Extensive Investigations reveal that the search for who replaces Godwin Emefiele, the Central Bank of Nigeria’s governor has begun.
Further Investigations show that some forces are bent on removing Emefiele for ‘ruffling feathers,’ rather than allow the status quo.
Travelling down memory lane, it is recalled that the announcement by CBN to change the naira notes as the country approaches the 2023 general elections for a change of government, a cross section of Nigeria’s political and business elites rose vehemently against it.
But Emefiele explaining why the naira had to be changed revealed that money especially higher denominations were being hoarded by members of the public, with statistics showing that over 80 percent of currency in circulation are outside the vaults of commercial banks. He added that the worsening shortage of clean and fit banknotes with attendant negative perception of the CBN and increased risk to financial stability, were among others, good enough reason to change the naira.
Continuing, he said that recent development in photographic technology and advancements in printing devices have made counterfeiting relatively easier and in line with Sections 19, Subsections a and b of the CBN Act 2007, the Management of the CBN sought and obtained the approval of President Muhammadu Buhari to redesign, produce, and circulate new series of banknotes at N100, N200, N500, and N1,000 levels.
Unfortunately, many were not pacified by his explanations, but the change happened anyway.
Then came the withdrawal limits which was pegged at N100,000 N500,000 daily for individuals and organisations respectively. CBN instructed that withdrawals above the limit for individuals should attract five per cent processing fees, and businesses should pay 10 per cent. Also, that Point of Sale (PoS) and Auto Teller Machine (ATM) should dispense only N20,000 per day for persons using other withdrawal channels.
Mass Protests
Members of the Association of Mobile Money and Bank Agents (AMMBAN) threatened to take their protest of the cash withdrawal limit to the streets and court if CBN doesn’t revise the policy as according to them, this could lead to millions of mobile money agents losing their jobs and also reduce their income and transaction volume.
The National Assembly had promised to prevail on the CBN to revise the withdrawal limit.
First the House of Representative ordered CBN to suspend the cash withdrawal limits and when that didn’t happen, they summoned Emefiele to appear before it to shed more light on the naira redesign and withdrawal limit policies.
But Emefiele Ignored Their Summon.
Explaining through the Deputy Governor, Corporate Services, CBN, Edward Adamu, he said he couldn’t honour their summon as he was part of the entourage of President Muhammadu Buhari on an official trip to the United States at the time.
DSS, Terrorism Charges
But barely a day after the House of Reps summons to Emefiele, the Coalition of United Political Parties, CUPP, alleged that there was a secret plot by the Department of State Security (DSS) to arrest the CBN governor and keep him in solitary confinement over allegations of terrorism financing.
The coordinator of CUPP, Tochukwu Ohazurike, who led other CSOs for a protest, revealed that a suit had been filed with case number FHC/ABJ/CS/2255/2022 at the Federal High Court Abuja with the intention of getting a court order to keep Emefiele out of circulation.
CUPP stated that the plot to frame Emefiele of terrorism financing, arrest him and keep him away for 60 days by the DSS was being sponsored by some top politicians in the country to make Emefiele rescind the cash withdrawal policy recently announced by the apex bank. Ohazurike further lamented saying the plot was aimed at derailing the naira redesign policy but for the fact that Emefiele travelled with President Muhammadu Buhari to the United States.
“It is shocking that the DG of DSS accused a man of terrorism financing and allowed him to travel with the President,” Ohazurike had said at the protest ground.
Unfortunately, Chief Judge John Tosho declined the application having observed it to be irregular. In his ruling, Tosho noted that it has been the practice of the applicant to seek the detention of a respondent from under detention for a definite time period when such a respondent is already arrested and is in their custody and that fact is clearly disclosed in the supporting affidavit. But that wasn’t the situation in this case.
“Godwin Emefiele, the governor of CBN was shown on television penultimate night having audience with the President of Nigeria. It is therefore seen that the applicant wants to use this order for an irregular procedure which is unacceptable,” the judge affirmed in declining the order for Emefiele’s arrest.
Days after, Emefiele was summoned a second time. Again, he failed to appear before the lawmakers. Disclosing his reason for failing to honour the invitation, he revealed in a letter that he wasn’t in the country as he has taken ill and needed to take care of his health.
The Contenders
It is now obvious that Emefiele may likely not return as Nigeria’s Central Bank Governor. It was reliably gathered that the race to get his replacement as soon as possible has begun in earnest.
Four groups made up of powerful individuals are being fingered to be responsible for producing who the replacement would be.
One of the groups is being led by Tunde Sabiu, one of Buhari’s nephews, an influential member of the present administration.
Sabiu was a domestic staff of his uncle before he was elevated to the position of a director at the National Intelligence Agency, NIA.
Sabiu is reportedly selling the candidacy of the Managing Director of a first tier bank; Adesola Adeduntan as Emefiele’s possible replacement.
A second group is being led by former Ogun State governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, a long-time ally of Buhari. Amosun, a former Presidential aspirant on the platform of All Progressives Congress, APC, before he stepped down for Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Presidential candidate of the party, is working at bringing back a former minister of finance to replace Emefiele.
Amosun nominated former minister, Kemi Adeosun who resigned in the heat of some Nationl Youth Service Corps controversy, for the position.
But whether the powers that be would allow her return to the scheme of things, going by the circumstances that led to her resignation, is another kettle of fish entirely.
A third group is being led by Abu Funtua, a prominent son of Alhaji Isa Funtua, the late longtime friend of Buhari and a former member of his administration’s ‘cabal’, a group of influential persons around him, said to help him take key decisions.
Funtua is reportedly selling the candidacy of Aisha Ahmad, a female deputy governor of Central Bank of Nigeria who has had a meteoric rise in the banking industry. As far back as 2016, Ahmad was quickly appointed an executive director at the defunct Diamond Bank Plc, in preparation for such a time as this.
If Abu Funtua’s scheming does materialize, then she would become the first female CBN governor in the history of Nigeria.
The fourth and last group is being led by the deputy Senate President, Obarisi Ovie Omo-Agege, a gubernatorial candidate in Delta State on the platform of the All-Progressives Congress party come 2023. Omo-Agege is more favourably disposed to having a fellow Niger Delta individual like Emefiele to replace the embattled CBN chief. He has no preferred candidate for now but is currently shopping for a suitable candidate with the requisite qualification. Whoever wins the Presidential election will go a long way in determining who will be picked based on geo-political extrapolation.
