Since May 28, 2024, the Mauritian-incorporated company, Tengen Holdings (Mauritius) Limited, has acquired approximately 59.403 million shares of Access Holdings, valued at roughly N1.012 billion.  

According to corporate disclosures on the NGX website, Tengen Holdings initially purchased 45 million units of shares at N17 per share on May 28.

The company then purchased an additional 14,402,633 units at N17.20 per share on May 30.  

Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, the Non-Executive Chairman of Access Holdings Plc and Herbert Wigwe jointly founded Tengen Holdings in December 2013, after Aig-Imoukhuede’s exit as the CEO of Access Bank.  

About Tengen Holdings Limited  

• Before his demise, Access Holdings’ Group Managing Director, Herbert Wigwe was the largest individual shareholder of the group with a 3.72% shareholding in the group. While the erstwhile CEO, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede held no direct shareholding in the group.  
• The second largest substantial shareholder in the group, following Stanbic Nominees, is “Coronation Trustees Tengen Mauritius”. This entity, associated with Tengen Holdings (Mauritius) Limited, holds a 7.11% stake acquired in 2023. 
• Tengen (Holdings) Limited is a part of the Tengen Family Office, co-owned by both Herbert Wigwe and Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, the partners who took over Access Bank in 2002.  
• According to a directory of Nigerian companies, Tengen Family Office was incorporated in Nigeria in 2017, with Herbert Wigwe and Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede identified as the shareholders in the company.   

Access Bank since the demise of Herbert Wigwe 

• Since the demise of Herbert Wigwe, Access Holdings has undergone leadership changes, with Ms. Bolaji Agbede stepping in as the Acting Group Chief Executive Officer and Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede stepping in as the group’s Chairman.  
• In Q1 2024, Access Bank posted a 148% year-on-year growth in pre-tax profit to N202.7 billion, from N81.7 billion as of Q1 2023. The group’s net income within the period hit N159.3 billion, marking a 123% YoY growth from the N71.8 billion net income posted in 2023.  
• Less than two months after Wigwe’s departure, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced new minimum capital requirements for banks, thereby imposing the responsibility of recapitalization on Access Bank’s new leadership.  
• Access Bank needs to raise at least N248.2 billion in new capital to meet up with the N500 billion capital requirement before March 2026.
• During the institution’s Annual General Meeting in April, the shareholders approved the bank’s move to issue 30 billion new shares.  

As one of his first tasks upon returning to leadership, Aig spoke nostalgically about his experience as Group CEO of Access Bank Plc during the last recapitalization exercise. 

He noted during the AGM, “The amount we have mentioned today, is large and significant, and the capital raising efforts we’re pursuing is a significant step in your company’s history and future.”  

“However, I’d like to remind shareholders that between August 2004 and 2007, you may recall that cumulatively, in a period of two and half years, we raised $2 billion in equity together. So, it is not new for us to come to you like this and for us together to succeed in such capital raising effort.”  

[NAirametrics]

Details of the soldiers gruesomely murdered by members of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) have emerged.

Our correspondents had earlier reported how vehicles and tricycles (popularly known as Keke Napep) were also set ablaze by the rampaging IPOB terrorists while the attack lasted on Thursday.

The military high command had earlier on Friday confirmed that no fewer than 5 of its troops deployed at Obikabia Junction Checkpoint in Obingwa Local Government Area adjourning Aba metropolis in Abia State were killed.

In a signal sighted by Daily Trust on Friday, those killed included two Sergeants, two Corporal and one Lance Corporal while 6 civilians, according to the military were killed in the cross fire.

The soldiers were identified as:

• Sergeant Charles Ugochukwu (94NA/38/1467)
• Sergeant Bala Abraham (03NA/53/1028)
• Corporal Gideon Egwe(10NA/65/7085)
• Corporal Ikpeama Ikechukwu (13NA/70/5483)
• Corporal Augustine Emmanuel (13NA/70/6663)

Then signal read, “On 30 May 24, at about 0830 hrs, troops of 144 Battalion deployed at Obikabia Junction Federal School Road, Ogbor Hill in Obingwa LGA were attacked by unknown gunmen suspected to be IPOB/ESN members.

“Gunmen who were enforcing Sit-At-Home order numbering about 30, stormed troops location in 3 black Toyota Land Cruiser Jeeps and opened fire during which 5 x Soldiers were killed.”

