CBN and Relocation Plans: Much Ado About Nothing, by Abdulrahman Abdulraheem

 

While it is human nature to sometimes quarrel, bicker, shout or hit the roof over what one may have been deceived to think it is worth it but which in reality is just a storm in a tea cup, it was Williams Shakespeare’s 17th Century comedy, “Much Ado About Nothing,” that set the literary tone for the phrase which has now been used repeatedly over the centuries.

The play revolves round love (or the lack of it), romance, pranks, deception and confusion among the love pairings who didn’t know that they were merely being played. The key characters believed in mere banters, trickery, gossip and rumours, and mistook falsehood for fact in the heat of emotions. While folks gathered to test their wit, the lovebirds fell for hocus pocus and reacted passionately to nothing, causing all the action, drama and intrigues that took place in the interesting drama.

While Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing” is set in Messina in ancient Italy, the current imbroglio about a simple administrative procedure is set in the 21st century Nigeria. While the characters in the former include Claudio, Hero, Don John, Benedick, Beatrice and others, the dramatis personae in the latter are President Bola Tinubu, CBN governor, Yemi Cardoso, and one of his predecessors, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, on one hand, and some lawmakers, northern elders, northern youths and Katsina elders on the other hand.

It all started when the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) made known its plan to relocate some offices and departments from Abuja for the purpose of decongestion and operational efficiency. While it started like a rumour, Economic Confidential reached out to credible sources in the apex bank who gave a cogent explanation that should convince all and sundry if only we have learnt to see each other as one in this country.

“What is happening now at the CBN is likened to a company with over 500 staff and say 200 used to go to work in other states and return to the head office. It is not out of place for the company to relocate them fully to that state to work and increase their safety and productivity,” the source said.

Five CBN departments are to be relocated, including Banking Supervision, Other Financial Institutions Supervision, Consumer Protection, Payment System Management, and Financial Policy and Regulation.

”Most of the bank’s headquarters are in Lagos. The CBN usually sends staff from Abuja to work in Lagos for like one to two months and return to the head office.

“Being on the road all the time is not safe for them and not also cost-efficient for the Bank. We know that anybody leaving their comfort zone would feel the pain, that is why some of the affected workers are complaining but I can assure you that, it is for their good.

“Abuja office is designed to carry less than 3,000 staff but we are over 4,000 already. The facility managers have already warned of the implication; the security of staff is also at stake with the increased number because it overwhelms the managers,” the official stated.

Excerpts from the memo obtained by Economic Confidential read in part: “This is to notify all staff members at the CBN Head Office that we have initiated a decongestion action plan designed to optimise the operational environment of the bank.

“This initiative aims to ensure compliance with building safety standards and enhance the efficient utilisation of our office space.

“This action is necessitated by several factors, including the need to align the Bank’s structure with its functions and objectives, redistribute skills to ensure a more even geographical spread of talent and comply with building regulations, as indicated by repeated warnings from the Facility Manager, and the findings and recommendations of the Committee on Decongestion of the CBN Head Office.

“The action plan focuses on optimising the utilisation of other Bank’s premises. With this plan, 1,533 staff will be moved to other CBN facilities within Abuja, Lagos and understaffed branches.

“Our current occupancy level of 4,233 significantly exceeds the optimal capacity of 2,700 designed for the Head Office building. This overcrowding poses several critical challenges.”

In any sane setting, one would think the above detailed explanation would be enough to prevent any suspicion and tension but not in Nigeria where people who carry smart phones around are anything but smart. While people are free to disagree in a democracy, but in a knowledge-driving era, none of the dissenting voices has even taken the pain to do an investigation or conduct a fact-check to put a lie to any of the facts and figures provided by the CBN above. This is because if the CBN has ulterior motives behind it’s relocation plans, there is no way it won’t dress its claims with lies and half-truths.

It is disappointing that instead of disagreeing with facts, figures and/or making your points with persuasion and diplomacy, people are threatening fire and brimstone, blackmailing and issuing threats about 2027 when only God knows who will wake up tomorrow. Some have even gone ahead to make divisive and slanderous statements that are capable of threatening the peace and unity of the country.

To underscore how deeply some people are sunk into the bottomless pit of unbridled ignorance, they even said the President and the CBN governor have a southwest agenda to relocate the federal capital to Lagos and/or move some crucial assets from Abuja to Lagos as part of measures to underdevelop the North and develop the South, specifically Southwest.

