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President Bola Tinubu has written to the Senate, seeking the screening and subsequent confirmation of Ruby Onwudiwe as member of the board of directors of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.
President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, who read the letter on Wednesday, said that the nominee is a replacement for the South East nominee from Abia State, Orum Kalu Eke, who declined the nomination due to his engagement at the World Bank and other financial institutions.
Recall that the Senate last month disclosed that a nominee for the appointment as a member of the Board of Directors of the CBN, Urum Kalu Eke from Abia State, to represent the South East geopolitical zone of the country rejected his nomination by President Bola Tinubu.
The rejection of appointment of membership of the CBN Board of Directors by Urum Kalu Eke came to the fore as the Senate confirmed the appointment of four other members of the Board of Directors of the CBN, which was forwarded to it by President Bola Tinubu.
Those confirmed by the Senate as directors were Robert Agbede, Ado Yakubu Wanka, Professor Murtala Sabo Sagagi, and Mrs. Muslimat Olanike Aliyu.
The confirmation was a sequel to the consideration of a report of the screening of the nominee presented by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance, & Other Financial Institutions, Senator Adetokunbo Abiru, APC, Lagos East.
According to him, the committee did not clear Urum Kalu Eke from Abia because he failed to appear before the committee for screening.
Abiru specifically informed the Senate that four other nominees, Robert Agbede, Ado Yakubu Wanka, Professor Murtala Sabo Sagagi, and Mrs Muslimat Olanike Aliyu, appeared before the committee for screening and convinced it of their suitability for the appointments.
He thereafter urged the Senate to confirm the appointments of the four nominees who attended the screening session and decline those of Kalu Eke, who didn’t attend the screening exercise.
But for clarity, a member of the committee and former governor of Abia State, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, APC Abia North, quickly rose to inform the Senate that Urum Kalu Eke, being one of his constituents, had called him to decline the appointment to avoid conflict of interest with his present job as a consultant with the World Bank.
According to Senator Kalu, Urum Eke is a consultant to the World Bank and other international financial institutions,which would make him not have the required time to function well as one of the directors of CBN.
Kalu said, “Mr President, I’m a member of the committee that carried out screening on nominees forwarded to the Senate for appointment as members of Board of Directors of CBN by President Bola Tinubu. During the screening exercise, Urum Kalu Eke from Abia North called me for not attending the session.
“He said that as a consultant to the World Bank and other international financial institutions, he wouldn’t take the appointment to avoid conflicts of interest.”
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