By Adesina Soyooye
A support group for the Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Bola Tinubu, and his running mate, Kashim Shettima, has blamed the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Godwin Emefiele, for the economic woes of Nigeria. The Group, South-South Agenda for Tinubu/Shettima, SSAT, has, therefore, asked President Muhammadu Buhari to suspend the Governor from office, and audit the CBN.
In blaming Emefiele, SSAT opined that Emefiele’s poor policies have painted the APC in unflattering colours before Nigerians.
In a statement, on Friday, signed by its National Coordinator, Bitrus Nta Oliver, SSAT called for the immediate suspension of Emefiele from office to enable the CBN Board and the Financial Reporting Council to audit the books of the apex bank without any interference.
The auditing of the CBN books, the Group submitted, will expose Emefiele’s alleged incompetence, and how much damage he has done to the CBN as well as Nigeria’s economy. It gave President Buhari 96 hours to adhere to its demands, or face a legal suit.
Said the SSAT: ” If we do not see any action by the President within the next 48 hours, we shall immediately launch a suit to compel the suspension of the Governor from office because, as the Chairman of the Board of the Bank, he cannot be a judge in his own case.
“So, he will have to step aside while the Board looks into the books alongside the Financial Council.”
A couple of weeks ago, Emefiele announced the redesign of three Naira denominations – N200, N500, N1000. He was surprisingly disowned by the Minister for Finance, Budget and Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed. She said neither she nor her Ministry was consulted, and that she read it in the newspapers like everybody else. The Minister went ahead to condemn the redesign.
But she was, in turn, denied by the President who backed Emefiele and said he approved of it.
For the records, Emefiele is a card-carrying member of the APC, and had aspired to run for the office of the President under the Party.
Hundreds of millions of Naira later, Emefiele bowed under the pressure of condemnation, and chickened out of the race which Tinubu won.
Emefiele is from Delta State, South-south of Nigeria.
