How Emefiele Appointed ‘Unqualified’ Head Of Nigeria’s Minting Company After Sacking Northerner

The Emir of Zazzau, Ahmed Nuhu Bamalli, has narrated how the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele sacked him as the Managing Director of Nigerian Security Minting and Printing PLC and appointed his in-law as replacement almost as soon as he was appointed the apex bank governor.

The emir, in an interview shared by Albaniy TV,  had also alleged that the CBN governor removed all the northerners serving as board members in the organization after noting that he would not work with any of the members that worked with Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the former CBN Governor, who was removed by former President Goodluck Jonathan.

Emir of Zazzau said he only acted for 21 months before issues between Jonathan and Sanusi came up and crippled his work, as he was not permitted to do some things.

He said: “Two years ago, that was 2011, 2012 there was a problem and they stopped our M.D, then our board said I should take over as acting Managing Director.

“I acted for 21 months, then the issue between Jonathan and Sanusi came up at that moment, it was affecting us in the north. We were crippled and could not do some things.

“Sanusi was removed and this new governor took over. After he took over, the day he started attending the board meeting six months after Sanusi left, the day he entered, he started studying the board papers and said he wanted to bring in his own people.

“He said he did not want to work with any director that worked with Sanusi, so he retired us. According to him, it’s not because we did anything wrong.”

Bamalli further alleged that Emefiele retired them immediately, and paid their gratuity and all other entitlements to hasten their departure.

“Then they say his in-law should take over from me as substantive Managing Director. At that moment surprisingly, what we went through in the process of examination at NTBU was, to become an executive director, you have to first be a managing director.

 “This one that they brought in is a divisional manager at Dangote at Calabar but was sacked, from what we gathered. Then he took over from us,” he revealed.

Although the emir did not reveal the name of the person Emefiele appointed, but Joseph Ugboh was the MD of the company until September 2018 when President Muhamnadu Buhari appointed  Abbas Madanawa, as the new MD.

The Emir is a lawyer, banker and diplomat. He was the former Nigerian ambassador to Thailand with concurrent accreditation to Myanmar and the 19th Emir of Zazzau.

Bamalli was appointed on October 2020, to succeed Shehu Idris, who died in September after reigning for 45 years.