Sacked officials cry foul against discrimination in CBN

As part of the fall out of the ongoing staff rationalisation exercise in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), over 200 officials disengaged are now crying foul against the discriminatory manner in which the apex bank management is going about the exercise.

The affected staff berated the CBN management for not coming up with the optional “early exit” window for all staff to embrace as was later adopted but rather chose to “humiliate” them against the bank’s human resources policy.

They described the early exit programme as a welcome after thought, although it was implemented without considering the negative impact on the system.

The sacked officials stated that the CBN must have lost most of its best hands in the areas of monetary policy, research, banking examination, communication, payment system development, and strategy, among others.

The concerned staff urged those responsible for the apex bank’s oversight to be watchful of the policies of the bank as either forceful disengagement or early retirement of experienced staff portends serious gaps for such a strategic institution.

CBN: We didn’t force 1,000 officials to resign

The staff also questioned the claim by Muhammad Bala Bello, the Deputy Governor (Corporate Services), that the disengaged staff were retired and paid their full benefits, noting that some of them went home with negative account balances.

They noted that their careers were abruptly terminated without justification or compliance with due process for the conduct of a restructuring process as enshrined in the CBN Act and CBN Human Resources manual.

Some of the affected staff who spoke to journalists averred that the CBN management towed the line of discrimination from the beginning which has greatly impinged on their fundamental human rights, self esteem, and caused untold hardship to their families and other dependants in addition to truncating their professional careers.

They called on the CBN management revisit their cases with good conscience and equity without further delay in order to be on the good side of history.

The Star