10/06/2023
I’m not a fan of Godwin Emeifele.
The general consensus is that he committed economic terrorism and destroyed our local currency, the naira, which is now worthless because of one man.
I have also argued and advocated for his removal.
A 2/3 vote of the national parliament was required to remove a CBN governor, per the CBN Act.
The reason is that CBN is an independent body, and so the head ought to be protected from executive recklessness and rascality.
The CBN Act did not envisage that a CBN governor could be suspended, even though it provides that the CBN governor can be disciplined, but it did not provide for the manner and means by which the CBN boss could be punished.
The framers of the CBN Act envisaged that a time could come when a sitting president, after having s*x with his side chick who does not like the CBN governor, could ask his lover to fire him, and in that moment of vulnerability and to please the side chick, the president would sanction that move.
To prevent that from happening, the CBN Act was enacted to protect the sanctity and independence of the CBN, which makes it impossible for a sitting president to either fire or suspend a CBN boss without recourse to the National Assembly.
With this said, the suspension of CBN governor Godwin Emiefele is in clear violation of the CBN Act, which protects the independence of the CBN.
The president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, does not have the power to suspend him.
The law does not empower him to do so.
So the removal is illegal and, by that act, null and void.
What I expected was for the president to push for his removal through 2/3 resolutions of the National Assembly.
Going through this route to remove our embattled Emiefele is dangerous and a bad omen that sends a distressing signal to international investors that CBN is not independent and not free from executive rascality.
A complete departure from the independence of the CBN and the damage that the CBN Act was enacted to protect
This is worrying.
Chukwudi wrote.