It further disclosed that the assailants also carted away 5 AK47 rifles, burnt down 2 military patrol hilux vehicles and injured 2 civilians.

The signal noted that the current situation in Aba is generally tensed while monitoring continues as further details will be forwarded as situation unfolds.

[Dailytrust]

Arsenal legend Paul Merson has predicted Real Madrid to beat Borussia Dortmund in Saturday’s UEFA Champions League final.

Merson believes the LaLiga Champions have too much firepower, adding that Carlo Ancelotti’s side will beat Dortmund 3-1 at Wembley Stadium.

“Real Madrid have way too much firepower in their squad, but it’s not to say Dortmund won’t have a trick or two up their sleeves.

“I think it will be an open game, but Carlo Ancelotti and Co. know how to get the job done on the grandest stage, so I think they will get their hands on the trophy for the 15th time in their history.

“Borussia Dortmund 1-3 Real Madrid,” Merson stated.

The kick-off time for the match is 8 pm.

[DailyPost]

Since leaving the White House in January 2021, Donald Trump has been plotting a return to power — unfazed by the legal tangle his life has become.

With four criminal charges, the former president’s conviction on May 30 was the latest addition to his collection of firsts, making him the first former president in US history to be convicted of a felony.

The businessman is also the first former US president to have a mugshot, to face federal charges, and the first presumptive Republican nominee to become a convicted felon. 

With his third presidential bid underway, the stakes are indeed high for Trump and country.

A QUICK GLANCE AT THE CASES

Hush money trial

The case against Trump was also a novel application of state and federal fraud and campaign finance laws, predicated on a hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election.

Daniels said she was paid $130,000 to remain quiet after having sex with Trump. The former president denies the encounter took place.

Hush money is not illegal. The technicality stems from how Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer who disbursed the money to Daniels, had his reimbursement recorded in the former president’s accounts.

Trump was accused of falsifying his business records by saying the payment was for legal fees and faced 34 counts of fraud under campaign finance laws. 

Falsifying business records charges come with up to four years behind bars.

Prosecutors have not said whether they intend to seek imprisonment, and it is unclear if the judge — who earlier in the trial warned of jail time for gag order violations — would impose that punishment even if pressed. 

Trump’s sentencing on the guilty verdict is scheduled for July 11.

Classified documents

Trump was indicted in June 2023 by a federal grand jury in Miami for taking classified national defense documents from the White House after he left office.

According to prosecutors, Trump resisted the government’s attempts to retrieve the materials.

An indictment released by the US department of justice showed that the former president is facing 37 criminal counts over retaining national defence information, nuclear secrets, exposing information, and obstruction of justice.

The former president has denied the allegations.

Aileen Cannon, presiding judge, indefinitely postponed the trial on May 7, citing “significant issues” around classified evidence that would need to be worked out before the federal criminal case goes to a jury.

Election interference

Trump is being investigated for attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

The indictment alleges that Trump and a co-conspirator “attempted to exploit the violence and chaos at the Capitol by calling lawmakers to convince them… to delay the certification” of the election. 

It also alleges another co-conspirator pushed then-Vice President Mike Pence to “violate the law” to delay President Joe Biden’s victory. The Trump campaign issued a statement shortly after the indictment denying the allegations. 

A date for the trial has not been fixed.

Election interference (again)

Last year, an Atlanta-based grand jury indicted Trump and 18 others on state charges, stemming from their alleged attempts to overturn the former president’s 2020 electoral defeat. 

Fani Willis, Fulton county district attorney, charged the former president on accounts of false statements and filing false documents.

In March, Scott McAfee, superior court judge, dismissed six of the 41 counts from the indictment, including three that applied to Trump. 

A date has not been fixed for the trial.

CAN TRUMP STILL RUN FOR PRESIDENCY?

According to the US constitution, a candidate is only required to be a natural born citizen, at least 35 years old, and a resident of the US for at least 14 years, to have their name on the ballot for the presidency. 

Trump ticks all boxes.

In theory, he could be sworn in from jail if he were to unseat President Joe Biden from the ballot. 

Whether being convicted is enough to dissuade voters and ‘Trumpists’ is subject matter for another day. 

