Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, is increasingly in the spotlight as indications that he is eyeing the presidential ticket of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has triggered more reactions.
Following the purchase of APC presidential nomination and expression of interest forms worth N100 million by “farmers and patriots” on May 6, Emefiele said on Saturday that he had yet to decide to contest the presidential election, adding that he was awaiting divine direction “in the next few days”.
He said should he heed the call to run for the presidency, he would use his “own hard-earned savings from over 35 years of banking leadership to buy my own nomination forms”.
BusinessDay gathered that the CBN governor had been a card-carrying member of APC since February 2021.
The Federal High Court in Abuja, on Monday, declined to grant the prayers of Emefiele’s lawyers to bar him from being disqualified to contest for the presidential ticket of any political party ahead of the 2023 general elections.
His lawyer, Mike Ozekhome, had earlier on Monday urged the court to issue an interim order stopping the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) from disqualifying him from participating in the primary election of his preferred political party.
But ruling on the ex parte application, the judge, Ahmed Mohammed, ruled that he would rather order INEC and the AGF to appear to state their side of the case instead of granting the CBN governor’s request.
The judge said having read the affidavit in support of the motion, it was more appropriate to direct the defendants to appear in court on May 12, to show cause why Emefiele’s request should not be granted.
The court also ordered that Emefiele’s filings should be served on the defendants before the next hearing date.
Ozekhome filed the ‘ex-parte’ application on May 9 for an order of court for maintenance of status quo, fearing that Emefiele might be disqualified from running in the presidential primaries.
CBN’s monetary policies under scrutiny
Since speculation became rife that the country’s top banker was planning to contest for the office of president, many analysts have raised concerns about whether his monetary policy decisions were really in the interest of the country.
In 2015, the central bank set up a N220bn financing for local rice farmers, and last week, some farmers bought the bank’s governor a presidential nomination form.
“It is important that the central bank and indeed the governor are politically neutral,” says Ayodele Oni, partner at Lagos-based commercial law firm Bloomfield, “Without this neutrality, monetary policy will be self-serving and politically motivated,” Oni said.
Eyo O. Ekpo, a former commissioner in the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission and CEO of Excredite Consulting Limited, said the most precious resource or asset of the statutory regulator of any market, particularly the regulator of banking and finance markets of Nigeria, is credibility, which in turn rests on a number of factors including being totally apolitical.
“It is the only way to retain credibility, the absolute trust of your key stakeholders – market operators, consumers and general public, government and staff – assure them that partisan politics will never influence your decision-making and assure that the regulator will indeed obey the same CBN Act that Emefiele pushed hard to bring into being,” Ekpo said.
Since 2016, the CBN had resorted to unorthodox policies and strategies to fix monetary challenges of the economy, with little or no complementary support from the fiscal side.
Under Emefiele, individuals, non-financial institutions and even banks have been restricted from the Open Market Operation – a financial instrument the CBN uses to manage liquidity in the financial market and achieving price stability, leaving only foreign portfolio investors in that space.
While this move may have helped the CBN to reduce the cost of managing liquidity and made it cheaper for government to borrow, it has left domestic investors with little option for good returns both from the volatile stock market and the declining Treasury bills.
Emefiele’s decision to run for president will force a more critical look at the motives behind these policies.
Monetary policy decisions made under the CBN governor to hold rates when other countries were raising them, blocking access to foreign currency for over 40 commodities and spending a fortune defending the naira when other countries were loosening official control to attract investments will be examined under new lenses.
“How does the head of an institution whose insulation from politics is statutorily assured turn round to dive into that same politics while still a full time head of that institution?,” Ekpo asked.
“It’s inconceivable, yet here we are faced with that bizarre reality. The credibility of both Emefiele himself and the CBN are terribly impaired by his descent into the political arena.”
According to him, the situation is made worse by his deliberate failure to resign as governor before entering partisan politics.
“He clearly has no respect for the CBN and its stakeholders; but the CBN is one of Nigeria’s oldest regulatory and law enforcement institutions and I believe that it will somehow survive this,” Ekpo added.
What the law says about CBN governor’s personal causes
The CBN Act, 2007 says the central bank shall be “an independent body in the discharge of its functions, in order to facilitate the achievement of its mandate under this Act and the Banks and other Financial Institutions Act, and in line with the objective of promoting stability and continuity in economic management.
