𝐅𝐀𝐂𝐓: CBN BANKING SUPERVISORY DEPARTMENT RELOCATION TO LAGOS

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𝐅𝐀𝐂𝐓: CBN BANKING SUPERVISORY DEPARTMENT RELOCATION TO LAGOS by Mohammed A. YAKASAI, a Retired Director of the CBN.

To be honest this is not their initiative. It was the blue print since Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

Abuja Head Quarters cannot accommodate everything. The thought was since most of the systemically important banks Head Quarters are in Lagos, those departments that are supervisory in nature should relocate for effectiveness and cost minimization. That was why SLS demolished the old head office building in Lagos and rebuilt a modern building to accommodate the vision.
However, in subsequent years after he left two things happened:

1) The Directors at that time didn't want to relocate bcos of the rigours of Lagos and the convenience of Abuja;

2) with the massive political employments in CBN , the Head Office was 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.
Those young boys that were untouchable bcos of their political lineage and 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 at its own discretion.
We are beginning to see the restoration of discipline in the system.
The act of the new Management should not be politicised.

  Washington District of Colombus is the capital of the United States of America.
New York is her commercial and financial capital.

Beijing is the capital of China.
Shanghai is the commercial and financial capital.

New Delhi is the capital of India.
Mumbai is the commercial capital of India and has evolved into a global financial hub. For several decades it has been the home of India's main financial services companies.

Berlin is the political and administrative capital of Germany.
Frankfurt is the largest financial hub in continental Europe, not only Germany. It is home to the European Central Bank, Deutsche Bundesbank, Frankfurt Stock Exchange and several large commercial banks.

Ottawa is the capital of Canada.
Toronto is the business and financial capital of Canada.

Pretoria is the capital of South Africa.
Johannesburg is her business, commercial and financial capital.

Yamoussoukro is the capital of Cote D'Voire.
Abidjan is her commercial capital.

Abuja is the capital of Nigeria.
Lagos is the commercial, business and financial capital of Nigeria.

We must know before we speak. If we don't know before we speak, we will speak out of ignorance and mislead the people.

 Access Bank Plc
Citibank Nigeria Limited
Ecobank Nigeria Plc
Fidelity Bank Plc
First Bank of Nigeria Plc
First City Monument Bank Plc
Globus Bank Limited
Guaranty Trust Bank Plc
Heritage Banking Company Ltd.
Key Stone Bank
Polaris Bank
Providus Bank
Stanbic IBTC Bank Ltd.
Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria Ltd.
Sterling Bank Plc
SunTrust Bank Nigeria Limited
Titan Trust Bank Ltd
Union Bank of Nigeria Plc
United Bank For Africa Plc
Unity Bank Plc
Wema Bank Plc
Zenith Bank Plc

Above are the 23 commercial banks in Nigeria. All of them including Unity Bank PLC are headquartered in Lagos. That is the commercial capital of the country. Let us not bring ethnicity into everything. It is wrong. Sen Ali Ndume was not only irresponsible in his submission but also very reckless and divisive. A ranking Senator of Nigeria should speak more responsibly. You don't just try to trigger ethnic ember due to your thoughtless talk because you want to appear like a champion of a region. It is not right.

#SWA

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Why can't CBN, and FAAN relocate offices to Lagos?
By Taiwo Adisa

What is close to hell has been let loose since the announcements by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) that they would be relocating some offices to Lagos, the commercial capital of Nigeria.

The CBN announced on January 14 that it would be moving some departments to Lagos, while FAAN made public its decision on January 18. Both offices based their decisions on operational reasons, with the Federal Government coming to further explain days after through the Special Adviser Information and Strategy, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, that the decision had nothing to do with the suspicion that the Federal Capital Territory was being tactically moved to Abuja.

Senator Ali Ndume, Senate Chief Whip, who had earlier served as Senate Majority Leader for part of the 8th Senate, emerged the agent provocateur when he granted an interview to Channels Television, where he threatened "political consequences" for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu if he sticks to that decision.

The vehemence of Ndume's submission should not come to many as a surprise. He has always been known as controversial. He was a good friend of Senator Bukola Saraki, who supported the latter's bid for the Senate Presidency in 2015. That was against the trend of opinion in his party, the All Progressives Congress(APC). Not long after, he fell out with Saraki and was eventually replaced by Senator Ahmed Lawan, who later emerged as the Senate President of the 9th National Assembly.

Again, in the build-up to the election of Senate presiding officers of the 10th Assembly last June, Ndume was a key campaign manager of Senator Godswill Akpabio, the party's preferred candidate for the top job. He shared the limelight with Akpabio when he emerged as the Senate President and was accordingly named the Senate Chief Whip of the red chamber.

