In this interview, the Ovie (king) of Uvwie Kingdom, His Royal
Majesty Emmanuel Ekemejewa Sideso Abe I, a retired General Manager,
Corporate Services, Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company
(NSPMC), speaks on the NSPMC where N1,000 notes worth N2.1 billion
allegedly went missing plus the arrest of a staff for allegedly being
in possession of fake N900,000.
Excerpts….
Looking back now at the once revered security company, NSPMC, will
definitely leave a sour taste in the mouth. We heard of the N2.1 billion
of newly printed N1,000 notes that mysteriously went missing plus the
arrest of a staff for allegedly being in possession of fake N900,000 in
N1,000 denomination. How do you feel?
It is sad thing for
me to look back and see what is happening today. This is a company that
printed all the nation’s security documents; with what is happening
today ever contemplated. If experience is anything worthwhile in this
country, I don’t think we will be where we are today, where people get
away with high level corruption and all sorts of crime in this country.
NSPMC was an excellent place to work in.
The name alone
was a password, not only locally but also all over the world. There are
people still alive today, who worked in that place, who can lift their
heads up at any time to be counted among diligent persons with
impeccable character. Overseas such persons are often deployed to
assist.
If you have any problem, there is no reason you cannot beckon at
experienced people who have passed through that mill, because you can’t
ask a doctor to go and do printing or a manager in a fast food industry
to manage a security printing industry.
We are printing currency and it is only people of integrity that can
work in that place. Before you can be employed into NSPMC in those days,
you must have to go through serious security checks; all the forms,
where you schooled, your village, fingerprints.
It took almost six months to get the needed clearance for a new
employee but, today, political appointees come into the place and of
course you will definitely have current problem. As a pioneer of that
establishment, I feel very unhappy because all my life I spent in that
place.
Government must realize that the reason that place was set was to
print our currency and all our security documents including passports,
examinations papers and cheque books. Today, cheques are being printed
abroad and we are talking of unemployment.
We train people and, as a currency printer, you cannot print any
other document. Most of us when we pulled out, I could well have set up a
printing press but no! In the UK, you cannot find those who had worked
in the Royal Mint or De la Rue setting up printing press when they
retire.
No! It’s for life. There was no oath taking but if we hear of anyone
breaching the code of conduct, you end up in Kirikiri. It was as bad as
that. You don’t just walk into The Mint and come out. There were checks
and balances. Right from the manufacturer of the papers, we begin checks
to ensure that nothing is left unaccounted for. You can’t leave bank
note papers outside. They are dual controlled; the CBN, the security
agencies because you account for every piece of paper. At the finishing end, the CBN must be present.
I feel so sad to hear of what is happening in that establishment
today. We formed the African Bank Notes Association and it was Nigeria
that hosted it first. If they didn’t trust us then, it would not have
happened.
The problem in The Mint today can be blamed on interference,
political interference; people who don’t know the job are appointed into
position and are managing the place. The Federal Government has to take
a decisive action to deal with the situation if The Mint is to go back
to its glorious days.
If there is any problem there today, the CBN also has some
explanations to do because they have an inspectorate division there at
any stage. What are they doing? It’s their product. At every stage, CBN
is involved.
In the management set up there now, you hardly see any old hand in
the place. So, who is to direct them? The people there now certainly
don’t know their right from their left hand and there is nobody to guide
them. If what I am reading in the papers reflect goings on in the
place, then there should a through clean up of the place and they should
be prosecuted because the name of this country is at stake. I am a
traditional ruler today, but I have quite a lot of friends that I have
worked with across the globe, but I must say we never expected what is
happening now in The Mint.
We hear that part of our currency and other security documents are
now being printed abroad. Is it that it is cheaper to print outside or
we have a problem?
If the order from the CBN is more than the capacity we can handle, we
can only sub-contract some of them to Thomas de la Rue who are
shareholders in The Mint. They started the company here, but, today,
they are out because of the Nigerianisation programme.
I don’t know how much percentage they now hold, but they are
shareholders. I do not see any reason we should still be printing
outside now that we have two factories if the people there are properly
trained because we have a huge unemployment problem in the country.
So, contracting these jobs out to people who don’t need you is a
disservice to the Nigerian economy, because all it will take the
contractors is to recall some of their retired people to be able to
print your currency. At a point we had a training school in the place
that can be compared to the Yaba College of Technology. In fact, we sent
them to London College of Printing.
We trained people as engravers. It takes about five to six years
after graduation to train bank note engravers. The only currency that we
designed properly without any outside input is the fifty naira note at
that time. Our boys did it. I don’t know whether they are still doing
that now.
We had a minting department where we minted coins. We related with
Royal Mint for minting of coins while Thomas de la Rue was in charge of
printing notes. They were also part of the board in those days. Members
were drawn from ministries of finance, national planning among others,
but today what do you have? You hear of the appointment of this, and
that. This is the problem.
I was traveling to Rome, when I saw the first publication about
unnumbered bank notes that were found on somebody in a bureau de change
and I immediately put a call through to the managing director but he
didn’t pick my call. I don’t know him, but for the scandal I would not
have called him.
When we changed currency in this country we were almost doing 24
hours. When it comes to the job, you either do it or you are fired but
politics came and politicians started appointing people, some of whom
are not qualified. A few occasion, they appointed some of the old hands
as executive directors. I am not aware that they have appointed an old
hand as a managing director; and these are technical jobs and not jobs
for the boys.
Some people who were in research and development while I was there
have been deployed to production. It wasn’t like that. We recruit what
we called management trainees regardless of your discipline and we train
these people who are made to go round all the departments; as they are
going round they being assessed.
If you are not good, there is no compromise, you go. I did not know
anybody when I joined the place. No godfatherism. If that place must go
back to what it was, government must have to develop the political will
to transform the place. We need to train personnel.
The Mint is not just a chopping outfit. Now cheques are being printed
outside. Cheque production was a product line. Printing of examination
papers was a product line. Now, you give jobs to other people because
you don’t know what you are doing. If you are conscious of the security
implications of printing cheques and other security documents, you won’t
contract it out to people.
There was a time when one of the ships bringing in bank note papers
sank in Portugal, we sent people from here to recover all the papers
under the supervision of the CBN to destroy them. For any note to be
destroyed in The Mint, either mutilated or whatever you have to spread
it to get the exact size in the presence of auditors from the CBN and
security personnel to sign that those papers were truly destroyed. That
was what The Mint used to be. How can you tell me that millions of bank
notes went out of the place when even rain-soaked bank notes are not
just destroyed, they are also accounted for.
What was growing up like and what were those little pranks HRM played when he was young?
My parents are from Uvwie and I was brought up here. I grew up like
any other child and when it was time for me to be Ovie of Uvwie, I was
invited and here I am. I will not say the things we did when I was young
were pranks. I was a good child. I was loved by my parents and the
community loved me. If I was playing some pranks, I don’t think I would
have assumed this position, because you have to look back on the records
of the individual for any respected office.
Culled: Vanguard
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