5 things you probably didn’t know about Obadiah Mailafia

Obadiah Mailafia was a popular and active political actor, development economist, central banker, statesman and the 2019 Nigeria Presidential election Candidate of African Democratic Congress. Aside from this, we will discuss 5 things you probably didn’t know about Obadiah Mailafia

Mr Mailafia, age  64, died on Sunday morning from an undisclosed illness.

Things you probably didn’t know about Obadiah Mailafia

1. Mailafia was born on 24 December 1956 in the village of Randa in Sanga Local Government Area of Kaduna State. His father Baba Mailafia Gambo Galadima was an evangelist with the Evangelical Reformed Church of Central Nigeria (ERCC). Mailafia was raised as a missionary child in a multiracial environment. His parents later transferred to Murya, Lafia, in Nasarawa State, where he grew up.
2.  graduated top of his class at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, in 1978 with a B.Sc. honours Social Sciences degree (Politics, Economics, and Sociology).
3.  He was a former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. In this capacity, he served as 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. He was a principal actor in the banking consolidation exercise of 2005–2006 that led to the reform of the Nigerian banking sector. He oversaw the reduction of the number of commercial banks, through mergers and acquisitions, from 89 to 25 consolidated banks; an exercise that was widely regarded as one of the most successful such efforts anywhere in the developing world in recent times.
4. 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.
5. Meanwhile, he joined partisan politics in 2018 amid the rising killings in Southern Kaduna. He once alleged that a northern governor was a Boko Haram commander.  Following his statement on Boko Haram, he was invited by the DSS but later recanted his statement.

No doubt, Mr Mailafia was quite critical of the President Muhammadu-led administration, especially on policy issues and insecurity.

Last year, while appearing on a radio programme with Nigeria Info Abuja 95.1FM, Mr Mailafia alleged that some pardoned terrorists revealed that a serving northern governor was a Boko Haram leader.

Mr Mailafia was invited for questioning by the State Security Service based on the allegation.

He later retracted the claim, saying he had no evidence to defend it.

More so, Obadiah Mailafia warned against any possible arrest of Sunday Adeyemi, also known as Igboho. The politician disclosed on Wednesday, March 24, that it would be unwise for security agents to arrest the activist.

“Let me make this point clear. Under our constitution, under our laws and by the precepts of international laws, global ethics, natural justice and equity, the people who are about to die have a right to defend themselves, so they (security agencies) will be wise not to go after Igboho.”