Now that the cooked bank books have been wrung out to dry...

Out of a total of twenty-four big banks in Nigeria, nine were rotten in both top management and total debt exposure.

Great! They have been bailed out with a fresh injection of billions in Naira - over 400 billion for the first batch of five last month and over 200 billion for the second batch of four this month.

My curiosity had been piqued by the hurried broadcast of the names of the first batch of almost-failed banks and the subsequent announcement of the dividend pay out at the annual general meeting of the central bank governor's former bank on the same day - and the ensuing talk of the FBN being capable of buying any other bank it so pleases.

It all sounded so self-serving then. After all, how can a bank with existing shareholders be sold one hundred per cent to a so-called core investor by a regulatory which injected only about ten per cent of fresh funds as new capital?

Anyway, I was lucky not to have invested in any of the banks on the brink of failing. now is the time to look elsewhere in the corporate world in Nigeria.

I am primarily worried about the telecommunications companies. Most of them presently earn their money outside the ambit of providing cellphone or fixed wireless communication services.

I really would like to know how much is contributed to their bottom line by core communication services and how much they actually earn from dabbling into sundry entertainment, myriad lottery schemes, and quirky social responsibility projects.

I would bet that these companies make a heck of a lot more from their extra-curricular businesses than from their core business line.