Movement of Central Bank units to Lagos
THE internal memo at the Central Bank intimating the staff of management’s plan to move certain departments to its other facilities in Abuja, Lagos and under staffed branches in the country has generated so much negative vibes. The reason given is that the Central Bank offices in the headquarters are congested. The carrying capacity of the building is 2,700 workers, but the current staff load is 4, 223. The management, therefore, has expressed health and safety concerns, especially in view of warnings by the organisation’s facility manager about the danger of the bank exceeding capacity limit to such a level.
The findings of a committee purposely set up to look into the issue confirmed the fears of the facility manager who, I want to believe, must be a structural engineer who must know his onions. The management then decided to implement the recommendations of the committee. It is not as if Yemi Cardoso just woke up from a bad dream and out of a brain wave he decided to move some units to other branches to decongest the head offices building in Abuja. For the opposition to garner maximum effect, the memo is being twisted to concentrate attention on only movement to Lagos.
The memo mentions other facility in Abuja as well as “under- staffed branches.” It is amazing to see far- sighted safety and good health measures are being embroiled in ethnic jingoism and war drums being beaten. Listen to Senate Chief Whip, Ali Ndume, in an interview with Channels Television: “… they do not know how Nigeria works and will not be able to help the President when the repercussions come.” He was referring to those he derisively called “Lagos Boys.” He went on to tell Politics Editor of Channels, Seun Okinbaloye: “Some of them think that they know better than everybody. But they don’t know anything. When you don’t know Nigeria, you only know Lagos, then you start doing things as if Nigeria is Lagos. Lagos is in Nigeria.
“Why was the headquarters moved from Lagos to Abuja? Was it not because of the congestion there? I don’t even see any issues of congestion… Don’t try to bring tribalism into it…” He said it was not Lagos votes that made Tinubu to be President. Those misleading the President are not doing him any good because this is going to have some political consequences. If Tinubu was not elected president, the CBN governor would not be there. It was not Lagos votes that put Tinubu there.”
“That’s a wrong decision. We will not accept it. Besides, you know they are not doing any favour to Mr. President because this will have political consequences. Yes, I’m telling you this. And these guys who are just sitting down there trying to hang on to Mr. President will not be there to amend the political mistakes or even to correct it because they don’t know anybody. They only know their offices. And they only know that they have brains.”
The Human Resources Department had stated in the memo as follows: “The action is necessitated by several factors to ensure compliance with safety building standards and hence the efficient utilisation of our office space. Our current occupancy level of 4, 223 significantly exceeds the optimal capacity of 2, 700 designed for the Head Office building. This overcrowding poses several critical challenges.”
Professor Kingsley Moghalu, a former deputy governor of the Central Bank wading into the issue cannot understand what the storm is all about. He said there is no reason for the disquiet whatsoever. From his interjection, it can be seen that the issue of the relocation must have predated Tinubu Administration. I have the feeling that the possibility of decongesting the Abuja Headquarters was mulled when he was in the Central Bank although he did not quite clearly state that. He said in his tweet that the Lagos office was inaugurated 12 years ago during his tenure as deputy governor, but the facility has been under utilised. He believes that the relocation addresses the overstaffing challenges at Abuja Headquarters where the staff count exceeds the recommended health and safety limits. He believes, indeed argues that the decision is logical because the departments to be moved oversee market entities based in Lagos. In his words: “I don’t see any serious basis for such disquiet… Moreover, the market entities supervised by the departments that will move to Lagos are mostly in Lagos. So, what’s the problem? Seems a rational decision to me.”
Moghalu has a ready support from Mohammed A Yakasai, a retired director of the Central Bank. He said: With the massive political employments in CBN, the Head Office is over populated. Majority of those young men and women prefer to work only in Abuja and the Head Office, and so it was. I am of the view that what the current management is doing is corrective and should be supported. The thought has since been that most of the important banks Headquarters are in Lagos. Those departments that are supervisory in nature should relocate for effectiveness and cost minimisation.”
He continued: “Those young boys that were untouchable because of their political lineage are beginning to see the rule of law re- emerging. It is not their prerogative to determine where they should work. After all, everyone
signed a declaration that the bank can post you anywhere. We are beginning to see the restoration of discipline in the system. The act of the new management should not be politicised.”
In a climate of building collapse here and there in the country should the Abuja Head Offices give way, with heavy casualties, how are the authorities going to explain it? There were warnings; a competent committee was set up which recommended decongestion of the place. A building with a carrying capacity of 2,700 is populated by 4, 223. The load is in excess of 1,523.
Surprisingly Ali Ndume and his ilk, going by his emotional outburst, cannot see a sense of responsibility in taking pro- active steps to avert a serious disaster waiting to happen! Senator Ndume asks why the relocation is not to Nasarawa, Kogi or Kaduna. We do not know yet because the circular says the redistribution of some of the staff would go to understaffed branches. Kaduna may well receive some of them as it already has a branch there. It is also so easy to see that movement to places where there is absence of branches would entail finding suitable property and having to pay rent whereas the property in Lagos belongs to the CBN. This means extra costs. The fear that officials of the bank would have to be travelling up and down between Lagos and to Abuja with the attendant risks should be allayed by the promise of technological wonders of these times. In this day and age such travels can be reduced to the barest minimum. The units can work effectively from anywhere.
The Central Bank Governor, Yemi Cardoso and his four deputies are firmly in Abuja. The headquarters remain in Abuja. The policy making team in the bank are in Abuja. What does Abuja lose with relieving Abuja of its overload? The Presidency has also made it plain that Tinubu is not relocating the Federal Capital to Lagos.
