The National Chairman of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, Alhaji Shehu Musa Gabam has faulted the recent mass sack at the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, which affected close to 700 workers describing it as counterproductive to the nation’s already battered economy
Addressing newsmen in Abuja on Friday, Alhaji Gabam urged President Bola Tinubu and the National Assembly to quickly wade into the matter in and stop the ugly trend.
He also expressed deep concern over the method used in stacking the workers, saying that it felt short of due process and such should be revisited in the interest of justice and fair play.
According to him, “We are quite concerned about the worrisome developments that are coming out of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN. Once again CBN is at the centre of controversy. Innocent people are being sacked without following the due process of sacking them.
“The workers are being stacked just like that without giving them queries. So far some sources available to us suggest that close to 700 people have been sacked innocently without committing any offence and without going through the process of HRPPM of the CBN that regulates how people can be employed or sacked.
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“If they commit any offence, they will go through those processes of ensuring that they were given fair hearing and people would not just be called and be given a letter of sack just like that Nigeria is not a Banana Republic where anything goes.
“I want the National Assembly, the President and the CBN Governor to be mindful of the fact that the unemployment level in Nigeria is extremely very alarming. CBN cannot always be in public domain for bad reasons.
“Always on the negative side. You cannot victimise innocent staff who are not responsible for redesigning of the naira, who are not responsible for the scarcity of our currency. They are ordinary staff. They are not at the level of policy decision and they are being victimised.
“If you are doing reorganization or restructuring, you can do it in line with the policies and principles that establish the CBN and of course the department that is responsible for employment and regulations and disciplinary actions.
“I call on the CBN Governor to stop this forthwith and the National Assembly to look into this issue diligently and the President to intervene.
“You cannot be sacking young people that are being employed. Some of them are breadwinners of their families. They have families to take care of. They have children to take care. They have hospital bills to take care of and simply because they are doing reorganization, you are just sacking people like that based on recommendations.
“Recommendation is different from offence. You must establish the fact that they committed an offence. But you cannot just sack people based on somebody’s recommendation which has not been fully investigated and verified.
“So I am not happy with this development that is coming up. We thought that by now, we should be thinking of reducing unemployment in the country. Graduates are roaming the streets. CBN is sacking people, other institutions are sacking people. A lot of industries are packing up. This is not good news for the country. And it is not positive for this government that is celebrating one year in office.
“Therefore I chose to make this very clear that this in uncalled for, it is unethical for the CBN to sack staff who are innocent, that are not responsible for profiteering and racketeering of CBN. They should be allowed to do their job. They should be trained to do their job. They should be trained to be professionals. They should be trained in policies management and regulations of the CBN. But not to be sacked, not to transfer aggression on innocent staff that committed no offence at all.