A recent poll of registered voters found 67 percent as saying that convicting Trump for hush money will not be a factor in how they vote. 

While 15 percent said a guilty verdict could more likely make them vote for Trump, 17 percent said it would make them less likely to vote for him come November.

In a significant move to reshape the financial landscape, the Senate has proposed a bill to strip the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) of its final decision-making power in setting interest rates.

According to a copy of the bill obtained by The Nation, this authority is to be transferred to a newly proposed Coordinating Committee for Monetary and Fiscal Policies, which will be headed by the Minister of Finance.

The bill, titled “An Act to Amend the Central Bank of Nigeria Act No. 7 of 2007,” is sponsored by Senator Tokunbo Abiru (Lagos East) with 31 co-sponsors.

Senator Abiru emphasised the necessity of the amendments, stating: “This bill is a pivotal step towards modernising our financial regulatory environment. By aligning the CBN’s operations with contemporary best practices, we aim to foster a more robust and transparent economic framework for Nigeria.”

He added that the primary objective of the amendment was to enhance the effectiveness of the CBN in line with current realities and best practices.

One of the significant amendments proposed is the recapitalisation of the CBN from its current capital of N100 billion to N1 trillion.

This change aims to strengthen the financial stability and operational capacity of the Bank.

On interim board, the bill grants the President the power to constitute an interim board from the existing directors of the CBN.

This board will operate for a period not exceeding sixty days, ensuring continuity in the Bank’s functions during transitional phases.

Under the new provisions, the CBN’s budget will be subject to the approval of the National Assembly, aligning with the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007. This move is aimed at increasing transparency and accountability in the Bank’s financial management.

Abiru said a new position, Chief Compliance Officer (COO), will be introduced.

The COO is required to prepare quarterly reports on the Bank’s compliance with the Act’s provisions. These reports will be submitted to the Board, the President, and relevant committees of the National Assembly.

Also in the bill, the CBN Governor, Deputy Governors, and Chief Compliance Officer will now be appointed for a single term of six years with no possibility of reappointment.

This change, he said is intended to ensure fresh perspectives and reduce the potential for entrenched interests.

Another significant shift proposed by the bill is the establishment of the Coordinating Committee for Monetary and Fiscal Policies.

This new body will comprise the Minister of Finance as Chairman; the Minister of Industry, Trade, and Investment, the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning; Governor of the CBN; Two external board members of the CBN; Chief Economic Adviser to the President; Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Director-General of the Debt Management Office.

Read Also: 107,646 passports ready to pick up nationwide, says Immigration boss

The committee’s goal is to set targets for monetary and fiscal policies that align with controlling inflation and ensuring sustainable economic growth.

On experience and pedigree, the bill stipulates that the Governor and Deputy Governors must have at least 15 years of recognized financial experience, while the COO must have at least 15 years of experience in auditing or legal practice in Nigeria.

Abiru explained that this requirement aims to ensure that only highly qualified individuals hold these critical positions.

The bill also calls for gender balance in the composition of the CBN Board and mandates a one-year notice before any changes to Naira notes are implemented.

Additionally, the bill mandates severe penalties for those who refuse to accept the Naira as payment or engage in the buying or selling of Naira notes at a markup.

These penalties include a minimum prison term of six months or a fine of no less than N500,000.

[TheNation]

The reinstated Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi, has said God predestined his reinstatement.

Speaking during the Friday prayers at the Kofar Kudu Central Mosque in Kano, Sanusi II emphasised that everything that happens is according to God’s will and cannot be questioned by anyone.

He urged people to remain steadfast in their faith and focus on the deeds of Allah during both good and bad times.

“Whoever believes that Allah alone gives everything must take the decision of Allah wholeheartedly. No one asks Allah’s reasons for anything.

“We were told that whoever did not accept destiny is from Allah, his belief is not complete. One should be thankful in times of good and bad situations. We must believe that whatever happens to us is predestined from God and what we couldn’t have is from Him.

“We are fast approaching Zhul Hijja which is very beneficial and we must observe supplications these days,” he stated.

Sanusi II was reinstated as the 16th Emir of Kano by the state Governor, Abba Yusuf, noting that Sanusi’s reappointment was “based on his competence, credibility and popularity.”

He had initially ruled as the 14th Emir but was deposed in 2020 when he had a fallout with the former state governor and present National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Abdullahi Ganduje.

