A former director of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Olorunfunmi Basorun, has called on Governor Godwin Emefiele to resign over his links to the 2023 Presidency.
Basorun, a former Secretary to the State government and one-time employee of the CBN said if the apex bank’s Governor fails to resign, the Senate should immediately reconvene and use two-third majority to remove him.
On Friday, some groups bought the N100m nomination and expression of interest forms of the APC for the CBN Governor after weeks of speculation about his ambition.
But on Saturday, Emefiele said he had not taken a stance on the presidency, saying God will lead him in the days ahead/
In a chat with Daily Trust, Chief Basorun said it was morally wrong for Emefiele to get involved in the “murky water of politics”.
He said, “The Governor of central Bank is not just a public officer, he is the chief economic officer of Nigeria, who should not get involved directly or indirectly in politics and to get involved now.
“In fact, the day his posters flooded the streets, that’s the day he should have resigned; he did not resign, now some so-called farmers said they have acquired N100m forms for him to contest the presidency.
“He is a Nigerian and he is entitled but by that position he is not entitled. And in my opinion it should stand as one of the reasons why the Senate should meet urgently, use two third majority to remove him, because he cannot be easily removed, if he does not resign the Senate should remove him.
“Because the multiplying effect of his involvement in politics is grave on our economy, he is the man who will say this is what we have decided to be the equivalent of Naira and dollar, this is the man who will say this is the amount of reserve we have, now he is going to be in the mucky terrain of politics, he should resign, if he doesn’t resign, the appropriate authority to remove him is the Senate, they should do the needful urgently.”
The APC chieftain wondered how the CBN Governor would govern Nigeria when he cannot fulfil the pension obligations of the retirees.
“The pensioners got salary increase since year 2010 and that one wants to come and head the country. Series or appeal have gone to him, he would say he is looking at it and he has not done anything.”
He said as a former employee of the CBN, the extant practice is for the leadership of the bank to be above board and independent of the political leadership in the country, saying it would be immoral for any CBN leader to get involved in politics.
“I was an employee of Central bank for 21 years, I rose to the level of deputy director, we were never, to even put our face near politics, because of the work we were doing. This is an independent organization to run the economy in such a way that we will not run into problems in the financial world.
“If we now come into the murky terrain of politics, party A believes in this, party B believes in that, he would belong to one of them he has left the central bank so to say, but before he even gets to the stage, is he a member of the party? I’m not aware.
“They have bought the form for him, there are many questions he has to answer, anytime he was asked, he was always dodging answer, he could have said “I am not involved, I don’t know anything about it, I don’t want to contest”, he is been dodging and dodging, trying to play games, so the best thing now it’s clear that they have probably convinced him before buying the form, because we have heard several organizations have bought form for this, bought form for that, we are in trouble o, God will save us, all this buying form, buying form.”
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