Some civil society organisations have accused the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, of compromising the apex bank through his political activities.
The CSOs, in separate interviews with The PUNCH on Sunday, asked the CBN governor to face his job or resign.
This newspaper reports that posters and campaign banners of Emefiele have begun to surface across the country.
Speaking in an interview with one of our correspondents on Sunday, the Convener, Adopt A Goal Initiative, Dare Ariyo-Atoye said, “We may not be able to quantify the level of damage Mr Godwin Emefiele has done to the Central Bank of Nigeria either by dragging the institution’s name into partisan politics or by comprising the core goal of the apex bank. “Mr Emefiele’s subterranean interest in the Presidency and the extensive campaign mounted on his behalf by various groups have become a massive distraction to the CBN and the financial sector of the country.
“The Emefiele-for-President campaign has enmeshed the apex bank and its governor in the web of partisan politics, including the troubling allegation that CBN’s money is being wasted to fund different groups.
“Consequently, it has become necessary to ask the CBN governor to save the Bankers’ Bank and the fragile financial sector of our country from this avoidable distraction and resign to pursue his Presidential ambition. He has a constitutional right to aspire, but the rules demand that he relinquish his position to vie.
“We want to make it absolutely clear to Mr Emefiele that Nigerians have lost confidence in his leadership, and we shall not hesitate to mobilise the people to act and also to protect the institution of the CBN. We wish to boldly say that the CBN needs urgent reform to return the apex bank to its traditional transformative role as a policy bank and regulator.”
The Coordinator, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, Emmanuel Onwubiko, said, “The CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele has already contaminated his moral high ground for holding on to such a totally non-partisan and professional position as the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria by directly or indirectly showing or dabbling in the partisanship of the 2023 Presidential campaign.
“The governor of CBN ought to have been sacked as soon as it emerged that he is nursing any sort of remote or immediate interest in being elected as the President of Nigeria in the coming election. President Buhari is not a principled leader and he is not known for leading by example; his administration is more of do as I said and not as I’m doing.”
Also, the National Coordinator, Advocate for People’s Rights and Justice, Giwa Victor, urged the CBN governor to resign and concentrate on his ambition.
He added that the post he was holding was too crucial to be combined with politics.
He noted, “The position is crucial to the nation and Nigerians; it should not be mixed with politics. It should not be allowed and that is part of the issue section 84 (12) wants to address.
“Although he has not openly made his intention known but with what we have been seeing and recently, the cars branded in his name, you need no soothsayer to tell you he is in the race. He should resign to face his ambition squarely and allow people who are committed to revamping our economy to take his position. Our economy is dwindling; we need a focused person to be in charge.”