[Punch]

IT is a very serious matter for the United States of America, USA, the most powerful country in the universe, to place a country on the list of states “sponsoring” terrorism. So, when on May 15, 2024 it placed Cuba in this category, it was bound to attract attention. However, this will be for those who have not been following the cat and mouse game between both countries since November 3, 1961 when President John Fitzgerald Kennedy signed “The Cuban Project.”

Otherwise called ‘Operation Mongoose’, it was a project by the US authorising the use by all means, including terrorism against Cuban civilians, to overthrow the Cuban government. At inception, the operation was jointly led by US Air Force General Edward Lansdale and William King Harvey of the Central Intelligence Agency, CIA.

The Kennedy administration had begun with the invasion of Cuba by exiles backed by the American military in what became known as the ”Bay of Pigs Invasion”. There were other attacks, including hundreds of attempts to assassinate former Cuban President Fidel Castro Ruiz.

Terrorism is essentially the use of violence to further political goals. But the USA has a number of definitions depending on various institutions like the CIA.

However, since we are concerned here with international relations, we can adopt the USA State Department definition which states that terrorism is “an activity that one, involves a violent act or an act dangerous to human life, property, or infrastructure; two, appears to be intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or, three, to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping.”

Now, Cuba does not involve itself in violent acts that are dangerous to humanity. Its acknowledged acts outside its borders are primarily two. The first, is sending medical personnel in their tens of thousands to various countries, especially Asia, Latin America and Africa, including Nigeria. One of its remarkable successes was helping to contain Ebola in Africa.

But its most spectacular contribution to humanity was during the COVID-19 pandemic. First, it was perhaps the only country in the world that refused to shut its borders against other human beings. When in March 2020, the British cruise ship, MS Braemer with 682 passengers on board ravaged by COVID-19 was left to drift in the Caribbean with no country allowing it to berth, Cuba brought in the ship.

It followed this up by sending 3,700 healthcare personnel around the world to combat the pandemic. This included missions to Italy,Azerbaijan, Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Honduras, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Peru, Antigua, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent, Suriname, Jamaica, Haiti, Belize, Barbados, Martinique and Trinidad and Tobago.

Here in Africa, Cuban doctors and nurses helped to Combat COVID-19 in Angola, Togo, Cape Verde, South Africa, Guinea Conakry, Guinea Bissau, Sao Tome and Principe, Equatorial Guinea, Sierra Leone and Kenya. This internationalist intervention by the Cuban doctors called “The White Coat Army” was so overwhelming that in my September 11, 2020 column titled, “Nobel Peace Prize: A case for the White Coat Army.” I joined the campaign that the Cuban internationalist medical teams under the Henry Reeve International Medical Brigade, be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

The second intervention the Cubans had engaged in was sending 55,000 troops over 9,000 kilometres to fight and conquer the seemingly invisible Apartheid South Africa military that was invading various African countries and colonising Namibia and South Africa. This led to the independence of these two colonies in Africa.

The Abia government has placed a N25 million bounty on the killers of five soldiers in the state.

On May 30, five soldiers of the Nigerian Army were reportedly killed by suspected members of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) while trying to enforce sit-at-home at Obikabia junction in Aba.

The IPOB earlier gave a directive for total compliance with the sit-at-home order to commemorate Biafra Day on May 30.

On Friday, the army said it would avenge the killing of the soldiers.

In a statement on Friday, Okey Kanu, the commissioner for information in Abia, condemned the attack on the soldiers by the suspected separatists.

“The Abia state government considers the event of Thursday, May 30, 2024, a serious affront to its resolve by criminal elements who are hell-bent on returning Abia to the dark days of insecurity and fear amongst citizens, especially in Aba, the economic heartbeat of the state,” the statement reads.

“This is more regrettable in the light of the fact that unprecedented investments have been made in the last one year to restore the city’s public infrastructure and reposition it as an attractive investment destination for local and foreign businesses.

“To underscore its resolve, the state government is offering a N25 million (twenty-five million naira) reward to anyone with useful information that could lead to the location and arrest of any of the criminals connected to the unfortunate killings and the subsequent state of apprehension across the city of Aba and environs.

“The security formations in the state have been directed to treat informants with all the confidentiality required to guarantee their full cooperation and assistance until the criminals are fully apprehended and brought to book.

