Leadership (Abuja)
18 November 2007
interview
Until she resigned her appointment on May 3, 2005, Mrs. Wahir Mshelia, 57, was the deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
After her resignation, she went into retirement, ending her voyage of 27 years in the public service. Recently, however, she opened up, alleging that she was actually hounded out of office by her boss and that he did so with the active connivance of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
In an exclusive interview with LEADERSHIP Sunday, Mshelia said her former boss and incumbent governor of the nation's apex bank, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, persecuted and sacked her because he could not abide by her principled stand on issues, especially her penchant for insisting on due process. She stated that Soludo was equally angered by her stout rejection of the bank's consolidation policy, which she believed was not in the overall interest of the North.
But in a swift rebuttal of Mshelia's claims, the head of corporate affairs and spokesperson of CBN, Mr.Festus Odoko, told LEADERSHIP Sunday that the bank holds as a cardinal doctrine the principle of due process, stressing that it is a rule for the management and staff.
Speaking on her ordeal at the apex bank, Mshelia started by noting that Obasanjo gave her the job, in the first place, because of "my selfless services especially when I was the director of internal audit in the bank. It was a challenging job and I took it up with full dedication, loyalty and honesty. This is because I was the only deputy governor who was appointed from within the bank at that time."
On her eventual clash with Soludo, she said: "During my working experience with the governor, there were some issues of controversies but never confrontational or personal, but specifically because he (Soludo) would not follow due process in many instances. This is especially factual in the award of contracts and the hot issue of bank consolidation, which I was convinced then, and still do today, was meant to shortchange the North in the area of banking and economic development."
Mshelia, who was once a commissioner in Borno State, also disagreed with Soludo over the printing of naira notes which, she said, was expensive and did not follow due process. She said she always boldly spoke her minds at board meetings as she believed that it was proper to express opinions that would enhance the bank.
She said that, unknown to her, she had stepped on powerful toes and her removal was already being hatched. She gave insights into the dramatic way she was relieved of her job: "Early on the morning of 1st May 2005 (Workers' Day), I was directed by the governor of the CBN to attend a meeting with the former president in the Villa to discuss 'monetary policy' issues. Naturally, I accepted the invitation innocently since, as the deputy governor in charge of policies, such topics fall under my purview. Little did I know that the purpose of the meeting was to remove me from CBN as deputy governor."
Wahir said there were no memoranda or written notice conveying the meeting. Those who attended the meeting were Obasanjo, Uffot Ekaette, Funsho Kupolokun and Soludo.
On the event itself, she said, "when the president entered, he started the meeting immediately, and retorted that because I had not been visiting him at the Villa he had decided to transfer me to the NNPC. He complained that since he appointed me as the deputy governor of the CBN, I only went once to thank him and it was not enough. I was totally taken aback, mortified at such remark especially coming from the president.
"He also alleged that Soludo had reported me to him that I was disobedient and insubordinate to him, and as such he could not work with me anymore. I was really shocked and aghast because I know I had never been disobedient to my boss. Indeed, in the course of discharging my responsibilities, there might have been instances of disagreement, but those were based on issues of principle and not personal or confrontational. The only instances which I vehemently disagreed with Soludo were his habit of nocturnal visits. He made such late visits twice at my hotel (NICON Hotel), usually after 11pm. I did not perceive such visit to be decent. I also declined going to his hotel in the night in Washington DC when he sent for me at an inappropriate time in the night when we went to attend the Spring Meeting at the World Bank in April 2005. I did not deem it right to do so, but I rushed to him before the commencement of the meeting early in the morning the next day. Surprisingly that was my last meeting in the bank."
She said that at another time Soludo asked her to employ one Miss Loreta Okorie as a deputy director and that she should be paid in dollars. "I advised him that that was improper because we couldn't pay any staff in the bank's employment in dollars. Furthermore, she was a fresh graduate (2000/2001) and this put her above her peers in the bank who were still serving as senior supervisors, but I suggested to him that we could employ her as an assistant manager since she was to work with him as his personal staff. This made the governor very angry and, since then, he has been antagonistic to me."
Other accusations levelled on her by Soludo was that she was only interested in contracts and not in the least concerned with Obasanjo's reform policies. He also said her contributions in the bank were zero. "How can Soludo who came into the bank just recently say this? I joined the bank in December 1990 as a senior manager and rose to the position of a deputy governor in May 2004 after rendering very productive services at the University of Maiduguri as deputy bursar and also serving as a commissioner in Borno State. I told the president that Charles Soludo was just being biased and discriminative towards me as a female deputy governor," she said.
