For Godwin Emefiele, Governor of Nigeria’s Central Bank, all are not well, no merry Christmas or the usual yuletide courtesies as the man who sits atop the apex bank is in serious trouble courtesy of a cocktail of criminal allegations including the high calibre ‘terrorism financing and other nefarious activities of national security dimension’ leveled against him by the Directorate of Secret Service
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The embattled Emefiele was part of President Muhammadu Buhari’s entourage to the US-Africa Leaders’ Summit held between December 13 and 15 in Washington DC and was earlier reported to be contemplating returning to Nigeria within a plot by the Department of State Services (DSS) to pick him up for interrogation but reportedly stayed back to attend to his deteriorating health.
Godwin Emefiele, reportedly sneaked into Nigeria on Wednesday from the United States and is presently in Abuja, but has since gone underground according to reports by SaharaReporters.
The embattled apex banker reportedly told the CBN board on Wednesday that he would return to Abuja on Thursday but security sources confirmed that he actually returned to the Federal capital on Wednesday.
There are reports, according to People’s Gazette, that security sources familiar with Emefiele’s matter had confirmed that the domestic intelligence office of the DSS had deployed several officers to keep eyes on the CBN Headquarters, Emefiele’s family residence in Lagos and the Abuja home of one of his associates cum businessman, Christopher Emefiele.
As at the time the country went on Christmas break, sources also confirmed that there were strong indications that Emefiele was under intense pressure from some of the country‘s power brokers to resign as a soft-landing window for the embattled banker turned politician.
A confidant of the CBN governor told an online newspaper that the apex bank governor was living in fear of being arrested by the DSS.
Meanwhile, the State Security Service has reportedly commenced a be-on-the-lookout for Godwin Emefiele Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, according to two officials familiar with the matter.
Security sources revealed that the deployment came from an assistant director and could not immediately ascertain whether or not Director-General Yusuf Bichi signed off on it.
“We have different teams of at least two each monitoring those places,” the officer said under anonymity to disclose cursory specifics of an ongoing operation. “We don’t know if they have more people deployed to even more places, but we did not see any signal from the DG’s office to suggest his involvement at this point”
The DSS unsuccessfully sought a warrant from an Abuja Federal High Court earlier last week, with the federal judge ruling that sufficient probable cause was not established for the issuance of a warrant against a high ranking government official who is a sitting governor of the nation’s apex bank and regulator of the banking sector.
In the application ex-parte, an action filed to the exclusion of its defendant, the SSS asked the court to order Emefiele’s arrest on account of terrorism financing and economic sabotage, among other nefarious acts.
Justice Tsoho said he weighed the economic ramifications before quashing the SSS’ request to arrest Mr Emefiele, but analysts said it was possible the allegations’ wide publicity could already take a negative toll on the economy.
The action of the Department of State Security in filing the suit praying the court to declare a sitting and serving governor of the Central Bank an economic terrorist, amounts to a government taking itself to court and to worsen the situation, the Presidency washed its hands off the matter saying it would not comment on the controversies surrounding the Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele, as it is still subjudice.
“We are not commenting on this because the matter is in court. Thanks for contacting us,” read a reply to an inquiry sent to the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu.
His Many Sins
Godwin Emefiele sought the presidential ticket of the ruling All Progressives Congress during primary in May this year but later backed down after being told he must step down from office before engaging openly in partisan politics.
A phoney group claimed to have purchased the Presidential nomination form for him and by the time he beat a hurried retreat, he denied granting consent to any group to purchase nomination form for him. Meanwhile the non-refundable nomination form fee, a princely sum of N100m has gone down the drain and not minding billions of naira already spent on campaign materials such as hundreds of branded vehicles of different makes including the very exotic ones, billboards, posters and a media exposition anchored by a reputed wheeler dealer and publisher of a national daily who also owns a TV station.
Aside that Emefiele’s partisan politicking was inconsistent with his obligations to the nation as Central Bank governor, the only thing in his political arsenal was cash. No political structure or afiliation order than he is a card carrying member of the ruling party.
He also recently issued a controversial directive that limited withdrawals from bank accounts to N100,000 ($130) per week.
Economists slammed the policy as senseless and excessive, warning it would rapidly exacerbate harsh economic conditions across the country. But central bank officials said the move was to suffocate ongoing moves by politicians to warehouse cash that would be used to bribe voters at the ballot box.
Before then, the governor had announced a sudden redesign of naira notes, which would have rendered any previously stockpiled banknotes invalid for election use.
His tenure as governor of the CBN has been described as the worst in the apex bank since its inception in 1959. His policies are counterproductive and the bankers’ banks intervention under his watch are economic strategies read upside down, noted an observer, one of such was his decision to convert large portions of the Federal Government’s deficit into cash provided by the Central Bank.
The economy continues to hurt from his policies. Domestic inflation is a direct consequence of the nearly $48 billion that the Central Bank under his watch has lent to the Federal Government.
Output numbers for the manufacturing sector keep shrinking and this promises to worsen the blight that unemployment is to the domestic economy, it is easy to trace the difficulties domestic businesses are having to the Central Bank’s multi-window foreign exchange policies.