“Furthermore, the Abia state government will, in line with its commitment to the welfare of the security operatives working within its territory, take up the responsibility of supporting the families of the slain soldiers, including payment of regular stipends to their spouses and the education of their children to university level.”

[TheCable]

My first encounter with royalty and power politics is the stuff of family and Yoruba history. At the end of the Ekiti Parapo war, the architect and motivator of the Ekiti uprising, Prince Ishola Fabunmi and his main lieutenant Dada Akoja (my forefather) returned to Okemesi. The long serving Monarch of the town was Fabunmi’s great uncle, Aponlese. Reputed to have been on the throne for an improbable hundred years, he had grown feeble and weak. As is often the case, the returning triumphant General and Prince, Fabunmi resolved on taking the throne and requested his Uncle to abdicate. The confidence of Fabunmi was predicated on the anticipated support of the returnee Okemesi contingent of the Parapo war. But his close friend and confidante demurred and warned that those who were goading him on may turn against him at the critical moment. And so it transpired. 

On the day of the coup, rather than turned the cannon fire on the Palace, his military confederates turned against him. The mob headed for his residence and he had to flee the town. They pursued and were upon him when my Dada intervened, stood against his pursuers and enabled his escape. In retaliation, the mob turned on him, burnt down his residence and drove him out of town. The most recent is the one concerning my friend Emir Sanusi Lamido Sanusi 

Back in the day, we were political and intellectual collaborators. Like many Nigerians I first took notice of him as a regular newspaper contributor. He was an intellectual rebel in the political debate over the wildfire regionalist push for the enthronement of Sharia jurisprudence in the Northern Muslim states. He called to question the propriety and honesty of purpose of the introduction of Sharia especially the orthodox penal code in a context that does not fulfil the condition precedent. To convict an offender and proceed to exact the severe punishment presupposes the prerequisite of a society where no one is compelled to steal in order to assuage hunger and basic necessities of life. He argued and rightly so in my view that such a precondition does not exist in Nigeria and the Nigerian society must ab initio be deemed as failing to satisfy the primary condition for the introduction of Sharia. 

The first fruit of our collaboration was the establishment of a political pressure group called the Progressive Action Group, PAM. It was conceptualised as a response to the failure of the political system to fulfil the role of continuous and regular leadership reproduction and recruitment into the civilian political class-to assume political succession from one generation to another. There was an emergent generational gap and vacuum-to whose remedy we programmatically addressed ourselves. We intended ourselves as a kind of political nursery for preparing and producing a successor class at the shortest possible time. As it were, the major indication of this systemic failure was the recycling of political leaders rather than a renewal with successor generations. 

On the occasion of my fortieth birthday, I got him and six other friends including Odia Ofeimum, Sina Odugbemi, Ruben Abati, Kayode Samuel, Dotun Oni and Professor Adebayo Williams to write essays in my honour as companion to a collection of my columns and got the hybrid published as “Beyond Abacha: Companion Essays”. Sanusi titled his chapter “Shariacracy In Nigeria: The Intellectual Roots Of Islamist Discourses”

He wrote “Over a long period of time I have become suspicious of the Northern political establishment. The Northern Muslim population has often been used as a cannon fodder by the establishment in its political battles with other class fractions of the Nigerian elite. At the end of it all the people remain poor, uneducated, malnourished and oppressed. I approach my analysis of Shariacracy from a Shariati perspective. 

“I try to examine it from the point of view of the welfare of the people and their liberation from these pathetic conditions. This has placed me in seeming conflict with traditional scholarship and the political class. What they portray as piety, I consider hypocrisy.  What they see as achievements, I see as diversion. Until Shariacracy focuses on the true problem of the North, the condition of its people, it will not be, in my books, serving the purpose”. He wrote this 23 years ago and couldn’t have served a better notice of his future interventions in the public life of Nigeria. 

At the height of his crisis as CBN governor, I weighed in on the controversy as follows “Inherent in him are the contradictory character traits of humility and arrogance. In his father and grandfather he inherits the DNA of non-conformity and aristocratic hauteur. That he made a success of his banking career owes less to any special aptitude for banking and more to the fact that people of his talent make-up would generally make a success of any assignment they are given”.

