Politics

Nyesom Wike applauds President Bola Tinubu over suspension of Godwin Emefiele as the Governor of CBNl

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Former Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, has applauded President Bola Tinubu’s suspension of Godwin Emefiele as the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Last night, President Tinubu suspended Emefiele and directed him to immediately hand over to the Apex bank’s Deputy Governor (Operations Directorate) Folashodun Shonubi.

Reacting to the development, Wike who was one of the critics of Emefiele’s policies, especially the Naira redesign, described the President’s decision as bold and timely.

The former Rivers State Governor also commanded President Tinubu for approving uniformity in the retirement age and pension of judicial officers in the country, according to a statement by his media team.

He said the President’s action will introduce a new lease of life to the nation’s judiciary.

Wike noted that he and other G5 members are impressed that the President is showing “focused and exemplary leadership that will lead the county to prosperity.”

Politics

SSS denies arresting Godwin Emefiele as removal as CBN governor

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The State Security Service on Saturday denied arresting former Central Bank of Nigeria governor, Godwin Emefiele.

“Currently, Emefiele is not with the DSS,” the agency said on its Twitter handle Saturday morning.

Bayo Onanuga, the publisher of P.M. News and a media aide to President Bola Tinubu, shared a story of Mr Emefiele’s arrest reported by his newspaper on Friday night.

The domestic intelligence office had avoided directly answering Peoples Gazette about whether or not an arrest was made, which led this paper to publish the story citing P.M. News.

This comes after Mr Tinubu suspended Mr Emefiele, replacing him with Adebisi Sonubi, the deputy governor in charge of operations.

The statement announcing Mr Emefiele’s suspension said the CBN governor’s suspension was “sequel to ongoing investigation of his office and the planned reforms in the financial sector of the economy.”

Mr Emefiele, 61, assumed office on June 4, 2014, following the controversial dismissal of his predecessor Lamido Sanusi by former President Goodluck Jonathan.

Mr Emefiele’s tenure saw an unprecedented depletion of Nigeria’s vast foreign reserves, as well as excruciating inflation via currency devaluation.

He repeatedly defended his action as necessary to mitigate the country’s challenges, which became intense after fuel prices fell at the international markets and Nigeria’s production output reduced following incessant hostilities in the oil-rich Niger Delta and a coordinated exodus of foreign oil majors.

Business, Politics

Emefiele is sadist, he committed crime worse than electoral fraud- Wole Soyinka

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The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, is a sadist and has committed a crime against humanity with his naira redesign policy which has “impoverished” many Nigerians, says Wole Soyinka.

For several months, Nigerians have had to grapple with a cash crunch due to the CBN’s limiting of cash in circulation. But the central bank is accusing politicians of hoarding cash. Deposit banks have complained of receiving limited cash from CBN.

Mr Soyinka, a playwright and rights activist, slammed Mr Emefiele and President Muhammadu for stifling “lives and livelihoods” through the cash policy that has made cash withdrawals at banks, ATMS and PoS difficult.

“You can’t buy newspapers. You can’t buy guguru. Which means the saleswoman cannot pay for plantain, which means that the farmer cannot pay for transportation of his goods from his farm to the market,” said Mr Soyinka regarding the cash scarcity caused by the CBN’s naira redesign policy. The rights activist stated this in a Channels TV interview aired on Monday.

He added;

“Emefiele has committed a crime against humanity, over and beyond even any electoral mago-mago. He struck at the heart of the subsisting survival principles, minimal needs and entitlements of the ordinary people in the street.”

The apex bank, in October 2022, announced the redesign of the N200, N300, and N500 banknotes. The CBN announced that the banknotes would cease to be legal tenders on February 15, 2023.

The policy and deadline were approved by Mr Buhari, who claimed he was trying to stop vote buying and other corrupt practices ahead of the February 25 and March 18 elections.

However, the Supreme Court nullified the arbitrary withdrawal of the old banknotes and ordered the Buhari regime to allow the currencies to remain in circulation until December, following a lawsuit challenging the naira policy.

The suit was initially filed by Governors Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna, Yahaya Bello of Kogi, and Bello Matawalle of Zamfara.Mr Soyinka expressed concern that the scarcity of the naira has persisted with its attendant economic and social hardships.

