Just as we witnessed the overfilled cup of the erstwhile Lagos State Speaker – Hon. Mudashiru Obasa, largely due to handing over so much power to a certain woman to run the affairs of the assembly without due process and to the dissatisfaction of lawmakers, Mr. Olayemi Cardoso’s drama is out here at play from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), not by just one woman but two women at the centre of it as Consultants.
Tensions seem to be everywhere at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as top Directors and senior staff members express outrage over the influence wielded by two female consultants, Dr. Nkiru Balonwu and Dr. Daphne Dafinone, who were brought in by Governor Olayemi Cardoso.
These consultants are paid monthly salaries of N50 million naira and N35 million naira, respectively. That’s huge amount there.
The individuals are Dr. Nkiru Belonwu, the founder of The Africa Soft Power Group, and Daphne Dafinone, a chartered accountant and COO of Crowe Dafinone, a Nigerian accounting firm.
Nkiru earns N50 million per month from the CBN, which exceeds Cardoso’s own salary as Governor and is higher than what the Deputy Governors receive. Her salary is also significantly greater than the combined earnings of 15 Directors, each of whom makes less than 3 million naira a month.
Meanwhile, Dr. Dafinone’s monthly salary is N35 million, reportedly more than the total salaries of 10 Directors. However, it has been pointed out that her role as a consultant is not clearly defined; she mainly carries out tasks assigned to her by Mr. Cardoso. Recently, he tasked her with developing a controversial early exit program to offer voluntary retirements to at least 1,000 employees, a decision made without engaging the bank’s human resources department, which typically handles such matters.
The two women have received the derisive nickname “Cardoso women” within the bank. One source laughed when asked for further explanation, implying that the meaning was apparent.
CBN directors have claimed that Mr. Cardoso appointed the women as consultants without following proper procedures, lacking established terms of reference, deliverables, and deadlines. Concerns were raised regarding Nkiru’s position as a corporate communication consultant since the CBN already has a well-staffed communication department led by a director.
A staff member expressed discontent, asking, “Why do you abuse your position to hire friends and family and make them rich like this? It’s disturbing because even Emefiele, despite his flaws, did not behave with such recklessness.”
There are worries that these consultants provide little value to the bank, with suggestions that the Governor is simply benefiting them due to their friendships. With 29 experienced Directors, 170 Deputy Directors, and over 400 PhD Holders within CBN, the necessity of hiring these consultants has been called into question.
These consultants have allegedly amassed significant power, allowing them to issue directives to departmental directors across the bank’s 29 departments.
There are three school of thoughts pondering on this case here, we will reveal them and we will like to know where you belong even if don’t belong to any of the school of thoughts, let’s get your opinion too.
The first school of thoughts are saying there’s nothing wrong in appointing consultants to add value to the CBN as an establishment as long as the appointment went through due process and got the approval of the necessary quarters, hence, paying them very well is not out of place.
The other school of thoughts opined that just like in previous cases, these two women are Cardoso’s women/cronies/friends or personal persons, hence, these consultancy appellations is just to create means of sorting them financially without them bringing any significant values on board to CBN. It reeks corruption everywhere. They simply sees it as power drunk situation and a case of absolute power corrupts absolutely with the display of appointing family & friends to play one role or the other, it smacks nepotism and favouritism.
The last school of thoughts are huge on due process and doing things the right. Also, they believe that such position like that of CBN Governor should come with some decorum, high morals and integrity. They insist that due process were not followed in the appointment of these two consultants, hence, it is abuse of power and office from Mr Olayemi Cardoso.
We await as the drama takes its fill shape whichever way, Splash9ja team will be here for you guys to bring the full dosage as it unfolds.