“Without prejudice to the allegations against him, I think he generally acquitted himself brilliantly as the Governor of the Central bank but he was equally immensely flawed. He was too politically brash, controversial and confrontational. He was self-adulation and gave the impression that his accomplishments amount to a licence to redefine the job profile of the CBN governor in his own image; he was unduly populist and constructed the CBN as a law unto itself”

Unable to reconcile this character profile with the sedate pomp and pageantry that conventionally define monarchy, I argued on his behalf that he would never be interested in becoming the Emir of Kano. When next I saw him, I confidently told him I had dismissed the speculations making the rounds that he may be interested in mounting the Kano throne. He cut me off and protested ‘I am o, I am o! He achieved his heart’s desire and wasted no time in the imposition of his activist personality on the traditional institution. Faced with a considerable push back by the reactionary establishment, he retorted with this vintage Sanusi “I have reflected over and over on my speech and I still don’t see what I said that is so wrong and offensive. I didn’t say the North cannot survive as a country. After all, Niger Republic is there with some help from Paris. I didn’t say that the North in the past had no glory. I know it has a rich history. I didn’t say the North cannot be rich and better. In fact, I think it can and it is a disgrace we are where we are”

The quality I admire most in him is his resilience, the ability to bend with the winds of adversity and emerge triumphant. There has been this persistent speculation that his early adulthood had been partly spent in the pursuit of fundamentalist causes in dangerous sects. Consequently, he was one of a group of fifteen zealots who were locked up in Sokoto Prisons indefinitely for sectarian extremism by General Sani Abacha. According to Jafar Jafar “Sanusi Lamido Sanusi escaped firing squad by whiskers and jailed for about two and half years under Abacha’s Decree 2 in Sokoto Prisons for “inciting violence”,

He thereafter picked up himself and applied his talent in the service of the banking industry. And boy, was he massively rewarded! And then he became the Emir of Kano as he wished. It was from this Olympian height that he was pulled down by one of the personifications of contemporary Nigerian political regression, former Kano state Governor, Ibrahim Ganduje. Their collision was predictable. There was no way a rogue Governor and a reformist Emir in the same domain could avoid a confrontation and showdown. 

And when the end of the beginning came, Sanusi did not exhibit an iota of self-pity or depression. It was as if he knew he was coming back to the throne and refused to be addressed as the former Emir of Kano. He would insist on being identified as the 14th Emir of Kano. As I was concluding a one year academic visiting fellowship at the University of Oxford in 2020, he was coming in for a similar fellowship at St Anthony’s college at the same institution. He subsequently escalated his academic ambition by registering for a PhD at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

At the end of the day what matters most is what best serves public interest. Is it an Emir who defines his role as a reformer in a society desperately in need of progressive reform or a Governor caught on tape stuffing wads of proceeds of corruption into the cavernous folds of his babariga? I actually believe that it is a badge of honour to be at odds with such a contrarian character with the charge of “Insubordination” no less. If Kano state was not all about Ganduje, then it was wrong to have deposed Sanusi in the first place. It was a wrongdoing that cried for remedial justice. 

I sympathise with the dethroned Emir, Aminu Ado Bayero, who is an innocent victim of crass power politics. Nonetheless, here is an audition for the two Emirs and you be the judge of who better serves the cause of Nigerian public interest. The theatre was the politicisation of the relocation of certain offices of the Central Bank to Lagos.. Here goes Bayero. 

“We are indeed suspicious on why Mr. President single-handedly relocated key departments of CBN, and outright relocation of FAAN to Lagos.

“We are receiving a series of messages from my subjects, and most of them expressed concern over the relocation of CBN and FAAN to Lagos…the Federal Government should “come out clean on this matter and talk to Nigerians in the languages they would understand.” And then came Sanusi 

“Moving certain functions to the Lagos office (which is bigger than the Abuja head office) is an eminently sensible move,”. “It makes eminent strategic sense. And I would have done this if I had stayed.

“All this noise is absolutely unnecessary. The CBN has staff manning its branches and cash offices across the federation..

“My advice to the governor is to go ahead with his policy. Once the CBN starts bending to political pressure on one thing it will continue doing so. ethnic and religious bigots will always shout but the CBN should rise above it and just do what needs to be done

One puzzle remains. How did the federal government manage to insinuate itself into what was clearly within the remit of the Kano state government?