“…Don’t bully me, don’t take my voice away. Don’t take my economic potential away. Don’t throw me on the mercy of a sadist like Emefiele, who impoverished…he and his boss, Buhari, because ultimately, responsibility (rests) with him to have allowed this to happen. But this is the expert,” Mr Soyinka stressed.

“This is the one who gives advice and executes the policies.”

He further stated;

“And (Mr Emefiele) reduced this nation to a state where even a few days ago, I sent a cheque to the bank, and the cheque came back, they had no cash. One of the bankers eventually brought me something from his own cash and explained to me what had been going on and how they would sit and wait for money to come.”

Business

Emefiele, CBN given two-week ultimatum to make cash available to Nigerians

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NLC and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) have extended the ultimatum issued to CBN to make cash available in banks by two weeks.

The two unions had earlier threatened in a one-week ultimatum to picket all branches of the CBN beginning from March 29 if President Muhammadu Buhari’s regime and the CBN did not end the nationwide cash crunch.

NLC president, Joe Ajaero, told a news conference in Abuja that the decision to extend the ultimatum was reached after consultations with affiliate members of both unions and their national executive councils.

He said reports from state branches of the two unions indicated partial compliance by the CBN with the Supreme Court judgment to make cash available in banks.

“We agreed that we have to monitor this compliance for the next two weeks to establish whether it is sustainable.

CBN rushed to move money to commercial banks, but some of the banks are getting empty again. Queues are returning to some of them,” stated Mr Ajaero.

He added;

“It will be very naive of the NLC to hurriedly call off the action. We would want to loosen up for another two weeks, however. The NLC and TUC have decided to allow March 29 to pass without any picketing but to watch for the next two weeks.”

He explained that “after two weeks from today, the NEC of the two organisations will meet to decide whether the CBN has fully complied and whether its compliance is sustainable to drive the economy.”

The NLC president said committees had been set up at the national and state levels of the two organisations to monitor the level of compliance by the banks.

He also observed that some banks did not comply with the CBN directive to operate at the weekend.

“We equally wish to advise the CBN to play its regulatory role because it can sanction banks that are not compliant as Nigerians have suffered so much,’’ Mr Ajaero said.

TUC president Festus Osifo corroborated Mr Ajaero’s submission that the labour unions had agreed to sustain the push in the next two weeks to ease the hardships of Nigerians.

“With reports that came from the states, there had been some level of compliance, but some banks refused to comply or refused to open, and they did not open at the weekend,” stated Mr Osifo.

“We call on the CBN to encourage them to sustain the availability of cash as the confidence in the system has been eroded. The CBN needs to do much more. It needs to supply much more money into the economy.”

Business, Lifestyle, Politics

CBN directs banks to dispense and receive old N200, N500 and N1000 notes

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The Central Bank of Nigeria has directed commercial banks to dispense and receive old naira notes as legal tender across the country.

A statement by the acting Director, CBN Corporate Communications, Isa AbdulMumin, says the apex bank gave the directive at a Bankers’ Committee meeting held on Sunday.

Banks have now been authorised to dispense and receive the old Naira notes.

Business, Lifestyle, Politics

Emefiele will frustrate Tinubu’s presidential ambition with naira scarcity, unfit as CBN governor- Governor Akeredolu

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Governor Rotimi Akeredolu has slammed Godwin Emefiele, the Central Bank of Nigeria governor, as unfit to remain in office for attempting to be the next president.

He will also frustrate the chances of the All Progressives Congress to win the February 25 presidential election with the persisting naira scarcity.

“We have said that this man (Mr Emefiele) should be removed when he contested to be president. The man (Mr Emefile) is not fit for that position (CBN governor),” Mr Akeredolu was quoted in a statement issued by his spokesman, Richard Olatunde, on Wednesday. “A man who attempted to be president will frustrate us at this time.”

Last week, the Ondo governor filed a suit at the Supreme Court challenging the CBN February 10 deadline for the N200, N500 and N1,000 banknotes to be legal tender, citing the untold hardship scarcity of the new notes have brought on people.

The governor, who spoke while playing host to Seyi Tinubu, Bola Tinubu’s son, who led members of the youth directorate of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, explained, “We have a problem we are facing in this country today.

Our rating as a party is not that favourable. Let’s not deceive ourselves. Must it be now that we will have this financial policy?”Mr Akeredolu added, “How, Fuel and everything? Things are not easy. This policy is not right at this time. It should be reversed. Reserve it and tell CBN that we are reversing it. Let old, and new notes co-exist.”

