Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Godwin Emefiele

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) demands the immediate resignation and investigation of the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Godwin Emefiele, following his appearance in All Progressives Congress (APC) campaign posters which confirms his partisan affiliation and entanglement with the APC.

The PDP asserts that the appearance of the CBN Governor; the banker of the federation, who by law, ought to be non-partisan and apolitical, in APC campaign material is the height of impunity of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC administration, which amounts to poking its fingers in the eyes of Nigerians and daring them to do their worse.

This action by Mr. Emefiele is contrary to the provision of Section 9 of the Central Bank of Nigeria (Establishment) Act which provides that “the governor and the deputy governors shall devote the whole of their time to the service of the bank and while holding office, shall not engage in any full or part-time employment or vocation, whether remunerated or not…”

Campaign posters publicising Governor of Central Bank, Godwin Emefiele, as presidential aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have flooded Eagle Square in Abuja, venue of the APC national convention scheduled to hold tomorrow.   

By engaging in partisan politics to the extent of appearing in APC campaign posters, Mr. Emefiele has knowingly and deliberately violated the provision of the CBN Act stated above.

Mr. Emefiele has also desecrated the sanctity of his office as CBN Governor, compromised the integrity of the apex bank, stripped it of the confidence reposed in it by Nigerians and the International Community and as such, cannot legitimately continue to hold and function in that office.

This further confirms that under Mr. Emefiele, the CBN, as the custodian of our national economy, has become an appendage and cash cow of the APC in their reckless pillaging of our national resources, the resultant effect of which is now evident in the near collapse state of our economy.

The CBN Governor must therefore resign immediately and subject himself to investigation by anti-corruption agencies on various allegations of financial misfeasance including reportedly opening our national vaults to the cabal in the APC administration and operating a special fraudulent, corrupt and discriminatory foreign exchange regimes for APC leaders to fleece our nation.

Although the central banker has not announced that he will be contesting for the party’s ticket at the primaries, some individuals under the aegis of Green Alliance Movement have on Wednesday said they will purchase nomination forms for him soon. 

Mr Emefiele’s tenure as the head of the central bank may be his strongest selling point but under his leadership, the central bank did not experience much growth or stability due to the downward spiral of the Naira. 

To tackle the devastating currency devaluation, Mr Emefiele launched attacks against AbokiFX, an online platform that publishes aggregated currency exchange rates by black listing the website and declaring the operator Oniwinde Adedotun wanted. This action was outside the administrative powers of the central bank governor.  

Mr Emefiele said that Mr Oniwinde’s reporting of exchange rates endangers the economy and embarrases the government. He went ahead to invite the blogger and his supporters to a fist fight should they disagree with his despotic decisions. 

Mr Emefiele also initiated economic and financial policies in connivance with the Buhari regime. Several of these policies do not reflect public interest and the good of the general public. 

In 2021 Mr Emefiele was dragged to court for allowing the Buhari regime continue borrowing flagrantly, after exceeding borrowing limit and not repaying previous outstanding. This action violated section 38 of the CBN Act. 

“The total amount of such advances outstanding shall not at any time exceed five per cent of the previous year’s actual revenue of the Federal Government.

“All sections advances made pursuant to this section shall be repaid –

“(a) as soon as possible and shall in any event be repayable by the end of the Federal Government Financial year in which they are granted and if such advances remain unpaid at the end of the year, the power of the Bank to grant such further advances in any subsequent year shall not be exercisable, unless the outstanding advances have been repaid,” Section 38 (2)(3) of the CBN act reads in part. 

Financial Analyst, Tosin Adeoti, commenting on his lawsuit against Mr Emefiele, berated the action as lawless. 

“We are asking the court to declare that the Central Bank of Nigeria under the direction of its Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, can be held liable/accountable for their incompetence, for actions taken in the course of their duties which are unlawful, illegal, unconstitutional and indeed detrimental to the public interest.

“We realised that those who should do something about the humongous debts the country is piling are not saying anything. The National Assembly is not exercising its functions rightly. A lot of civil rights organisations are shying away rather than put pressure on the presidency to stop taking more and more loans. 91 per cent of the nation’s revenue was spent on paying debt in the first six months of the year. This is not sustainable and will only lead to the nation being unable to get funds for capital projects. This cannot be good for any country.

“The CBN under Mr Emefiele has been engaged in the illegality of lending to the Federal Government more than the prescribed five per cent of the government’s revenues of the previous year. In 2020, for instance, the (apex) bank lent the government N2.8tn which is 62 per cent of 2019 revenues! The bank further lent to the Federal Government even when it had yet to refund what was previously borrowed. Presently, the Federal Government owes the CBN N15.51tn – N14.86tn of this under the Buhari regime, contrary to the express provisions of Section 38 of the CBN Act.

“This isn’t academic. The lawlessness is responsible for the skyrocketing prices of items in the market and the instability of the naira. It’s the CBN’s job to provide this stability. Breaking the law has brought instability. The dollar exchange rate as of this morning (Thursday, September 16, 2021) was N565 per dollar. Nobody knows where it is heading next, whether up or down and how long that would be. Who wants to invest in such a volatile environment? All of these things are connected,” Mr Adeoti said.