‘Official engagement, health challenges’ — CBN writes reps over Emefiele’s absence

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says Godwin Emefiele, governor of the CBN, will not appear before the house of representatives on Thursday.

Instead, Aisha Ahmad, CBN deputy governor, financial systems stability, will lead a team of high-ranking officials of the apex bank to brief the house of representatives during plenary on Thursday.

In a letter addressed to the house of representatives and read by Femi Gbajabiamila, speaker of the house, during Wednesday’s plenary, the CBN said Emefiele is not yet back in the country because he is attending to an official engagement and health challenges abroad.

“Regrettably, the governor is out of the country for official engagement as well as attending to some health challenges,” the letter reads.

“He is, therefore, unavailable to attend the briefing. Given the urgency associated with the briefing, a committee of governors led by Mrs Aisha Ahmad, deputy governor, financial systems stability, is prepared to brief the house.”

After Gbajabiamila read the letter, the lawmakers responded “no” to the request for the CBN governor to be represented.

But Gbajabiamila appealed to his colleagues to put aside “sentiment” since the issue at stake is “critical”.

“At this stage, while I understand the sentiment, we have to rise above certain things and not make it personal anymore, in the sense that there is a very critical issue which is the issue of this cash policy,” he said.

He said if the CBN governor is out of the country and attending to his health, it shouldn’t be insisted that he appear in person before the lawmakers.

Gbajabiamila said it will not serve the interest of the house and country to wait till Emefiele returns, which could be in January because “a lot would have happened by then”.

“But if he has asked somebody who is fully equipped with all the facts who can be questioned by the house, who is a deputy governor, financial systems stability, which is what this is about, I think we should hear from her,” he said.

Also speaking, Idris Wase, deputy speaker, said the CBN is an institution and Emefiele should be represented in the circumstance that he is unavoidably unavailable.

THE SUMMONS

Emefiele was summoned by the green chamber on December 8, over the CBN’s new cash withdrawal policy.

The lower legislative chamber also asked the apex bank to suspend the policy scheduled to take effect on January 9, 2023.

In a memo issued and signed by Haruna Mustafa, director of banking supervision, the apex bank had directed all banks and other financial institutions to ensure that over-the-counter cash withdrawals by individuals and corporate entities do not exceed N100,000 and N500, 000, respectively, per week.

The CBN also directed that only N200 and lower denominations should be loaded into banks’ ATMs.

But Emefiele, who was supposed to appear before the lawmakers on December 15, wrote through Edward Adamu, CBN deputy governor, corporate services, that he was out of the country.

At plenary on Tuesday, the house rescheduled his appearance to Thursday, but the CBN wrote again on Wednesday, saying Emefiele won’t be available to brief the lawmakers.

The development comes days after a federal high court in Abuja declined an application by the Department of State Services (DSS) to arrest and detain the CBN governor.

The court had said there was no concrete evidence to substantiate the claim that the CBN governor was involved in terrorism financing and economic crimes.