But Obasanjo, like a man who had decided on what to do, would not be swayed by her defence; he announced her redeployment to NNPC. Mshelia said: "I asked the president what position he was assigning to me, and the MD of NNPC jumped in and said 'managerial'. I was shocked and bereft because that was clearly a demotion. I then politely thanked the president for giving me the opportunity to serve my country in the position of a deputy governor of the bank, but told him I'd rather take a bow than allow myself to be ridiculed. It was surprising to me that the president was so prejudiced and adjudged me without even investigating those allegations or getting my own side of the story."
More troubles
According to Mshelia, her resignation did not end her miseries. Rather, she said, Soludo "came after me with vengeance and hatred. He made life very unbearable for me. The bank's policy on housing was changed immediately I resigned. It was a development I did not know about. At the time, my personal house was not ready for occupation, but I immediately rushed to get it ready before my official date for leaving the bank quarters was due in November 2005".
But this was not to be, as Mshelia was forcefully thrown out of the house after the security threatened to beat her up. In her words: "They had already barricaded my house and locked me out. I was told that the governor directed the security of the bank to break into my house and remove all my property items and to beat me up, even threaten my life. I took to my heels because of the evil that Charles Soludo planned against me. My guest houses in Abuja and Lagos also were broken into and everything carted away. I have not had access to my property items or known their whereabouts since then."
She said she has not been paid her terminal annual leave allowance for the year 2005, among other unfair treatment. Her severance package for vehicles has been denied her (it is the bank's policy to provide retiring governors and deputy governors with vehicles, four and three vehicles for both offices respectively). All her property in her former homes have been confiscated. She also has not been allowed to buy her apartment under the monetisation policy.
When LEADERSHIP Sunday visited the CBN last Friday, it was told that Soludo and the public affairs department's top officers were away in Enugu State for a function. But Odoko, who was reached on his mobile phone, dismissed Mshelia's allegations, noting that the matter was already in court. Odoko, who also asked for more time with our correspondent to enable him "properly address the issues", however, pointed out that the CBN does all its work strictly following due process. He said that if Mshelia alleged otherwise, she was engaging in self-indictment as she was a part of the process, having occupied a most sensitive position in the bank. "Is she saying she herself did not follow due process?" he queried. At the bank, an official who told our correspondent that he could not officially speak on the matter said rather sadly: "Everyone wants Soludo's head. But they should not worry. The man will soon finish his tenure and then we can all have peace."
LEADERSHIP Sundays checks also showed that Mshelia may have already petitioned President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua over her forced resignation.
CBN's comic response
Mrs. Mshelia's story would have been this paper's lead in its last edition, but it was stepped down to give the CBN enough time to state its own side of the account. Mr. Odoko, who had earlier volunteered a response, via a phone call from Enugu, to some aspects of the story requested our correspondent not to publish the report to allow him time to give a "comprehensive" response. The paper obliged him the request in its avowed stance to always uphold fair and balanced reporting.
Last Monday, LEADERSHIP Sunday editor and another reporter went to the CBN, having been invited by Mr.Odoko and told that the bank was prepared to state its side of the account. At the bank, Odoko received the reporters. He had assembled in his office, all the top officers of the corporate affairs department, well decked in their business suits. It was obvious they were prepared for the event. After brief introductions, the tape recorder was primed for the interview to start. That was when trouble started. A member of the CBN team suddenly interrupted the process, stressing that it was not fair for Odoko to respond to issues they had had no prior written evidence of, and that Mshelia, having occupied the position of deputy governor, could not be responded to without a written evidence of her allegations. Claiming to be a journalist of over 10 years standing, the man insisted that unless the questions were written, they would not respond. He also demanded for the Mshelia interview in which she petitioned against the alleged harsh treatment by CBN. Attempts to make him understand that there was nothing wrong with responding to oral questions, especially as both the paper and the organisation were already seated, fell on deaf ears. Our correspondents told him that it would be unprofessional to furnish him with written or oral submission by the source and that there was nothing amiss in answering the questions directly.
The meeting was convened basically for an interview and the bank did not ask for a written questionnaire before the meeting, he was told. He was also informed that recording the interview was necessary to avoid anyone being misquoted. The situation degenerated into a near-chaotic one as the CBN "expert" refused to see reason, thereby stalling the interview.
Odoko himself was at a loss. He said he was not afraid of defending or responding to issues, having even offered some explanations early on. He, however, bowed to his colleague's argument, noting that the interview could not hold unless he had all the issues on a paper. The editor firmly told the team that the CBN was not in a position to tell the paper how to do its job, and that it was curious that Odoko, who had answered questions on the phone, had suddenly developed cold feet. He was also reminded that he arranged for the meeting and had been afforded all decorum by the paper that honoured the invitation and was willing to listen to the other side. But a somewhat jittery Odoko would not budge. Rather, he announced that the interview would not hold and that he would contact LEADERSHIP's chairman. At this juncture, another member of the CBN team dared the paper to publish the story, adding: "By the way, there is nothing new in the account. This matter has been on for the past two years." In the end, the editor and the reporter had no option but to leave.
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