Investigations by SaharaReporters have revealed that the employment scandal currently rocking the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is worse than previous reports indicated as our correspondent has discovered that the bank gave well-remunerated jobs to another 121 relatives or wards of people who are politically connected with President Muhammadu Buhari. Our investigations also determined that the plum jobs the CBN handed to politically privileged people did not go through due process. “The jobs were never advertised, and those hired were never interviewed to ascertain their suitability for the jobs they received,” a bank source told our correspondent.
In addition to the list of newly hired staff released by this website two days ago, the new set of irregular hires are scheduled to be formally inducted into the CBN workforce on April 4 and 5 in Lagos. Among those on the new list are a daughter of Governor Bindo Jibrilla of Adamawa State as well as the daughter of President Buhari’s personal assistants and the daughters of the Deputy Governors of Bayelsa and Delta States respectively.
A high-ranking official at the CBN had stated that CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, decided to embark on the jamboree of hiring relatives of the political elite close to President Buhari as a strategy for keeping his job at the bank. In order to preserve his job, Mr. Emefiele apparently chose to ignore all hiring rules and procedures.
One of our sources disclosed that the bank abandoned its practice of using a professional human resources organization known as Nextzon to vet the credentials of its recent hires. According to the source, the CBN Governor unilaterally decided that the newly employed relatives of the rich and powerful would not go be scrutinized through the aptitude tests and interviews that are usually part and parcel of the recruitment process. In addition, Mr. Emefiele also waived the induction protocol required to familiarize new employees with operations at the CBN for some of the new hires. “Those we recruit newly usually go for training at the CBN Learning Centers in Lagos,” said one source, adding that merit was completely jettisoned by the CBN leadership in order to hand out plum jobs to children and relatives of rich and politically connected Nigerians.
Since the employment scandal broke this week, President Buhari has not addressed it directly or indirectly. When SaharaReporters contacted presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu three days ago, he said a response was being prepared by the Presidency.
The earlier list released by SaharaReporters included a niece of President Buhari, a son of the Comptroller General of Customs, and a daughter of the Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase. The new list includes several names of politically influential people, including Falila, a daughter of the Comptroller of Nigeria Customs, Hammeed Ali.
Meanwhile, SaharaReporters learnt that the CBN yesterday brought in forensic experts to check all the computers at the human resources department. One source said the aim of the exercise was to discover the person who leaked the list.
