A Civil Society Organization, Nigerians for Good Governance (NGG) has stated that Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, must be sacked immediately over acts the organization described as “deliberate impoverishment of Nigerians and intentional destruction of the Nation’s economy”.
According to a statement made available to newsmen on Saturday, 1st April 2023, the Convener of the Organization, Comrade Wole Oladapo, stated that “it will amount to disloyalty to the oath of Office that he swore, for President Muhammadu Buhari to look away from the obvious atrocities of the current Governor of the Central Bank.”
Com. Oladapo insisted that “the Central Bank Governor has committed too many atrocities for which he should have been sacked by now. Under this same man, the Naira witnessed unprecedented loss of value, the Nation’s monetary policy became unstable and for a very long time till date, our country’s Forex transactions are now largely at the mercy of players in the parallel market.”
“Aside those questions of competence, Mr. Emefiele has also demonstrated his disrespect for Public and Civil Service rules that govern his office, by clandestinely attempting to run for political office in 2022, despite not resigning from his position as head of the Apex Bank. While he did not publicly admit aspiring to the position of President, he also did not openly deny it. This may thus lend credence to the claim in some quarters, that he only maintained public silence, but was going about in the background, lobbying for support.”
“If his obvious incompetence is not enough reason to sack him, and his attempt to play politics is also not enough, his inhuman handling of the currency redesign programme and the disrespect for the rule of law that followed, should be enough reason. We are miffed that a public office holder could so brazenly take actions that has since worsened the poverty index in Nigeria and he is still in his job till date. We thought that by now, a pro-people President would have terminated his appointment, following all powers that his office wields, to make this happen.”
The Nigerians for Good Governance group then demanded that “the President must show true leadership at this time and replace the Emefiele leadership of the CBN with a more professional, more competent, more knowledgeable and more responsible leadership. This current leadership has shown itself to be irresponsible and uninterested in improving the economy of the country. Sacking and making him answer to his deliberate sabotage of the economy is the only correct recompense that will make Nigerians happy with Mr. President.”
“We call on President Muhammadu Buhari to act immediately, to restore the faith of Nigerians in the institutions of government”, the statement read.
Speaking on the state of affairs in Osun State, the organization advised Governor Ademola Adeleke to be watchful of the sort of associations that he keeps, particularly as he came into power on the promises of pro-people governance that will ensure development in Osun.
“We are worried that as political alignments continue, certain shady characters will mill around the Governor, including the architects of Osun’s dire financial state. We advise that the Governor must carefully pick the kind of characters he associates with, to ensure that he is not influenced by the characters who contributed to the impoverishment of Osun State.”
“We particularly find it worrisome that Mr. Governor, in one of his speeches recently, expressed intention to continue certain projects that were used to fleece Osun State in the past. These white elephant projects were doomed to fail from inception and the Governor should even do well to trace the reasons for such wastage of government resources.”
“It must be placed on record that Nigerians for Good Governance battled government in the past, over anti-people policies that were sure to put Osun in the mess that we see today. We advise Mr. Governor to separate himself from people who had at one time or the other, contributed to the impoverishment of Osun”, the statement read.
Hailing Governor Adeleke’s efforts at moving the State forward, the statement concluded that “the Governor must stay focused on only pro-people and pro-development programmes so that his administration can achieve success.”
