Another fifty staff members of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) were sacked on Monday, adding to the long list of ongoing disengagements at the apex bank.
The sacking under the leadership of CBN governor, Mr Olayemi Cardoso, cuts across 29 departments, it was learned.
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So far, 117 casualties have been recorded in the last 20 days.
The termination of appointments affects directors, deputy directors, assistant directors, principal managers, senior managers and lower ranking staff.
The dispatch of the disengagement letters, which started on March 15, has continued every other week with palpable apprehension amongst staff of every cadre as the management has not specified any standard criteria for the decisions.
Since the commencement of the sacking, officials of the apex bank have refused to comment on the matter.
Like in previous instances, attempts to get the reaction of the acting Director of Corporate Communication, Hakama Sidi Ali, have not been successful, as she did not pick up her call or return the text messages to her line.
Staff affected by the latest development, who also spoke to a Newspaper on the condition of anonymity, said the lack of clarity or justification for the sack has made them conclude that they are victims of personal vendetta by Mr Cardoso and the deputy governors.
Section 16.0 of the CBN’s Human Resources Policies and Procedures Manual (HRPPM), titled’ Cessation of Employment’, specifies that in every case of separation from the employment of the bank, it is the objective of CBN to make separations as amicable as possible for both the employee and the bank.
Section 16.3.5 notes that an employee’s Normal Retirement Date in CBN should coincide with the date the employee is 60 years old, or has put in 35 years of service.
“Early retirement can be considered when the employee has served for at least 10 years, and is only granted at the discretion of management,” it said.
According to the manual, the bank feels that the retirement of an employee should be an occasion for celebration and for recognition of the individual’s contributions to the bank.
However, section 16.4, which specifies the condition for redundancy, stipulates that redundancy means involuntary and permanent loss of employment as a result of excess human resource.
It explained that the redundancy processes are designed to provide a framework to manage change, where that change involves termination of employment.
“Adversely affected employees are given the opportunity for early separation from the bank.
“Consultation with the Joint Consultative Council is essential, and a fair process is mandatory. Employees who are adversely affected may appeal decisions made by the head of human resources,” it said.
The manual said that the grounds for redundancy require that employment may be terminated for economic, technological, structural or similar reasons.
The central concern of most of the affected staff, is the alleged “Indiscriminate application of the manual by the current management.”
The termination letters sent to the directors and some of the affected staff, as spotted by Newspaper, cited “Reorganisational and human capital restructuring” as the reason for their dismissal, in line with the bank’s new strategic direction.
It was gathered that five directors have indicated their readiness to contest their termination, as according to them, no wrongdoing had been attributed to them, and they have not been implicated in any misconduct.
A senior management source who spoke to a Newspaper said that ahead of the current decisions, those who are allegedly closer to key decision makers at the CBN have been redeployed to other departments.
“Just recently, one of the senior officials of the bank redeployed his younger brother from the development finance department [a department whose staff are in constant fear of their fate] to the governors department,” the source said.
Reports indicated that some of the staff who were recently redeployed to Lagos have found their way back to CBN locations closer to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), following the intervention of the powers that be.
Prior to this latest development, the apex bank had relocated no fewer than 150 staff of the Banking Supervision Department (BSD), which is one of the 29 departments of the bank, to Lagos.
The BSD is under the Financial System Stability Directorate of the CBN.
The relocation saga, it would be recalled, had generated heated controversy across the country, with many people of northern extraction alleging that it was an attempt to dislodge staff who are northerners from the institution.