Ndume spoke with nauseating arrogance: “I am not a Hausa man; I am not a Fulani man. I am a Northerner, I am first a Nigerian.” That he is a Nigerian sounds like an afterthought. What he appears to be saying is that he is a Northerner. Is he thereby suggesting that Abuja belongs to only Northerners? Why are we making a mountain out of a molehill? When are we going to grow up in this country? Everything ought not to be seen from ethnic prism especially from principal officers of the state. Of course how we see things are governed by the level of inner maturity of each person. For this reason perception and cognizance must differ from individuals to individuals.
Why can’t we learn from what obtains in other places? South Africa, a sister African country, has something to teach us in this respect. The Executive arm of government— the President and his Ministers are in Pretoria, the capital city, but the Legislative arm, the Parliament is in Cape Town while Judiciary, the Supreme Court is in Bloemfontein. The Constitutional Court is in fact at Johannesburg.
Senator Ndume also spoke about NNPC. Yes, what is wrong in relocating its head offices to Port Harcourt? That is the heartland of oil production. Being in Port Harcourt will make for close monitoring and efficiency. It will enable the company to attend promptly to oil theft and curb it; also to oil spill and have greater understanding of empathy for environmental degradation in the Zone— Warri, Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Cross River and Imo axis.
General Murtala Mohammed, Dr. Tai Solarin and Justice Akinola Aguda must be feeling exceedingly ill at ease wherever they may all be on the several planes of the Beyond, seeing the twist that being made of the vision that led to building a fresh capital city to which all parts of the country can lay claim. Dr. Solarin wrote articles pressing for a new capital city, citing as an example Brazil moving her capital from Rio de Janeiro to Brasilia as a purpose- built and centrally located city in the 1950s. That was of a particular attraction to him. He also mentioned Russia which moved her capital from St. Petersburg to Moscow in 1918. Tai Solarin said Lagos was too congested for continuing meaningful development and for fresh air. General Mohammed was persuaded by Dr. Solarin’s arguments. Upon driving his tanks into Dodan Barracks to dislodge General Gowon on 29 July 1975, the founding of a new capital city was given life on his mind. It became uppermost in his thinking. He raised a committee headed by Justice Akinola Aguda. Of course, Tai Solarin was on the committee so he could realise his dream. The members went round the country and eventually settled for Abuja which was considered centrally placed. Head of State, General Mohammed made the announcement of the Federal Capital moving from Lagos to Abuja before his assassination on 13 February, 1976.
Upon General Obasanjo coming to the saddle in succession to him, Bolaji Ajose- Adeogun was made the first minister, empowered by Decree 6 of 1976 to see to the planning and development of the new Federal Capital. The development went apace when Shehu Shagari became President. It was Babangida who intensified efforts and gave the development such necessary push with General Nasko as minister that made proper movement possible from Lagos to Abuja in 1991.
President Bola Tinubu has said he has no plan to relocate the Federal Capital from Abuja to Lagos. The Lagos city fathers themselves have for some time been complaining that Lagos is too congested. That should settle the wild and unfounded speculations.
State police is the answer
AThe reason given is that the Central Bank offices in the headquarters are congested. The carrying capacity of the building is 2,700 workers, but the current staff load is 4, 223. The management, therefore, has expressed health and safety concerns, especially in view of warnings by the organisation’s facility manager about the danger of the bank exceeding capacity limit to such a level
S I was saying last week… Former Senate President, General David Mark, concerned about the mindless killings, banditry and spate of kidnapping, said it is as if most Nigerians have lost their humanity.
He spoke in the wake of the murderous attacks on Plateau. During the week, according to reports, bandits dressed in military uniforms kidnapped 31 persons Tashar Nagule in Batsari Local Government Area of Katsina State. Before this incident, three students of Al- Qalam University, Katsina State were seized and whisked away by heavily armed gunmen.
Some 10 days ago, bandits killed nine persons and burnt five vehicles at Kukar Babangida village, also in Katsina State. That state is one of the worst besieged by kidnappers in the worsening state of insecurity sweeping through the Middle Belt, that is, the North Central states and Nigeria in general.
In December last year, five abducted students of Federal University, Dutsin Ma, in Katsina State were set free after being in captivity for 74 days. Ekiti State had a bitter taste of the insecurity at a portion where a road is being reconstructed from Iju and vehicle necessarily have to slow down. Reports state about four persons were kidnapped.
The governor of Plateau State has declared a state of emergency in parts of the state following restiveness and reports of continuing security concerns after more than 200 people were killed in a night attack in the axis on Christmas Eve.
As I did ask former President Muhammadu Buhari in 2018, and posed the same question to President Bola Tinubu his successor last week: How many more of our people are we waiting to see killed before doing the right thing? Till a senior government functionary, a governor, a federal law maker or a minister falls a victim? Already the criminals have attacked military and police formations, one of the security organisation’s headquarter— the most fearsome violence – unleashing weapons of state power.
We may wish to borrow a leaf from some other countries of the world. Take Belgium as an example where there are two main forces: The Police Communale and Gendarmerie Nationale. Police Communale is made up of 589 Municipal Police Forces, each independently funded by the local town mayor to whom it is accountable, and with powers to operate only within their particular municipal territory.
Gendarmerie Nationale operates at what we may call a “supra level” covering the entire country with special responsibility for traffic on national roads, drugs, terrorism and organised crime. In Belgium there are also smaller, specialised forces— judicial police, maritime police, airport and railway police forces. In Holland, there are 148 such municipal forces.
I say that it is delusional to think it is only training, equipment and motivation our security forces need as at present constituted— very key as these are. As Ali Ndume rightly stated, our men in uniform are very poorly paid and looked after, calling for an urgent rectification. No doubt about that. This column is talking about structure which a country of Nigeria’s size requires to stem bothersome criminality in the land.
Denmark and Norway have police forces which, although are decentralised, but are autonomous because the Districts are independent.
( To be concluded next week).