CBN’s Illegal And Nepotistic Recruitment

In 2013, allegations of cash-for-jobs involving some federal ministries made headlines. Top managers of at least thirteen (13) ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) were under scrutiny by the senate over allegations of colluding with outsiders to run illegal cash-for-jobs racket in their organization. 

The senate was inundated with lots of petitions from victims of employment irregularities in federal establishments and a 2-day public hearing was held. The revelations from this public hearing led to many media interviews and it was in one of such interviews that the popular “Oga at the top” mantra came into existence.

Last week, the CBN came under fire over allegations of illegal and nepotistic recruitment. SaharaReporters obtained a list of at least 91 people tied to influential or highly placed Nigerians who were recently offered juicy appointments by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in a hiring process that was highly secretive.

Sad right?, well you will be shocked to know this has happened before. A news report published Wednesday by Daily Trust, said the CBN secretly recruited 909 staff between June 2014 and February 2015, in violation of due process and federal character principles.


Yes, using your contacts and connections is not a crime, in fact it is a great way to get a job (these days), but i believe everyone deserve a chance…a shot at the opportunity of working at a Federal Agency.

The most sinister part of the whole story is that the CBN went to great lengths, including tweaking the names of recruits, in order to hide the identities of beneficiaries of this politically motivated recruitment. Often the CBN used the beneficiaries’ first names and their father’s middle names to hide their real identities. For instance, the bank listed Maryam Atiku as “Maryam Abubakar.” In another case, the bank entered the name of the son of Nigeria’s Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau, as “Nagode Abdulrahman.” In other instances, the bank used the maiden names of hired persons instead of their married names.

See the “Lucky 91”:

In the light of this fraudulent development, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) , has threatened to sue the CBN. SERAP in an open letter to Godwin Emefiele, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), SERAP said: “Should Mr Emefiele and the CBN fail and/or neglect to act as requested within 14 days of the receipt and/or publication of this letter, the Registered Trustees of SERAP shall take appropriate legal action to ensure effective remedies for millions of Nigerians that have been denied equal opportunity to participate in the recruitment process. And this may be without further notice to you.”

In their defense, the CBN’s acting Director of Corporate Communications, Isaac Okorafor, told PREMIUM TIMES that the bank did nothing illegal or wrong in hiring without advertising. He said the bank obtained waiver from the Federal Character Commission and opted for a secret process of hiring new staff in the past two years because the bank was doing “targeted recruitment”. 

Ehm, Oga Director, next time please TARGET ME TOO! 

My people, lets make this hashtag trend on twitter: #CBNTargetMeToo

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