Emefiele As A Failed Central Banker

KAYODE ODUNARO 

Less than a week ago that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu raised an alarm that some people were out to sabotage the 2023 General Election and his eventual victory using a poorly thought out, haphazardly implemented and wrongly timed policy of Naira redesign by Mr.Godwin Emiefiele, the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, some public commentators including tested public commetators/presenters etc of Arise News were inclined to think he was talking gibberish and attacking a government of his party.

Well, this morning one Arise TV presenter unashamedly narrated his ordeal of getting a few newly redesigned Naira notes to no avail. I would have said, ” served you right” but indeed we are all in this together and anyone or those arguing that this policy is targeted at politicians and just tackling the problem of money politics should now be ready to explain and confront the UNINTENDED outcome of a poorly thought out, wrongly timed and poorly implemented financial policy of a politically inclined Central Bank Governor who may be out on a revenge mission.

I cannot recall any serving Central Bank Governor in the history of Nigeria or indeed in the history of the world, dropping his hat in the ring to partisanly contest for the Presidential ticket of a ruling political party. Mr. Emefiele did and having suffered a humiliating rebuff by not only the ruling party but by all reasonable Nigerians, the man, quixoticly decided to have a revenge on Nigerian by selling a harebrained policy to a President ever ready to accept any policy that promised to curb corruption in any form. Unfortunately, the President seems to have fallen into the hand of a politically failed CBN governor with a score to settle with Nigerians.

Coincidentally, I am in Abeokuta, where Asiwaju Tinubu, the Presidential candidate of APC, raised the alarm on the danger of the implementation and timing of this financial policy. Going about town, situation at the Bank’s banking halls and automated teller machines are as depicted in the photo and video of this story. The policy, in addition to fuel scarcity and unregulated pricing is giving Nigerians hell just few days to a general election. Indeed, Asiwaju Tinubu was on target on his premonition of likely scenario with reference to the upcoming election. At the venue where those photos were taken, the talk was purely political with discussants worrying how they expect Nigerians to vote when they cannot even have access to their hard earned monet to take care of daily needs, all because one compromised and politically inclined CBN governor wants to have a last laugh on Nigerians for daring to spurn his inordinate and inappropriate ambition to transmute from CBN governor to President and Commander-in-Chief.

At this point, let President Mohammadu Buhari know that he is doing great harm not only to his political party, APC, but to his administration in the manner that this Naira Redesign Policy was conceptualised, timed and implemented. From all indications, the implementation has ran into serious challenges that the CBN governor appears not to have an idea how to resolve. As suggested by the National Assembly, the representatives of the peoples, the president is well advised to slow down on the outright and time bound implementation of the policy. He is encouraged to follow the rule of law as canvassed by the House of Representatives in the CBN Act particularly Section 20. The value in any currency belong to the holder of the currency and should be redeemable by the banking authority on demand. Anything short of this, is a glaring failure on the apex bank of Nigeria. Our president is encouraged to do the needful and preserve a worthy legacy and a parting embrace with the people of Nigeria.

Chief Kayode Odunaro wrote on the move in Abeokuta, Ogun State Capital.