The above ridiculous claims fly in the face of every logic and common sense in the textbook. One, no President can contemplate relocating the federal capital to Lagos or elsewhere because Abuja’s status is constitutional which means the Constitution has to be amended first. Why would anyone want to do that? Why would anyone want to fix what is not broken? The status of Abuja as federal capital has not stopped any Yoruba or Ijaw man from becoming the President and aspiring to any political height at the federal level. And secondly on the accusation of seeking to confer economic advantage on the Southwest and punish the north, did the relocation of the federal capital from Lagos to Abuja in the early 90s confer any economic advantage on the north and impose economic disadvantage on the southwest? Was that the intention behind it? We all believe that couldn’t have been the intention but let us assume without conceding that it was, has it worked that way? Is the North now more economically viable than the South because the federal capital is in Abuja? Shouldn’t we see both Lagos and Abuja as ours and the pride of our dear nation? Why must we resort to petty North-Versus-South squabbles at the slightest opportunity?

Sanusi’s Perspective

In the midst of the emptiness in the cacophony of dissenting voices, HRH Sanusi Lamido Sanusi’s intervention came as a needed soothing balm. In his timely intervention, it was not difficult to see that the man spoke from the depth of his knowledge of the issues, sincerity and patriotism.

He did not only say it was the right thing to do, he also dismissed those against the relocation as playing dirty politics.

The 14th Emir of Kano, in a statement on Thursday, said the relocation is an “eminently sensible move.”

Confessing that he had it in mind to do the same thing while in office but didn’t have sufficient time to see it through, he said: “Moving certain functions to the Lagos office (which is bigger than the Abuja head office) is an eminently sensible move.”

“In my mind, what I would have done was to move FSS and most of operations to Lagos such that the two Deputy Governors would be largely operating out of Lagos or, even if they were more in Abuja, the bulk of their operational staff would be in Lagos.

“Economic Policy, Corporate Services and all the departments reporting to the Governor directly such as Strategy, Audit, Risk management, Governors’ office etc would remain in Abuja.

“It makes eminent strategic sense. And I would have done this if I had stayed,” the former CBN helmsman said.

Describing the opposition to the move as “absolutely unnecessary,” he continued: “The CBN has staff manning its branches and cash offices across the Federation.”

“Moving staff to the Lagos office to streamline operations and make them more effective and reduce cost is a normal prerogative of management.

“The problem we have now is that many employees are children of politically exposed persons and their Abuja life and businesses are more important to them than the CBN work.

“The CBN is just an address for them and if they have to choose between their spoilt Abuja life and the job, they would gladly leave the CBN.

“All the more reason for the Governor to put his foot down and get rid of those elements they are dangerous for the Bank’s future.

On how the relocation of staff should be done, he suggested: “Individual situations should be considered. As much as possible we should be empathetic. For example young mothers with kids in school who do not need to move can be prioritised to stay in Abuja or those with medical conditions etc.”

He advised the CBN not to bend to political pressure, saying it must push through decisions no matter how tough.

According to him: “My advice to the Governor is to go ahead with his policy. Once the CBN starts bending to political pressure on one thing it will continue doing so.

“Northern politicians will shout that this is moving from Abuja to Lagos. Abuja is a federal capital not a northern issue. So long as this is a principled decision, the noise should be ignored.

“Ethnic and religious bigots will always shout. The CBN should rise above it and just do what needs to be done. It is a very unpopular and difficult job and the Governor needs to be tough.”

Last Line

Time has come for us to come out of this We-Versus-Them or North-Versus-South bickering if we must make progress in this country. If not for idleness or mischief, why should anyone be fighting because one government agency wants to shed weight at the headquarters and move some of its personnel and departments to other parts of the country?

President Tinubu won a national mandate and he is the single most important beneficiary of the unity of this country at the moment. A President Tinubu who lost in Lagos and Osun states but won in Borno, Zamfara, Jigawa, Niger and Kogi states knows better than all the people making trouble on this matter.

But now, election is over and governance has to take centre stage. If the CBN governor says he wants to relocate some departments to Lagos to reform the apex bank, the President should not lift a finger to stop him. He should listen to Sanusi above who said political interference is the main reason CBN has underperformed over the years.

Abdulrahman Abdulraheem is the author of “eNaira Revolution: A Peep into Nigeria’s Cashless Future.”