Former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Dr. Obadiah Mailafia, is dead. He was reported to have died on Sunday, September 19, 2021 at the National Hospital, Abuja, after an illness. The celebrated economist, until his death, was one of Nigerian Tribune’s notable weekly columnists. He would have been 65 on December 24, later this year.
The news of his death was received with sadness by the larger public space.
Early life and education
Mailafia, whose father Baba Mailafia Gambo Galadima was an evangelist with the Evangelical Reformed Church of Central Nigeria (ERCC), was born on December 24, 1956, in the village of Randa in Sanga Local Government Area of Kaduna State. While been raised as a missionary child, his parents were later transferred to Murya, Lafia, in Nasarawa State, where he grew up.
He started his primary education at Musha Sudan United Mission School between 1964 to 1969 and proceeded to Mada Hills Secondary School, Akwanga from 1970 to 1974. For his A ‘Levels, he attended the School of Basic Studies (SBS) at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, between 1974 and 1975. He graduated top of his class at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, in 1978 with a B.Sc. Honours Social Sciences degree (Politics, Economics and Sociology). He also has a M.Sc. from the same institution. He subsequently won a French Government Scholarship to France, where he earned a Certificate in French Language and Civilization from the University of Clermont-Ferrand in 1985. In 1986 he also earned the Diplôme (equivalent to an M.Phil.) in international economics from the Institut International d’Administration Public (IIAP), the international wing and sister institution of the prestigious École nationale d’administration (ENA) of France. Mailafia later proceeded to the United Kingdom as a Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) Scholar at Oriel College, earning a DPhil from the University of Oxford in 1995.
He taught Government and Economics at Akoko Anglican Grammar School, Arigidi-Ikare in Ondo State, Nigeria between 1978 and 1979 as part of his primary assignment during his obligatory National Youth Service Corps year. After his national service he returned to Ahmadu Bello University, where he lectured undergraduates and was also Research Assistant.
From 1982 to 1989, Mailafia was a Fellow and sometime Acting Research Director of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS). He co-authored a report on the Maitatsine Religious Riots that formed the bedrock of the government’s response to the crisis (1984). He served on a committee that advised the Federal Military Government on a peaceful approach to the Nigeria-Cameroon Bakassi Peninsula Dispute. At the National Institute, he came under the mentorship of illustrious Nigerians such as Chief Simeon Adebo, Pius Okigbo, Eme Awa, Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, Gidado Idris, Akinola Aguda, Moshood Kashimawo Abiola and Claude Ake.
Compelling career
From 1990 to 1995, Mailafia was resident tutor and lecturer in the economics and politics of developing areas at Plater College Oxford at the time an associate college of the University of Oxford. During 1995–1996 he was an assistant professor at New England College, Arundel, the foreign academic programme of New England College. He was subsequently a lecturer in international finance at Richmond Business School, the American International University in London (1997–1998). He was then headhunted as the pioneer head of the International Business Department of Regents Business School London (1998–2000).
From 2001 to 2005, Mailafia served as a chief economist in the Strategic Planning and Budgeting Department of the African Development Bank Group. He served both in Abidjan and in Tunis when the bank was temporarily relocated to Tunisia. In this capacity he was on several missions throughout Africa to supervise projects in power and infrastructures, agriculture industry. He was also the task manager for coordinating grants to research institutions throughout Africa, including such institutions as the Council for Social Science Research (CODESRIA), African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) and the African Capacity Development Foundation (ACBF). He drafted the Concept Note that was later adopted by the board of the AFDB, leading to the establishment of New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and was also a Member of the AfDB and the United Nations Economic Commission of Africa (UNECA) Joint Committee that provided technical support to the steering committee of the heads of state and government on the establishment of NEPAD and its secretariat.
Mailafia was secretary to the senior management committee and special negotiating team for the Ninth Replenishment of the African Development Fund and a member of the task force for the joint management of the HIPC Trust Fund, in coordination with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund IMF.
From 2005 to 2007, Mailafia was recalled home from the African Development Bank to serve as deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). In this capacity he served a member of the board of directors of the bank and was principally responsible for managing monetary policy, economic policy, research and statistics and liaison with regional and international bodies, including the IMF and the World Bank.
From 2010 to 2015, Mailafia was the chief of staff (Chef de Cabinet) to the 79-member nation African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States based in Brussels, Belgium.
Irritated by Nigeria’s declining community of good leaders, Mailafia ran for president in the 2019 presidential elections under the platform of the African Democratic Congress (ADC). Till his death, he was an ardent critic of the socioeconomic and political realities of Nigeria. Barely two weeks to his death, he was reported to have lampooned Nigeria’s leadership, saying, “The economy is collapsing. There is a collapse of the institution. Police, university’s standards are low. Corruption has taken over in the country. What else do we need to say Nigeria is a failed state? Nigeria has been designated as a failed state. We may not say it is a failed state, but it is certainly exhibiting the features of a failing state in terms of the kind of violence we are witnessing.”
As a widely read columnist with the Nigerian Tribune, he was read devotedly by this large audience. His column oscillated between Nigeria’s socioeconomic realities and the larger African contraptions.
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