‘Political Governor’ – Senate Moves To Punish Emefiele, Seeks His Removal As CBN Board Chairman

The Senate has moved against the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele by passing for second reading a bill seeking to whittle down his powers and remove him as Chairman of the Board of Directors.

The bill is sponsored by Senator Sadiq Suleiman Umar (APC, Kwara).

It seeks to amend the CBN Act No. 7, which gives multiple powers to the CBN Governor.

If passed into law, it will enable the appointment of another person other than the apex bank’s governor as the chairman of its Board of Directors.

The current Act empowers Emefiele, who chairs the Monetary policy committee to also act as the chairman of the Bank’s Board.

The Act also allows on the Bank’s Board four deputy governors, permanent secretary, Ministry of Finance, five directors and Accountant General of the Federation.

While monetary policy is the core mandate of the CBN Governor with key inputs into the fiscal policy of the country, the Board has the power to manage in its annual budget, policy formulation and implementation of exchange rate policy and general administration and business.

Since his interest to get the presidential ticket of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Emefiele has not enjoyed public goodwill and certainly not the lawmakers who accused him of mixing partisan politics with managing the country’s monetary policy and general economic administration.
The CBN Governor had also approached the court seeking a clarification of his eligibility to contest while still retaining his position as the Boss of the apex Bank.

Despite public uproar, he purchased the presidential form of the APC which cost as high as N100m.

He, however, did not participate in the primary process in June which produced Bola Tinubu, former Governor of Lagos State.

In order to address and whittle down the power of the apex Bank governor, the Senate said the powers of the CBN Board must be divested in the area of determining and fixing salaries and allowances of its members as well as considering and approving the annual budget of the bank.

In his lead debate Senator Umar, argued that Nigeria must replicate global best practices to ensure that the CBN will have different persons as Chief Executive and Chairman of Board.

“This bill seeks to divest the Governor of CBN chairmanship of the Board as obtainable in other countries of the world

“A different person with requisite qualification and required knowledge on monetary and financial policies should be made chairman of the Board.

“Separation of the two positions will enable any sitting CBN governor to focus more on fiscal and monetary policies than politics of the institution,” he said.

In supporting the bill, Senator Betty Apiafi (PDP Rivers), said the amendment is necessary following Emefiele’s role in partisan politics in the year.

He said, “The CBN governor went out of his way to contest for presidency while in office in the 2022 presidential primary election.

“This would not happen anywhere in the world, given that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) materials were expected to be kept in the bank.

“Godwin Emefiele having attempted to contest the presidency has made Nigerians lose confidence in the bank storing the INEC materials,” she said.

Speaking during the debate, Senate President, Ahmad Lawan advised fellow senators to focus on the proposed amendment and not Emefiele’s partisan politics.

The bill was referred to the Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions for further legislative works.