Victor EzejaCivil rights advocacy group, the Human Rights Writers Association Of Nigeria (HURIWA) has kicked against plans by the new Central Bank of Nigeria governor, Mr. Olayemi Cardoso, to relocate some CBN departments to Lagos.
The Rights group alleged that the decision is politically motivated and is reminiscent of the petty politics that are known to occur in some states of the Federation, where newly elected governors quickly relocate state universities to their local government areas of nativity.
This was made known in a statement signed by HURIWA National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko.
HURIWA stated that it is illogical to use the CBN’s attempt to decongest its Abuja headquarters as justification for moving departments of the organization to Lagos. This is because the overcrowding of the entire state of Lagos served as the primary impetus for the original establishment of the Federal capital territory of Abuja, which is legally recognized as Nigeria’s federal capital and seat of government.
According to the Rights group, the new CBN head’s decision amounts to disregard of section 298 of the Federal Republic of Nigeria of 1999 (as amended) constitution, which declares that Abuja, the federal capital territory, SHALL be the capital and seat of government of the Federation.
HURIWA contended that the CBN’s legal functions were prescribed by the enabling Act that established the institution, including that of the official banker of the Federation’s government.
“This clearly implies that the CBN must have its headquarters wherever the government’s seat is located by law, which is currently the federal capital territory of Abuja.”
It added that the CBN is tasked with issuing legal tender money in Nigeria, keeping external reserves to protect the currency’s value abroad, fostering a stable financial sector in the country, serving as a banker, and advising the federal government on matters of economic and financial matters.
It stated that it is false to claim that certain departments need to have their headquarters in Lagos for what it called a “baseless” reason that the majority of banks have their headquarters in Lagos, as though the CBN is expected to be obedient to or follow the commercial banks’ operating schedules.
The group accused Olayemi Cardoso of carrying out an ethnic agenda by trying to relocate key CBN departments to his home state which is Lagos.
The organization wondered whether Mr Cardoso would still have additional departments to relocate to Lagos as is being considered if Mr. Godwin Emefiele, the former CBN governor for nearly ten years, had moved certain agencies to Asaba, the capital of Delta State, his home state.
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HURIWA implored the CBN CEO to end this politically poisonous scheme because it would set a very risky precedent that would allow a person born in Kano State to become governor of the CBN in the future and transfer some CBN departments to Kano.
“We think Mr. Cardoso, the Lagos man may be seeing his designation as governor just like that of elected political office of a governor which is why he is trying to experiment with the unethical practice of some governors in some states who upon getting inaugurated, decide in a thoughtless and whimsical manner to relocate long established state owned universities from where they were originally located to their own side of the state as if to say the state is their personal property.
“The decision or plot to relocate departments of CBN to Lagos is politically motivated and must never be allowed to happen or else we will wake up one morning to hear that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has moved the state house back to Lagos which by law stopped being the Federal capital territory the moment Abuja became the FCT by the General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida military regime in the early 1990s.”
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HURIWA also criticized the plan to move the departments to Lagos, pointing out that although bank headquarters are located in Lagos, commercial banks should have been asked to establish their corporate or administrative offices in Abuja, as Abuja is legally the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria.
According to the Rights organization, Nigeria is regressing as a result of the CBN’s new hierarchy and its plans to relocate bank departments to Lagos. If the newly appointed head of CBN claims that the Abuja headquarters is crowded, this implies that a variety of people were hired just as a result of political mandate and were not required to contribute anything to the organization’s operations.
The Rights group said the new hierarchy of the CBN by planning to move departments of the bank to Lagos is dragging the hand of the clock backwards in Nigeria. If the CBN’s new head argues that the Abuja headquarters is congested, it therefore means that all kinds of persons not needed to contribute anything to the running of CBN when in the first place they were simply employed because politicians imposed them on the CBN just as the Rights group argues that the CBN building in Lagos is obviously too tiny to accommodate those staff who might be taken to an over congested Lagos state.
“This ethnic agenda by the Lagos-born CBN Governor must be aborted and the CBN is a banking regulator of all of Nigeria and not for banks domiciled in Lagos only.
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with six years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Masters degree in Mass Communication.
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