the indus\u00adtry now is questionable in terms of morals and etiquette. There is need for us to return to the old ways to understand the code of ethics in the sector\u201d, she said.
\nShe said that due to the unrealistic target, a lot of damage had been done, both to the industry and the employees.
\nShe stated that many homes have been broken while people now see female bankers in the marketing department as prostitutes.
\nShe also recalled a story where a senior manager who did not care how her subordi\u00adnates meet their targets lost her marriage to one of the ladies she sent out to get deposits under any means.
\nAccording to her, \u201cThe Senior manager put undue pressure on the young lady to get her deposit, telling her she cared less how she gets it, in spite of the fact that the lady told her that she knew nobody. When the pres\u00adsure became unbearable, the young banker by providence, was introduced to a big man, who turned out to be the husband of her boss, the man fell in love with the young banker and eventually divorced his wife, the lady\u2019s superior and married the young banker.\u201d
\nDanesi said the trauma that most of the ladies used for marketing and unrealistic tar\u00adget suffered was enormous and unbearable, which include physical, psychological and social.
\n\u201cWith most of the female bankers in the marketing being looked down upon as pros\u00adtitutes, it may affect good hands from com\u00ading into the industry\u201d, she warned.
\nShe however said that the unions in the industry have been doing a lot of sensitisa\u00adton and encouraging workers on the need to know their rights and appropriately fight for their rights.
\n\u201cFor those who have courage to come to the unions, we have been there for them, but some people prefer to suffer in silence, a lot of them enter without understanding their rights.
\n\u201cCapitalists of today will suppress people and forbid them from crying out. There was a case of sexual harassment from a top ex\u00adecutive against a junior staff. The union was informed, after a thorough investigation, the bank executive was forced to resign.\u201d
\nOn the TSA, the labour leader said it ought not to have any negative impact on any bank who knows its onions and very professional.
\n\u201cBanks did not start with getting govern\u00adment money. It\u2019s just a fraction of our earn\u00adings. Those relying on TSA are lazy, if we move to market we will get more. You will marvel how much a bank can get from a market like Idumota and other markets all over the country. I think it is time to think outside the box. It is time for banks to go out and see how we can support the real sector, the manufacturing sector. How much is bank putting into agric, we need to develop products that will make farmers able to re\u00adpay their loans.\u201d
\nSaturday Sun findings also showed that banking jobs have become less attractive because of measures impairing on the prof\u00aditability and operations of the sector, which include the recent implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA), the com\u00adplete phasing out of Commission on Turn\u00adover (CoT), foreign exchange challenge and other previous regulatory headwinds of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
\nAnother disturbing finding revealed that job seekers and those in the system today no longer consider banking employment as a plum job because of the exploitation and enslavement of workers as most financial institutions are fully involved in outsourc\u00ading a number of job functions, a develop\u00adment that has seen some of them transfer a significant number of their employees to third-party companies. The recent practice in the sector see these recruiting firms en\u00adgaging workers known as \u2018contract staff\u2019 without letters of engagement; denied of all substantial benefits accrued to work\u00aders as specified by labour law and could be sacked at will. Also, the syndrome of corporate prostitution has taken toll on the lives of mostly women in the banking sec\u00adtor. Some banks are crossing the line when it comes to, professionalism, ethics and se\u00adcuring the rights of every employee in their their bid to grow deposit base for profit\u00adability. In order to attract the big shots to invest with such banks, female workers are let loose as bait and tagged \u201cmarket\u00aders.\u201d Thus, the female bankers have turned to prostitution by condition and not by choice. The toll this ugly \u201cflesh trade\u201d has taken on the private lives of those con\u00adcerned, the self worth of the persons con\u00adcerned and by extension, the entire moral status and image of the nation is quite great and it makes the issue a national tragedy.
\nThey have to convince the wealthy men to save millions with them by whatever means they can. The big men often ask to sleep with such ladies in return, so as to seal the deal. Failure for such a lady to meet up her exorbitant annual target would require the immediate termination of her job.
\nIn his submission, a former Corporate Affairs Manager of Afribank, Mr. Lanre Alabi, maintained that banking is still a dream job in terms of prestige, pay, op\u00adportunities for growth, and continued rel\u00adevance in the scheme of things.
\n\u201cIt pays well and it gives the right chal\u00adlenges. Note that there are three commodi\u00adties that can never be in short demand. They are food, money and health products. As long as people will continue to need money, they will continue to need the ser\u00advices of banks,\u2019\u2019 he said.
\nAlabi, who is now the Lead Consultant at Prospers Strategy and Marketing Com\u00admunications Limited, argued that banks are not in isolation of the economy be\u00adcause government policies dictate the di\u00adrection of the economy, adding that as the economy changes direction, the structure and business portfolio of banks equally change, leading to strategic realignments in human capital.
\nHe maintained that in the 70s-80s, when armchair banking was the order of the day, there was no need for bank marketers.
\nComparing modern day banking with what obtained in the 70s-80s, Alabi said today\u2019s bankers survive by observing the trends of the movement of funds especially in emerging businesses.
\n\u2018\u2018They innovate and create services that best suit the needs of customers. Not many people go to the banking hall these days. They need to ask themselves how do you reach out to someone you don\u2019t see or may not likely see? They need to be able to de\u00advice creative methods of reaching out to the customer to create value that improves the customer, not diminish him,\u2019\u2019 the ex-banker noted.
\nAccording to him, marketing came to the front burner in the 90s to the present, stressing that as long as there is competi\u00adtion, marketing will continue to be on the front burner and the dynamics will con\u00adtinue to change.
\n\u2018\u2019Every job has its own peculiarities in terms of time, challenges, and expecta\u00adtions. For the banks, it is even more in\u00adteresting in terms of prestige and reward. A permanent secretary in a state earns N450,000 a month while a manager with 10 times more tasks earns much more than that. In banks, the reward is commensurate with the work you are given. Bank workers get targets and are constantly challenged to create, innovate and achieve results. These may be stressful but the pay is worth the stress,\u2019\u2019 he noted.
\nAlabi stated that the economy is read\u00adjusting to current realities because the gov\u00adernment believes that a good starting point is to curb corruption, eliminate wastages, stop rent seekers on their tracks and stimu\u00adlate investment in the real sector, adding that for every policy, new opportunities emerge.
\n\u2018\u2018Where there are opportunities, there are banks. Every entrepreneur needs money to actualise his vision. This is what banks provide. Banks on their own are innovating and expanding their scope of businesses.
\nThey are recruiting new staff to help them actualise their new goals while at the same time letting off others whose services are no longer required due to realignment of their business operations.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.sunnewsonline.ng\/<\/p>\n

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AGNES Esosa works in the mar\u00adketing unit of a popular commer\u00adcial bank and was given a N500m target in 2015. Coincidentally, that was the same year she was to wed, so she was caught in a web of con\u00adfusion as she ran around for two important projects. One of the projects was the struggle to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8286,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[371],"class_list":["post-8285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-central-bank-of-nigeria"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/CBN.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-29D","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8285"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8288,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8285\/revisions\/8288"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}