Relocation Of CBN, FAAN: Matters Arising
On Thursday, February 18, 2024, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) released a press statement confirming the relocation of its cooperate headquarters back to Lagos. Reasons adduced for the relocation include the unavailability of office space to accommodate it’s workforce here in Abuja amongst others.
Although this raises lots of questions, chief of which is, how the former minister of aviation, Hadi Sirika will mandate FAAN to relocate to Abuja without providing them an office. This is even more so if one remembers the drama that played out between Hadi Sirika and staff of FAAN, before they eventually relocated albeit at the back of an ultimatum from the erstwhile minister.
FAAN’s press release indicated that many of its staff who were compelled by Hadi Sirika’s directive to move to Abuja have since returned to Lagos, compelling the agency to pay them Duty Tour Allowance for working out of station. It will be interesting to know at what point these staff moved back to Lagos, the purpose for the move and on whose directive? Surely, the staff could not have taken themselves back to Lagos without express permission as doing so would have been flagged as insubordination, a grievous crime in the civil service. Since the civil service does not reward indiscipline, it will be hard for accept Festus Keyamo’s claims of paying DTA to staff who granted themselves approval to return to Lagos.
Answers to some of the questions raised above will deliver more value to the conversation than all the other reasons advanced for the relocation combined. Whereas we acknowledge the right of the minister to move the cooperate headquarters of the agency back to Lagos, the same powers wielded by his predecessor to move it back to Abuja, we believe that shrouding the entire exercise in secrecy from the off or exaggerating the reasons for the relocation was responsible for the current hoopla on the issue. Secrets breed distrust which is exactly what the country does not need right now.
On the issue of the relocation of some departments and units of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN to Lagos, we believe that based on the reasons advanced by the apex bank for the exercise, the move may not be a bad one. However, like erstwhile Governor of the CBN and emir of Kano, HRH Sanusi Lamido Sanusi commented, the bank’s leadership ought to have prioritised facts rather than deflection and half truths.
In the words Sanusi Lamido Sanusi “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”
The erstwhile governor concluded by insisting that although he supports the apex bank’s decision to move some of its department and units to Lagos, he doesn’t “like the idea of arguing that the office structure can not handle the staff numbers. I am sure Julius Berger would refute that if they wanted to engage.”.
We believe it is this deflection of facts, the deliberate peddling of half truths and the exaggeration of the reasons for the relocation by both FAAN and the CBN as referenced by HRH Sanusi Lamido Sanusi that has given room for all the criticism trailing the decision. Decisions taken for the good of Nigeria need not be shrouded in secrecy and half truths. They should be open, transparent and based on identifiable and measurable data.
Notwithstanding our position above, we believe that the senate Chief Whip, senator Ali Ndume, the Arewa Consultative Forum as well as many other individuals and Civil Society Organisations went overboard with their interpretations of both decisions and indeed the threats of repercussions that have greeted the matter. Whereas we understand why this relocation is attracting so much criticism especially with respect to the penchant for Nigerians to take silence as ignorance, we believe there are better ways of engaging with this issue. Senator Ali Ndume for instance could use his office as senator to move a motion compelling both FAAN and CBN to come and explain the real reasons behind their decisions and the modalities for facilitating same.
Such an arrangement will benefit not just the agencies involved, but even the staff, other aggrieved Nigerians and many other agencies mooting the same idea. If at the end, the agencies failed to convince the senate and by extension the Nigerian people, that their decisions were driven by patriotism, then they can be compelled to maintain status quo.
In conclusion, we believe that the idea of decongesting offices or moving whole agencies to cities with more function for them and where they can find adequate and conducive workings quarters is not entirely bad, however, any decision to decongest out of Abuja for reasons other than those of optimizing efficiency and productivity must be resisted and rightly, too. We must protect our polity from bad precedents at all cost!
