Governor of the Central Bank, Godwin Emefiele, is in more trouble just some days after SERAP vowed to drag him to court for secretly recruiting children of top politicians.

Governor of the Central Bank, Godwin Emefiele

Civil society leaders and lawyers have blasted the Governor of the Central Bank, Godwin Emefiele for deceiving Nigerians after it was revealed that the apex bank secretly recruited dozens of family members of top government officials, including children of ministers and a nephew of President Muhammadu Buhari.

The activists ‎demanded the immediate withdrawal of employment offers secretly awarded by the bank over several months to hundreds of beneficiaries with immediate effect.

According to news website, SaharaReporters, the CBN hired children and relatives of politically-exposed Nigerians without advertising the positions to allow other Nigerians apply, as required by law.

“What this thing has told us is that all animals are equal but some are more equal than others,” said Achike Chude, Deputy Chairman, Joint Action Front.

“And this is what we see in virtually every aspect of our national life.

“This tells us once more that there are two Nigerias: a Nigeria for the rich, the powerful, and the influential, and a Nigeria for those who do not have privileges, who do not have what it takes.”

Debo Adeniran, the Executive Director of Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, ‎said, “It is a manifestation of the old order whereby people of privileged class are given undue advantage over others.”

“The Buhari administration must be seen to live up to its mantra of change and‎ equal opportunity must be given to everybody."

The beneficiaries of the recruitment, according to a list released by SaharaReporters, include a nephew of President Buhari, daughter of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar; son of the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu; daughter of former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ghali Na’aba. Others include the daughter of Nigeria’s Police Inspector-General, Solomon Arase; son of the Minister of Internal Affairs, Abdulrahman Danbazzau, among others.

Isaac Okoroafor, CBN’s acting Director of Corporate Communications tried to justify the secret recruitment by saying that the bank got a waiver from the Federal Character‎ Commission, allowing them to recruit with advertising.

“In the last two years, we have had cause to recruit specialists, and what the law says is that if we are going for that kind of recruitment we should apply for waiver, so that we can do targeted recruitment,” Mr. Okoroafor said.

But, that has not gone down well with Nigerians. Monday Ubani, former chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association, Ikeja chapter, said those who were recruited without advertisements ought to be shown the door.

“The law says there must be a proper advertisement of vacancies for such positions and every Nigerian should be in a position to compete for such a very sensitive position. And it should reflect federal character,‎” said Mr. Ubani.

Mr. Ubani also said the manner of the recruitment showed a faulty process and “that something is hidden.”

‎”Why will you go and begin to head-hunt only big men’s children into the banking sector? That is discriminatory, that is contrary to the provisions of the Constitution. That is nepotism of the highest order.”

‎Olanrewaju Suraju, Chairman of Civil Society Network Against Corruption, called on the CBN to make public the provisions of the law that allowed the Federal Character Commission to grant it employment waiver.

“It is the beginning of accountability in the process, though the response from the CBN is still very ludicrous in terms of saying that they are catchment areas under federal character and that they deliberately refused to advertise,” Mr. Suraju said.

“It is a challenge to the current government to ensure that they probe the recruitment process and if it is found to have violated any of the extant laws, then they need to actually sack all those that are beneficiaries of the recruitment.

“Thereafter they should conduct a highly publicised recruitment process that gives access to every other person that is qualified.”

SERAP had given the CBN a 14-day ultimatum‎ to put in place a system of recruitment based on non-discrimination and transparency or face legal action.

“We have evidence that we had written to them, we have evidence that the letter is with them, all that remains is that we wait for them to react. But we won’t wait for them forever,” said Mr. Mumuni.

“Like we said in our letter, if nothing happens positively as we expected, in the interest of overwhelming majority of Nigerians, we would go to court and test this matter there.

“So they would come and put it as part of their defence, that the Federal Character Commission gave them a waiver, then we’ll take it from there.”