At least eight directors at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) would be served early retirement letters from the apex bank this week.
These directors, some of whom were initially redeployed to an arm of the bank, FSS 2020 under the Governor’s Directorate, whose office is located in the Maitama District of Abuja since 24th November 2023, and kept in a sort of pool to await “further directives”, are being asked to exit the CBN.
Sources within the bank indicate that some had already been served the disengagement letters since Friday, 15th March, 2024, but could not state clearly under what terms were those affected disengaged. “We don’t know whether they were given early retirement or their appointments were terminated outright”, said one source.
Also, sources could not confirm if those being served early retirement letters have been found guilty of any offences. The main reason for the sack of the affected officials, according to most of the sources, was “because they had worked very closely with the immediate past governor of the bank, Mr. Godwin Emefiele”.
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The news of the impending sack has been widespread since Thursday last week. The decision, which is still being treated with confidentiality has raised great concern amongst staff of the CBN, who fear that it could be a prelude to more layoffs by the current management of the banking regulator.
Before this development, the apex bank had relocated no fewer than 150 staff of the Banking Supervision Department (BSD), which is one of the 29 departments of the bank to Lagos. The BSD is under the Financial System Stability Directorate of the CBN.
The relocation saga, it would be recalled, had generated heated controversy across the country, with many people of northern extraction alleging that it was an attempt to dislodge staff who are northerners from the institution.
But the CBN rebuffed those insinuations, insisting that it was part of a proper reorganisation of the bank, to ensure that the regular onsite examination of the 24 banks in the country were diligently carried out, since most of those national and regional banks are headquartered in Lagos. It also adduced as part of the reason for the relocation, the desire to de-congest the corporate headquarters of the bank.
It was widely alleged that many politicians had abused their privileges during the Buhari Administration to secure appointments for their children and relations in the CBN, resulting in redundancies, with many staff loitering in the headquarters of the bank since they had neither office accommodation nor chairs and desks on which to work.
Meanwhile it was gathered from different sources over the weekend that some of the directors affected in the latest action of the current management of the CBN have threatened to challenge the decision, while others have said they will accept the sack as the CBN has become a ‘poisonous working environment.’
One of the affected directors who pleaded anonymity said: “We thank God for the time we spent, and the impact that we have made. I will not challenge it. Once my letter is handed to me tomorrow (today) I will gladly take a walk. Life goes on.”
Also, there are insinuations that the CBN governor is considering outsiders to replace some of the sacked directors, and one of the persons allegedly penciled down to take over as Director of Security is retired Assistant Inspector General (AIG) Hakeem Odumosu, who was one time commissioner of police in Lagos State.
Some of the staff who spoke accused the current leadership of the CBN of harbouring “a vindictive mindset” to punish all personnel that were quite close to Emefiele, while he held sway as chief executive of the bank.
