Even though Muiz Banire, the immediate past chairman of the Governing Board of the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), had about three years and eight months before the expiration of his five-year tenure going by the confirmation of his appointment by the Senate in October 2018, his continued stay in office would have been against the provisions of the AMCON (Amendment No. 2) Act, 2019, according to BusinessDay findings.
President Muhammadu Buhari had in a letter to the Senate, which was read on the floor of the Red Chamber on Tuesday, requested the lawmakers to confirm the appointment of Edward Adamu as the new AMCON chairman, signalling the termination of Banire’s appointment.
Coming barely 24 hours after Babatunde Fowler was replaced with Muhammad Nami as the chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Banire’s removal sparked public outcry, with some reading political undertones in the move.
“You don’t play this kind of politics!” said Tunde Shelle, a former chairman of the main opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos, who accused Buhari’s administration of nepotism.
But BusinessDay checks show that Banire’s replacement was in accordance with the provisions of the law.
Section 3 (a) of the AMCON (Amended) Act, 2019, which was passed by the eighth National Assembly in May 2019 and signed into law by President Buhari in August 2019, provides that there shall be “a part-time chairman who shall be a Deputy Governor in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to be nominated by the Central Bank of Nigeria”.
The signing into law of the AMCON (Amendment) Act, 2019 by the president is part of the new moves to get the corporation ready for its sunset around 2021, BusinessDay finds.
Adamu, who replaces Banire, has been sitting on CBN’s Board as the bank’s deputy governor for corporate services since March 23, 2018, while Banire, who is a former national legal adviser of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), has no spot on the Board.
But despite the above finding, political commentators have continued to raise concerns over the choice of Adamu, a northerner, as AMCON chairman amid repeated replacements of key officeholders from especially the South-West with northerners.
A notable example was the replacement of Kemi Adeosun, who hails from Ogun State (South-West), with Kaduna-born Zainab Ahmed as minister of finance. Also Fowler, who is from Lagos State, was just on Monday replaced with Nami, a northerner, after his four-year tenure as FIRS chairman expired, despite presenting himself for reappointment.
The concerns are coming against the background that there are other CBN deputy governors from the South who could have been appointed as Banire’s replacement.
More so, Section 10 (1d) of the AMCON Act, 2010 stipulates that the CBN’s Board shall consists of five non-executive directors, two of whom are to be nominated by the Federal Ministry of Finance, two by the CBN, and one by the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC).
AMCON was established in 2010 under Section (1) of the AMCON Act, 2010, following some structural reforms in the Nigerian banking industry. The corporation, which is saddled with the responsibility of cleaning banks’ non-performing loan assets to improve financial system liquidity and make banks to run on a clean slate, has been a key stabilising and revitalising tool in the economy.
OLUWASEGUN OLAKOYENIKAN
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