Flying the Emefiele kite

The name of Godwin Emefiele, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) started appearing on the political firmament as a likely candidate for the office of Nigeria’s president sometime in February.

It coincided with the meeting of the 2022 Committee whose proceedings caused an earthquake of sorts in political discussion groups. The 2022 Committee is an amorphous group comprising top businessmen, serving and former state governors, media, other political and civil society leaders that met in Lagos and were hosted in the opulent Eko Hotel by Babajide Sanwa-Olu, the Lagos State governor.

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The group met in a non-partisan retreat to among other things, chart a new course for the country and map a new consensus for a national rebirth which in their view should help to pull the country from the brink.

Prior to the Lagos summit, the group was said to have had a meeting with the president and had his buy-in into this national project. The group pushing such an altruistic agenda was lauded from one end of the country to the other until the story went around that they were fronting for the emergence of Emefiele as a consensus candidate in the 2023 presidential election.

Of course, they were quick to distance themselves from these insinuations. A statement jointly signed by the co-conveners, Kashim Ibrahim Imam and Nduka Obaigbena, finally put paid to those stories, disassociating the high-minded group with Emefiele’s presidential aspirations. The rumour turned out to be just an exercise in an untidy political kite flying for those who started it.

The string-pullers of the Emefiele kite would however not be deterred. Soon advertisements in choice pages of the best-selling national newspapers started flooding the media space. The adverts, while showcasing the immense attributes of the principal, always left the reader in limbo whether he was a potential contestant or not.

Someone who understands these chicaneries explained to me that these gimmicks are mere subterfuges. That you don’t spend this kind of money on adverts unless there is serious intention to run for the office.

The matter, however, refused to go away. More and more sponsored adverts appeared and in one of them the CBN governor was quoted to have responded to a question on his political intention where said he would not lobby for office and that since it is God that anoints leaders he will leave his fate firmly in the hands of God. But this is neither here nor there.

Emefiele should have come out to clearly affirm or otherwise. Deploying masked men on what seems like a blitzkrieg trail, chanting his name from this newspaper to that FM radio station, while he is sitting pretty tight on our common patrimony is not the best way to campaign for the highest office in the land.

No doubt the CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele has every right under the constitution to aspire and contest in all elective positions to be thrown up. However, holding an appointive office and in particular, that of the office of the CBN Governor demands that Emefiele should keep a distance from the hurly burly of political engagements. 

This is supported by the law governing activities of the bank, CBN Act 2007 which says 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, except such personal or charitable causes as may be determined by the Board and which do not conflict with or detract from their full-time duties”.

But anyone that had kept an eye on how the CBN had overburdened itself in the last few years would have seen that there was more to it in all those over flogged interventions. Suddenly the CBN had taken over the responsibility of the government by unduly getting involved in funding everything from education to health, infrastructure, agriculture, etc., beyond the mandate of any central bank in the world.

In my view, such very strange and unprecedented role is capable of undermining governance, breed corruption and negate true fiscal federalism. As a result of these, the CBN somehow derailed and is unable to play its statutory role of protecting the national currency, managing inflation and stimulating genuine and inclusive economic development.

Under Emefiele’s watch the CBN has grown into a behemoth, the most potent and pervasive independent organ of government. Someone told me that this kind of unfortunate situation has never been experienced even in the dying days of Zimbabwe under Mugabe.

The reported presidential aspiration of the CBN governor is unprecedented and immoral. He should leave if he wishes to join the fray.

From my mail bag: A Warm Welcome to the New Electoral Act

“Giving assent to the electoral act by the president is good and welcoming commitment towards sanitizing and re-strengthening of the electoral processes and practices. We observed what bad eggs among the INEC’s ad hoc and permanent staff did to manipulate elections, with the aid of state apparatus, incumbency, money and thuggery. Assent to the act is not enough, but its judicious, freest and fairest implementation in the interest of the nation, Nigerians and democracy. Comrade Abubakar M. Abubakar, Ningi, Bauchi State”