Godwin Emefiele: The Puzzles Of President Tinubu’s Suspension Explained 

MICHAEL CHIBUZO 

On Friday night, when patriotic Nigerians, extremely delighted with the back to back decisive steps of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, were happily getting ready to sleep with a long weekend in view, news filtered in from the office of newly sworn in Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Sen. George Akume about the suspension of the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele by the President with immediate effect. Moments later, Nigerians learnt that the suspended CBN Governor, has been arrested by the Department of State Security and slammed with 10 serious charges bordering on terrorism financing, fraud and money laundering.

The suspension and arrest of Mr. Godwin Emefiele marks the end of a protracted saga with the DSS that dates back to late last year when the DSS unsuccessfully sought an exparte order from Justice Tsoho to arrest him. Following his suspension by the president, there is controversy over the legality of Mr. President’s action with some arguing it’s against the provisions of the CBN Act.

To be clear, the CBN Act empowers the President to appoint and initiate the sack of the CBN Governor by virtue of Section 11 (2e) of the CBN Act 2007. The entire section 11(2) states as follows:

“the Governor, Deputy Governor or Director shall cease to hold office in the bank if he-

(a) becomes of unsound mind or, owing to ill-health, is incapable of carrying out his duties;

(b) is convicted of any criminal offence by a court of competent jurisdiction except for traffic offences or contempt proceedings arising in connection with the execution or intended execution of any power or duty conferred under this Act or the Banks and other Financial Institutions Act.

(c) is guilty of serious misconduct in relation to his duties under this Act

(d) is disqualified or suspended from practicing his profession in Nigeria by order of a competent authority made in respect of him personally;

(e) becomes bankrupt;

*(f) is removed by the President:*

_provided that the removal of the Governor shall be supported by two-thirds majority of the Senate praying that he be so removed.”_

It is true that the President cannot unitalerally sack the CBN Governor as captured in section 11(2f), he can however suspend the CBN Governor from office as part of his powers to exercise disciplinary actions against the CBN Governor and as the first step in the process to remove the CBN Governor in the event of any allegation of gross misconduct. If any disciplinary investigation is initiated against a CBN Governor in pursuance to Section 11(2c) of the CBN Act 2007, natural justice demands that he step aside during the period of investigation. If at the end of investigation, he is found guilty of serious misconduct in relation to the conduct of his duties, the combined action of the President and the Senate is then required to convert his suspension to removal from office.

Suspension from office is different from removal from office and section 11 of the interpretation act confers power on an appointing authority to equally suspend notwithstanding if an additional confirmation from an independent body is required for the suspended official to be eventually removed. For emphasis sake, let me reproduce Section 11 of the Interpretation Act which provides thus:

*“Where an enactment confers a power to appoint a person either to an office or to exercise any functions, whether for a specified period or not, the power includes:-*

*- power to appoint a person by name or to appoint the holder from time to time of a particular office;*

*- power to remove or suspend him…”*

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was therefore perfectly in order with the directive suspending the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele and appointing in acting capacity the CBN Deputy Governor in charge of Currency Operations Mr. Folashodun Adebisi Shonubi to take charge of the Apex Bank. He merely started the process of removing the CBN Governor.

At the conclusion of investigations (which DSS has ostensibly carried out since last year) and once the 10th National Assembly is inaugurated, it is expected that the President will ask the Senate to remove from office the CBN Governor for being guilty of serious misconduct in relation to his duties under the CBN Act 2007. Unless of course the embattled suspended CBN Governor tenders his resignation letter before then. This will pave way for the appointment and Senate confirmation of a new substantive CBN Governor whose name will be forwarded by the President.

There are also some minor controversy regarding the hierarchy of the CBN Deputy Governors and who among the four CBN Deputy Governors should take over in the absence of the CBN Governor for whatever reason. Some argue that according to the hierarchy seen in the CBN website, the CBN Deputy Governor in charge of Financial System Stability Directorate, Mrs. Aishah N Ahmad who was appointed in March 23, 2018 and comes second on the list of the CBN Board after the CBN Governor should have been asked to take charge of the apex Bank in Acting capacity instead of Mr. Folashodun Adebisi who was appointed on October 17, 2018.

However I want to point out again that there is no particular hierarchy stipulated for the CBN Deputy Governors in the CBN Act. The CBN Deputy Governors are all equal regardless of their date of appointment. The CBN Act 2007 in fact provided in Section 7(1) that: *”the Governor or in his absence, one of the Deputy Governors nominated by him, shall be in charge of the day-to-day management of the Bank and shall be answerable to the Board for his acts and decisions.”* Therefore, any of the four Deputy Governors can take charge of the management of the bank in the absence of the CBN Governor. Now the absence of Godwin Emefiele as Governor isn’t voluntary, which means he is not at liberty to nominate the Deputy Governor to take charge. President Bola Tinubu in exercising his appointing powers has decided to appoint Mr. Folashodun Adebisi to take charge instead.

With the end of Emefiele era in sight, attention will now be turned to who the next substantive CBN Governor will be with many tipping Wale Edun, a long time ally of the President as the next CBN Governor. Wale Edun it may interest you to note was one of the three names President Tinubu nominated for selection as running mate to President Muhammadu Buhari ahead of the 2015 General Elections. The next couple of weeks will be interesting to watch as President Bola Ahmed Tinubu accelerates further into the Renewed Hope Era.