CBN board: Tinubu writes Senate, replaces Eke with Onwudiwe as South East nominee

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.”