CBN: Block Emefiele From Fleeing Nigeria To Evade Tinubu, Matawalle Urges Buhari

Zamfara State Governor, Bello Matawalle, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to stop alleged plans by the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Godwin Emefiele, to flee the country in order to avoid rendering account of his stewardship in the last eight years to the incoming administration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Matawalle said Emefiele’s alleged plan to leave Nigeria on overseas study leave before the end of his second 5-year term is a deliberate move by the CBN governor to avoid giving account of how he allegedly mismanaged the country’s financial and monetary systems in the last eight years.

Emefiele was first appointed CBN governor in 2014 by the Goodluck Jonathan administration. President Buhari reappointed him for a second five-year term in 2019.

He stirred controversy in 2022 when in an unprecedented move by a CBN governor, Emefiele ventured into partisan politics against provisions of the CBN Act.

Emefiele also presided over CBN’s redesign of some Naira notes ahead of the 2023 presidential election. While he claimed that the policy was aimed at curbing counterfeit notes in circulation, many political observers believed the redesign was targeted at frustrating Tinubu’s presidential bid.

Matawalle, while reacting to reports of Emefiele’s plan to proceed on study leave before the May 29 swearing-in of Tinubu, urged President Buhari to cancel any leave approval to the CBN chief.

“I want, here and now, to urge President Buhari to not approve any study leave or whatever kind of leave for any officer critical to the take-off of the incoming administration of Asíwájú Bola Ahmed Tinubu. One of such persons that has been speculated in the media to have sought a study leave is Central Bank of Nigeria Governor Godwin Emefiele,” the Zamfara governor said in a personally signed statement.

“If the leave has been approved, as reported in the media, the President should cancel it in the interest of peaceful transfer of power, accountability and good governance. CBN Governor Emefiele superintended over the management of the country’s financial and monetary systems. He is the one who initiated and implemented the recent disastrous Naira swap policy, the Naira confiscation program, which put Nigerians through untold woes and trauma and set our economy backwards.

“Two of my brother-governors and I took the Federal Government to court over this ill-advised policy and fought resolutely until we got a respite for our people from Emefiele and company.

“This same Emefiele now wants to proceed on study leave when he has some 10 months left of his tenure apparently in a bid to evade rendering accounts. This is unacceptable. President Buhari should not countenance this. Emefiele must stay at his job to give full accounts of all that transpired under his watch to the incoming administration. He must answer all the questions the new regime may have for him particularly when he still has some months left of his tenure.”

Matawalle added that if such leave or foreign postings have been approved for “any officer at any level in the outgoing government”, they should be canceled to avoid problems for the incoming government.

“I’m aware that some officers in the outgoing government are moving to surreptitiously leave the country at this critical time they are needed to answer to specific questions, though I would not want mention their names here.

“These plans are dangerous and devilish. They show clearly that these officers have something to hide. This must be halted immediately. Any plan to evade rendering accounts is neither in the interest of accountability, transparency and anti-corruption, which President Buhari had championed in government, nor in the interest of an unencumbered take-off of the incoming administration.

“It’s also not in the interest of the country, which the president has always promoted and championed. This is my appeal and why I have decided to speak out as a patriotic Nigerian and concerned governor,” he said.