It all started when the Central Bank of Nigeria made known its plan to relocate some of its offices and departments from Abuja for the purpose of decongestion and operational efficiency.
Following suit, the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo issued a directive for the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria headquarters to move from Abuja to Lagos.
The agency gave reasons for the movement and chiefly among them is that in Lagos, it has a physical structure that served as its headquarters for many years and the structure is still intact.
In Abuja, FAAN does not have offices as operational headquarters and was considering renting office space to accommodate its top officials.
According to the FAAN, Lagos is the hub of activities where over 60 per cent of travellers are processed, “and it has the highest passenger throughput in the country and it is good that the management of the agency is located in proximity to its operational hub.”
FAAN said it loses huge resources paying allowances for its staff for movement between Abuja and Lagos every week.
Five CBN departments are to be relocated, including Banking Supervision, Other Financial Institutions Supervision, Consumer Protection, Payment System Management, and Financial Policy and Regulation.
Describing the relocation of some of its departments, the CBN noted in a memo to staff members that the exercise was being done to initiate “a decongestion action plan designed to optimise the operational environment of the Bank. This initiative aims to ensure compliance with building safety standards and enhance the efficient utilisation of our office space.”
The CBN has hinged the relocation of some of its departments on the need “to align the Bank’s structure with its functions and objectives, redistribute skills to ensure a more even geographical spread of talent, and comply with building regulations, as indicated by repeated warnings from the Facility Manager, and the findings and recommendations of the Committee on Decongestion of the CBN Head Office.”
According to sources that are privy to the office spaces of the bank, the CBN Headquarters was built to only accommodate not more than 2, 700, but is now overcrowded with over 4,000 workers.
To enhance the performance of various departments set up for banking supervision, customer protection and supervision of other financial institutions that are all domiciled in Lagos, relocating these departments to Lagos not only reduces the cost of bureaucracy but also enhances administrative conveniences for CBN workers engaged in supervising over 24 banks and other 50 financial institutions whose headquarters are all domiciled in Lagos.
Therefore, the noise contesting the rationality of the transfer of some departments in the CBN is simply anchored on emotional outburst that fails to take into cognizance the need for realism.
“Those ranting against the transfer of FAAN and some CBN’s departments are only engaged in a daft exercise devoid of economic realism.”
For those opposed to the relocation of FAAN, this is not the first time an agency of government has been moved to Lagos. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo had, in 2001, transferred the headquarters of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency and Nigerian Ports Authority to Lagos.
Apart from these two agencies whose headquarters were returned to Lagos, there are agencies whose headquarters operate outside of Abuja.
For instance, the head office of the National Inland Waterways Authority is in Lokoja, the Kogi State capital, while that of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board is in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital.
There’s no doubt that paucity in funding remains a major prompter in forcing public parastatals and ministries find ways of reducing operational expenses.
After the relocation of FAAN to Abuja by the former Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Hadi Abubakar Sirika, a review of the operational mandates of the agency had made it imperative to return the agency to Lagos where its operations lie.
Lagos is Nigeria’s hub of aviation business and to have FAAN headquartered outside Nigeria’s commercial capital amounts to deliberately accruing higher operational costs.
Those ranting against the transfer of FAAN and some CBN’s departments are only engaged in a daft exercise devoid of economic realism.
If the transfer of the aviation agency would enhance its performance, why the hues and cries by critics?
To get the best of our present situation, the government must put its money where its mouth is. It becomes laughable when some are insinuating that the relocation exercise is founded on a maneuver to return the nation’s capital to Lagos.
This is a conspiracy theory that is purely a product of infertile imagination.
Nigerians must avoid any act that politicizes the management of national bureaucracy on the altar of politics and bigotry.
To crawl out of our economic hole of despair, all hands must be on deck to get the best for our nation.
Revoking Sirika’s transfer of FAAN to Abuja is the right decision by the incumbent administration, especially against the backdrop of the urgency to efficiently manage the limited resources available to the Federal Government.
Business thrives when right policies, not politics, are pursued and implemented for national development.
No President can contemplate relocating the Federal Capital to Lagos or elsewhere because Abuja’s status is constitutional, which means the Constitution has to be amended first.
Time has come for us to come out of this We-versus-Them or North-versus-South bickering if we must make progress in this country.
If not for idleness or mischief, why should anyone be fighting because one government agency wants to shed weight at the headquarters and move some of its personnel and departments to other parts of the country?
We shouldn’t be reading politics into every policy of the government.
In this particular case, most of the departments that have been asked to move to Lagos are those that have their functions performed in Lagos.
They are supposed to be closer to the people they are supervising.
The decision to move the departments of the CBN and other agencies of government from Abuja to Lagos is a strategic reason to enhance great productivity.