It says the governor shall be in charge of the day-to-day management of the bank and shall be answerable to the board of directors for his acts and decisions.
“The governor and the deputy governors shall devote the whole of their time to the services 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,” the Act says.
It says the governor shall cease to hold office in the bank if he “is guilty of a serious misconduct in relation to his duties under this Act”.
According to the law, the governor may resign in his office by giving at least three months’ notice in writing to the President of his intention to do so and any director may similarly resign by at least one months’ notice in writing to the president of his intention to do so.
It says: “If the governor, any deputy governor or director of the bank does resign or otherwise vacates his office before the expiry of the term for which he has been appointed, there shall be appointed a fit and proper person to take his place on the Board for the unexpired period of the term of appointment…”
Emefiele’s action, gross misconduct – PDP, others
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in a statement by Debo Ologunagba, its national publicity secretary, said, “Emefiele’s involvement in politics without resigning as CBN Governor amounts to gross misconduct in contravention of Section 11 2 (2)(c) of the CBN Act.”
The party drew the attention of Nigerians to the provisions of the CBN Act 2007 and particularly referenced Section 9, 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…”
It noted that the provision was clear in demanding that 100 percent of the time, the expertise of the CBN governor and deputy governors shall be dedicated to the service of the CBN.
“This is because the CBN is critical to the integrity and stability of our economy,” it said.
According to the PDP, Section 030422 of the Public Service Rule states that no public officer shall (a) hold any office, paid or unpaid, permanent or temporary, in any political organisation (b) offer himself/herself or nominate anyone else as a candidate for any elective public office (c) indicate publicly his support of or opposition to any party, candidate or policy and (d) engage in canvassing in support of political candidates” unless such officer resigns his appointment.
It said Section 030502 (g) of the Rule lists “engaging in partisan political activities” as serious act of misconduct.
The PDP said Emefiele’s involvement in “partisan politics while still holding office as CBN governor underpins the impunity, lawlessness and recklessness of the Muhammadu Buhari-led APC administration”.
It said: “It is now evident that the summersault of the economy under Mr. Emefiele as CBN governor has been influenced by a personal partisan interest for which the CBN under his watch allegedly allowed multiple leakages in our financial regulations through discriminatory exchange rate policies and nebulous subsidies to funnel billons of naira to political lackeys to fund a presidential ambition.
“By this, Mr Emefiele has become a clear and present danger to the health, integrity and reputation of the CBN and our nation’s financial sector. His continued stay as CBN governor will further destroy investors’ confidence in the integrity of our nation’s financial regulatory institution.”
Read also: Gov Akeredolu, others demand resignation of CBN boss Emefiele over presidential bid
Christian Okeke, a Political Science lecturer at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, said it was morally expedient, for the purpose of fairness, equity and fair play, for people holding appointive public offices and seeking elective posts to resign from their current offices.
According to him, the appointees do not even need Section 84(12) of the Electoral Act 2022 or any similar instrument to force them to do the right thing.
He said: “It is disappointing as it is disturbing that most of the people aspiring for office of the president within the ruling party are not showing good examples. They are not also helping their government.
“I feel sad that they do not want history to be kind to them. And I actually have pity for that situation. They forget that there is tomorrow and that no matter how long it takes, they must, one day, be called upon to render account of their stewardship.”
Ezenwa Nwagu, executive director of Partners for Electoral Reforms, said Emefiele should resign if he is interested in running for president, going by the CBN Act.
He said: “I think first is to look at what the CBN Act says. The CBN Act already constraint him not to be in that platform and still running for election. So if he wants to contest election, he should resign, especially against the background that sensitive election materials are kept in the CBN vault. So, the man who presides over CBN cannot sit tight there and contest election.
“He already knows that if he wants to contest, he has to resign. To even ask about the moral justification is to pretend that we don’t know what the CBN Act talks about that.”
Reacting to the issue, Yinka Farounbi, a former chairman of Ikeja branch of the Nigerian Bar Association, said it was morally wrong for Emefiele to contest the presidential ticket of his party while still retaining his position.
“What is happening is unfortunate; this is the same person in charge of the economy. We did not know he had political ambition and belonged to the APC. There is no hope, if we continue to find people like this in positions of authority. If I were him, I would save my face, integrity and resign to pursue my ambition,” he said.
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