He lamented that Okada, taxis, and banks “are not taking old notes again. There is an injunction, and everyone is behaving like there is no injunction.”

According to the governor, the choice of Mr Tinubu as APC’s flag bearer for the February 25 poll was based on his competence and track records.

“We didn’t waver when we said that the presidency must come to the South, and when it got to the South, we didn’t waver. We said competence and track record are important,” stated Mr Akeredolu.

“Our choice of Asiwaju was premised on the informed decision, not because we are from the same tribe.”

Business, Lifestyle

Buhari, CBN destroying lives, livelihoods with badly implemented naira policy: NECA

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The Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association has condemned the CBN’s poorly implemented new naira banknotes policy sanctioned by President Muhammadu Buhari, declaring it is ruining lives and livelihoods.

NECA urged the Buhari regime to look beyond the politics of the naira redesign and focus on the damaging effects on businesses and the economy at large.Its director-general, Adewale-Smatt Oyerinde, made the call in a statement on Sunday in Lagos.

In the last few weeks, with the cash squeeze and the purchasing ability of Nigerians greatly impaired by the poor implementation of the policy, the economy has witnessed a significant bashing.

This is so, with report stating that the Real sector witnessed about 40 per cent drop in productive activities,” explained Mr Oyerinde.

He added;

“As the cash crush continues, thousands of productive hours are lost daily on queues by employees and many cannot even get to work.

The value chain in the formal and informal sector with over N10 billion cash transaction daily is almost destroyed with consequences for employment, business sustainability and National development.”

The NECA director-general called for critical and immediate efforts to be made to improve or upgrade alternative routes to cash, thereby ensuring seamless transactions before going digital.

According to him, the series of actions taken by the CBN now in the form of having naira swap agents, among others, are afterthoughts, after resistance by Nigerians.

It is callous to deprive citizens of the new naira notes after cajoling them to deposit the old ones in the banks. We urge the CBN to sanction the commercial banks that have been found to be complicit in the whole show of shame, even as the CBN cannot extricate itself from being complicit,” stressed the NECA chief.

‘Mr Oyerinde further mentioned that “as an immediate action, we align with the position of the Council of State that the CBN should release more new naira notes into the economy or allow the use of the old ones, pending a time when it will demonstrate competence by not always putting the cart before the horse in the implementation of monetary policies.”

The NECA boss pointed out that the CBN naira redesign policy with the objectives as stated by the apex bank was laudable.He said, however, that like many of the bank’s policy initiatives, this was also flawed by shortsightedness in implementation.

For a definitive monetary policy as the naira design, it is expected that the CBN will not only take lessons from other countries like India, Myanmar, Australia, Venezuela, Zimbabwe and the European Union, which witnessed various degrees of successes and failures when they implanted their currency redesign,” said the NECA director-general, urging CBN to do a “thorough analysis and simulation of likely social and economic challenges that might arise and definitive response to those challenges.”

He further stated that “it does not seem that the CBN understands the challenges, nor have solutions to the economic issues, thereby allowing speculators and economic saboteurs to have a field day at the expense of legitimate businesses and the economy.”

Business

No Nigerian should be arrested by court order – Femi Falana reacts to court order stopping arrest of CBN governor Emefiele by DSS

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Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana has said the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, is enjoying temporary victory over a court ruling that refused an exparte application by the Department of State Services, seeking his arrest over alleged terrorism.

According to Falana, no Nigerian should be arrested by a court order.

On Monday, the Federal High Court, declined an application by the Department of State Services (DSS) to arrest and detain Emefiele.

While declining the motion ex-parte filed by an applicant in the absence of the respondent, Justice John Tsoho said the secret police did not provide any concrete evidence to substantiate its claims that Emefiele was involved in terrorism financing and economic crimes.

Falana, speaking on Tuesday, December 20 at Channels Television’s ‘Politics Today’, said ordinary Nigerians should enjoy the immunity that Emefiele enjoyed in the case against the DSS.

“On no ground should our court order the arrest and detention of any citizen on the basis of an ex parte application,” he stated.

“I cannot guess why this harassment is being meted out to Mr Godwin Emefiele, I do not have the full fact. Even the court said sufficient fact has not been adduced to warrant granting the order.”

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