Emefiele’s arrest and my feeling of déjà vu

The suspension of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Godwin Emefiele on Saturday, June 10, 2023, came as a relief to many Nigerians in the aftermath of his ill-fated and ill-conceived “Naira redesign” (or is it recolouring?) policy. Many hardworking Nigerians were dehumanised by being denied access to their legitimate savings due to the sadistic implementation of a monetary policy that even the devil himself would not have meted out to “his” victims.

Nigerians were buying their money (savings) from some unscrupulous elements among commercial bank workers and their collaborators, some of whom operate point of sale (POS) services. Some were charging as much as 30% on every withdrawal. Yet, Emefiele remained headstrong with his implementation of the policy while Nigerians groaned and died.

In my not-so-long years of adulthood, I have witnessed the tenures of about six governors of the apex bank in Nigeria before Emefiele. During the combined tenures of his immediate six predecessors, I do not think I ever heard or witnessed half of the awful things that happened under the embattled former Zenith Bank managing director’s tenure as the CBN governor. In terms of ethical standards, strategic and people-focused policy formulation, response to situations of emergency in the financial sector, and corporate governance, Emefiele ranks the lowest among the rest.

Let’s take for instance one of the most important key performance indices (KPIs) which is the value of the country’s currency. Under Emefiele, the Naira had progressively become devalued by close to 300% since he assumed office on June 3, 2014. Since then, it (the value of Naira against the Dollar) appears to be in fierce competition with the Zimbabwean dollar in the race to the lowest abyss. In 2014, it was (at the parallel market) ₦171.71 to $1 when Emefiele assumed office, ₦157. 29 by DAS, and $160.23 by IFEM.

But by the time he was suspended last Friday, a dollar went for as much as ₦776, in the parallel market, while at the official rate, it was ₦462.

Rather than coming up with a vibrant policy to tackle the free fall, he resorted to chasing shadows, accusing Oniwinde Adedotun and his AbokiFX of being behind the fall of the value of our currency due to what he termed speculation. I became scandalised when I watched him shadow-box Oniwinde during a press briefing challenging him to physical combat. It was at that point that most of the doubts I ever had regarding his (Emefiele’s) suitability for the role became confirmed after about eight years of his reign as the apex bank’s governor.

Do not blame me for taking that long to recognise an incompetent CBN governor. I hardly dabble in fields that are not my areas of core competence – econometrics and finance, for instance.

Ordinarily, one would expect a CBN governor who knows his onions to use policies like his Anchor Borrowers Program (ABP), Agricultural Credit Support Scheme (ACSS), e-Naira policy, and cashless policy, among other initiatives to boost the real sector of the economy and shore up the value of the local currency. But no, the chief driver of our monetary policies and by implication, the economy, was dabbling in politics. He was neck-deep in a presidential ambition that was dead on arrival – something that is ethically unbecoming of anybody occupying the exalted office he was occupying at the time. He was alleged to have been a card-carrying member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as a registered member in his hometown (ward). An “ethical abomination”, in the voice of Chinwetalu Agu, the popular Nollywood actor.

He claimed the presidential nomination form for APC was purchased for him by a group – the Rice Farmers’ Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) most of whom are alleged to have defaulted in their ABP loan repayment. In case you have forgotten, the form for APC presidential aspirants went for ₦100 million. Added to that were dozens of branded campaign vehicles reportedly meant for his campaign organisation. The picture circulated widely on social media. Those farmers must be super rich. It would later go beyond the realm of rumour as he made little or no effort to deny his hitherto rumoured presidential ambition. Then, on May 7, 2022, he wrote on his Twitter handle, @GodwinIEmefiele that: “I will continue to serve and sacrifice for the good people of Nigeria under the able leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari. This is a serious decision that requires God’s divine intervention: in the next few days The Almighty will so direct”.

The above faux pas and others combined, in the eyes of an average Nigerian, do not rank anywhere near his Naira redesign policy which many see as being malice-driven. The kind of incoherence, lack of coordination, and hiccups that characterised the implementation sold the Agbor, Delta state-born banker out as someone who was out to settle a personal political score with someone believed to be the winner of the presidential ticket of the political party he coveted. That person happens to be President Bola Tinubu. It was, therefore, not surprising, when the news broke on Friday night that he’s been suspended indefinitely.

The wildness of the public jubilation that greeted his suspension was also not unexpected, considering how much pain his “naira redesign/currency swap policy” inflicted on Nigerians, denying people access to their funds. This is an act capable of extinguishing whatever faith the semi-banked members of the public have in the system. This is not to even talk about those who are still outside the banking system. Meanwhile, this is a time when the country should be ramping up the number of the banked populace.

To make matters worse, electronic transactions that are supposed to be an alternative in the face of unavailable notes have never been that bad in the history of electronic banking in Nigeria. So, after the devil himself (safe for some greedy commercial bank officials and their collaborators operating POS operators), most Nigerians see Emefiele as the “number one enemy” of humanity.

Now that he has been suspended, arrested, and detained, I have this feeling of “déjà vu” that what happened in the case of the immediate past National Security Adviser (NSA) Col. Sambo Dasuki (retired) would repeat itself. The man was arrested on countless charges and detained against several court orders for years without trial. The case then lingered to the point where it resulted in a waste of public funds, time, emotions, and the government’s goodwill. Up to this moment, nothing tangible came out of the case. Dasuki was ordered to be released by a court after he was detained for about four years and everything went cold since then.

The same process seems to have started with Emefiele. The usual media frenzy with the concomitant media trial that would, at the end of the day, end up in the arrest achieving nothing is now in full swing. “Senior advocates of Facebook and Twitter” are dusting their wigs in readiness for the commencement of the trial of Emefiele in the case versus the Federal Republic of Nigeria at “the High Court of Social Media”. This is a court where the plaintiffs are the prosecutors and at the same time, the judges. There is no gainsaying the fact that Nigeria ought to have outgrown that style but here we are.

Tardy and clumsy prosecution is another issue that is more likely than not to rear its ugly head again. A foremost Nigerian human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN) has admonished the State Security Service (SSS), who arrested the embattled CBN governor, to hand him over to the appropriate anti-graft agency for prosecution, considering the offenses listed against him. This is so that the case would not be bungled like many others before it. The offenses for which Emefiele was arrested include money laundering, terrorism financing, and other economic crimes for which the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is better placed than the SSS to handle. They possess the knowledge and the legal enablement.

I am worried because of what I saw in a viral video showing Emefiele being escorted out of a Hilux van onto a waiting aircraft. That should be way below our security operatives in this 21st century. One of the security operatives was seen wielding a handcuff as if there had been an established incident of violent resistance to arrest from a frail-looking man that Emefiele has become. That kind of “gung ho” gestapo style for which most of the security outfits in Nigeria are known has not done their courses any good over the years.

The overzealousness of these security agents has ensured that they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory many a time. It is, therefore, my sincere hope that history will not be allowed to repeat itself this time around so that Emefiele’s brazen lack of respect for ethics and the rules of the law would be used as a benchmark for what is expected, or not expected, of prospective occupants of the exalted office of the CBN governor.

Abubakar writes from Ilorin, Kwara state. He can be reached via 08051388285 or [email protected]