Breaking: Ex-CBN Deputy Gov Obadiah Mailafia, dies at 64
A former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Dr Obadiah Mailafia, is dead.
The former presidential aspirant, according to a family source, passed away on Sunday morning at the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Gwagwalada, Abuja after a brief illness.
Dr Mailafia who hailed from Southern Kaduna State was a fierce critic of the President Buhari Adminstration on many national issues, particularly over the incessant killing of his people by Fulani terrorists.
Besides being a known government critic, he also advocated for public sector and exchange rate reforms.
He was invited multiple times by operatives of the Department of State Security last year when he stirred controversy after he granted an interview on Channels Television in which he accused government officials of sponsoring terrorism in the country.
Mailafiya was one of the most powerful and progressive voices in the country, and an uncompromising advocate of the Middlebelt cause, which hinges its struggle for the interests of Christian minority ethnic groups in North Central Nigeria and beyond.
Mailafia, who was a columnist with The PUNCH newspaper, was the Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress in the 2019 election.
The deceased banker was born on December 24, 1956, in the Sanga Local Government Area of Kaduna State.
He later graduated top of his class at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, in 1978 with a B.Sc. (Hons) Social Sciences degree (Politics, Economics, and Sociology) and later bagged an M.Sc. from the same institution.
He subsequently won a French Government Scholarship to France, where he earned a Certificate in French Language and Civilisation from the University of Clermont-Ferrand in 1985.
The late Dr Mailafia is survived by his wife and children.