Not long after, he fell out with Akpabio and was almost suspended by the Senate when he had an open altercation with the Senate President in the chamber. Senate sources on the day had said that Ndume missed suspension by a fine thread and that some experienced lawmakers saved the day for him.

Ndume also openly supported President Tinubu in the build-up to the 2023 elections, and now that he had cause to fall out with the President, he has done so in line with his usual character.

While the position of Ndume may not have come as a surprise to many, the vehemence of his threat and the politicisation of an operational issue that affects FAAN and CBN  by mainly forces from the North should worry many Nigerians.

Looking at the results of the election that brought President Tinubu to office, many analysts would think that Nigeria was able to overcome some electoral stereotypes and that a united country might be emerging after all. That Tinubu, a South Westerner was able to win elections in the North West ahead of a Northerner (Atiku Abubakar) was a big win for the country's unity. Though it had happened to former President Olusegun Obasanjo at the start of this Republic, he was seen as a "Northern candidate" at the time. The victory of an indigenous South Western politician (so to say), against a candidate from the North was therefore seen as an improvement on the geo-location voting patterns of the past.

But the way Ndume, the Northern Senators' Forum,  Arewa Consultative Forum, and Katsina Elders Forum, among others, have taken the development makes it look as if a full-scale war had erupted between the Northern and the Southern flanks of Nigeria.

I do not see any reason for bad blood being generated against the government of President Tinubu on account of the administrative decisions. First, FAAN headquarters was in Lagos and was only moved to Abuja during the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari for no justifiable reason. 

What can justify the relocation of the headquarters of FAAN to Abuja would be an empirical shift in the aviation hubs of the nation. As far as Lagos remains the hub of the aviation business, there is no justification for anyone to relocate FAAN headquarters to Abuja.

The mentality that Abuja being the federal capital of Nigeria must house every institution of government is a misnomer. It is not economically viable thinking and I can't picture which part of the world that thinking came from.

Plenty of nations of the world are replete with two or more capitals. In the case of Nigeria, there is Abuja as the political capital, and Lagos as the commercial capital. Even the blind can see that Lagos is the economic capital of Nigeria.

Already, many have questioned the decision to centralise the seat of government even Abuja. If the entire FCT is supposed to be the capital of Nigeria, does it make sense to have a federal secretariat instead of locating offices of the MDAs in different parts of the territory?

So what should stop the operation of some offices of the CBN and the headquarters of FAAN in the nation's commercial capital, especially when it would not cost the nation any fresh funds to build offices?  I really can't understand the logic of the Northern Elders, the Northern Senators, and other such commentators. We can excuse the position of the Katsina Elders as borne out of parochial thinking that the decision of their kinsman-former Minister, should be left unchanged, but that's an obvious foul on national interest.

As I interrogated the matter, I was told that there is more than meet the eye on the issue. It was gathered that some Northern interests have "packed" their candidates into the CBN and FAAN under the guise of some shady employment schemes in recent years.

At least one Senator was said to have submitted more than ten names for employment into the CBN during one of those schemes. Now those secretly employed, many of whom have not shown any competence, with many of them parading questionable certificates from Benin Republic, Togo, and other African universities are going to face real tests when they relocate to Lagos.

One must, however, thank the former Governor of CBN, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, for rising above petty sentiments when he said last week that he supports the relocation of some CBN offices for operational reasons.

Sanusi said that the move makes sense, adding: "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."

Let anyone advocating against it come up with positions devoid of ethnic sentiments and political colorations. Because it is a decision that is sound in economic sense, ethnicity and politics should not come near. 

Ends.

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Former CBN Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi has supported the relocation of some departments of the apex bank from Abuja to Lagos.

He said it was right thing to do, dismissing those against the relocation as playing dirty politics.

There have been criticisms in some quarters since the CBN announced the relocation of some departments and units to Lagos.

Some northern politicians kicked against the move, warning it would have political consequences.

But Sanusi, who was 14th Emir of Kano, in a statement said the relocation is an "eminently sensible move".

According to him: "Moving certain functions to the Lagos office ( which is bigger than the Abuja head office) is an eminently sensible move."

He said he had it in mind to do the same thing while in office but didn't have sufficient time to see it through.

"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."

He dismissed the opposition against the policy as "absolutely unnecessary" because "The CBN has staff manning its branches and cash offices across the Federation."

Sanusi added: "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 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

"The question of locating functions is a STRATEGIC and not tactical one. A proper analysis should be done to identify which roles are best suited to Lagos and which to Abuja.  Once the logic is clear the people then follow. Non communication of strategic intent opens the door to mischievous misrepresentation and arbitrariness.

"I don't like the idea of arguing that the office structure cannot handle the staff numbers. I am sure Julius Berger would refute that if they wanted to engage."

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