The governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, may not be having it easy as Nigerians ignored his protest against a damaging reporting against his person in a national daily.
Recall that TheNation newspaper, on March 13, 2023, ran a story titled Emefiele launches fresh plot against President-elect Tinubu, accusing the cenbank boss of plotting against the president elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The story has been reproduced here.
In the report, TheNation alleged that the cooperation of a senior military officer in command position in Lagos, is said to have been secured by Emefiele in order to ensure undue advantage to the LP candidate, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, over the two other major contestants – incumbent Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of the APC and Olajide Adediran of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), whose campaign and mobilisation have been seriously affected by the cash squeeze caused by Emefiele’s Naira redesign policy.
Few hours after the story was published, the Central Bank of Nigeria issued a rebuttal and denied all the claims.
In a statement signed by the Acting Director, Corporate Communications, CBN, Isa Abdulmumin, titled: “Re- Emefiele launches fresh plot against President-elect Tinubu,” made available to Freelanews.
It claimed that the report was completely false and malicious as the governor does not know and has never met or even spoke with Gbadebo Rhodes Vivour either in person or through proxy.
But the embattled and ‘discredited’ governor may be disappointed curing public sympathy as checks by our correspondent on the feedback on the post showed that Nigerians are more interested in the monetary policy he engineered in an alleged plot to fight the emergence of Tinubu as the 16th Nigerian president after a failed bid to emerge APC presidential candidate at the party primary held in Abuja.
It is worth noting that the CBN governor also acquired the party’s nomination form for the sum of One Hundred Million Naira.
On whether such activities were serious misconducts that could necessitate his removal as the CBN governor, a popular Lagos lawyer, Tubosun Osifowora, explained that it all boils down to the interpretation of the CBN Act and the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act, which read respectively.
Section 9 of the CBN Act 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, 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”.
Section 2 of Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act, Cap C 15 Vol. II, Revised LFN 2004 provides that “the aims and objectives of the Bureau shall be to establish and maintain a high standard of morality in the conduct of government business and to ensure that the actions and behaviors of public officers conform to the highest standards of public morality and accountability.”
Section 5 of the CCB&T Act provides that “a public officer shall not put himself in a position where his personal interest conflicts with his public duties and responsibilities”.
In their reactions, some Nigerians wondered why he was quick to respond to an allegation against his person but ignored the supreme court’s ruling on his ‘devilish’ monetary policy, which is contributing highest in driving Nigerians into poverty. Read some of their reactions captured below.
@SirLeoBDasilva: @cenbank You’re the central bank of Nigeria not the Central bank of Emefiele. Release cash to Nigerians.
@HariKay1987: Talk on better matter…the old naira notes
@OlatunjiArije: U guys will not die well, release our hard earned money to us
@SustenusSimon: Quite number of newspapers announced that you have already ordered the use of old naira note. Please let it be official.
@MfonisoEkanem2: Forget this one, should we use old note or not?
@AjoseMoses31: What our business with this 🤷♀️💔 We need cash to spend and not all of this Abeg
@Alameensodiq: CBN governor doesn’t take part in politics? 🤣🤣🤣Who bought APC ticket?
@CallistusChuk12: Does not take part in politics but you contested and failed during primaries lol. Meanwhile Gov Soludo said you called him naa true ?
@usmanlade: You can issue a disclaimer with an official handle but it is difficult to use same to issue an official statement to address the Supreme Court judgment which affects your primary role as CBN Chairman.🤡
Read more below:
The Central Bank of Nigeria debunks fake news #CBN pic.twitter.com/rnaPpvKZGF
— Central Bank of Nigeria (@cenbank) March 13, 2023
Ojelabi, the publisher of Freelanews, is an award winning and professionally trained mass communicator and a recipient of the D9112 Superstar Icon Award, who writes ruthlessly about pop culture, religion, politics and entertainment.
