News

Premium Times Echos Dele Momodu’s Call for Emefiele’s Resignation

Published

3 years ago

February 21, 2022

Eric

Premium Times, an online news medium, has joined the call for the resignation of the governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Godwin Emefiele.

The medium made the call in its February 21, 2022 editorial, thereby echoing a previous call made by a presidential aspirant, Aare Dele Momodu, published in The Boss Newspaper of Saturday, February 19, 2022.

Emefiele has been accused of meddling with politics while still retaining his office as the CBN governor.

Read the editorial in full

EDITORIAL: Why Godwin Emefiele must speak up or resign

The run up to the 2023 general elections was always going to be torrid. For one, project Nigeria has not, since the heady days of the struggle for independence, and in the ferment of the civil war, appeared more imperilled. On several fronts, the barbarians are literally at the gate. In major parts of the north and down south, non-state actors are demonstrating a capacity to deploy weapons and tactics that daily undermine the integrity of the state, while simultaneously hurting the economy.

Within the gates, all the main measures of domestic well-being have collapsed. As bad as the unemployment indices are, they are but passing commentary on the high levels to which domestic poverty has risen – all of these worsened, no doubt, by rising and volatile domestic prices. Output numbers released last week by the nation’s bean crunchers confirm that the economy may have finally put the strictures from the COVID-19 pandemic behind it. Nonetheless, the numbers by which the economy continues to recover are nothing like what it needs to grow and develop.

Unsurprisingly, therefore, the race to succeed President Buhari, whose somnolent administration failed to make the dent on the economy’s major drawbacks that it promised at the hustings, is heating up. Accordingly, this newspaper’s bias is for a candidate familiar enough with the nation’s lead peeves – political and economic – and knowledgeable enough to proffer workable solutions.

Amongst the diverse offering of would-be candidates for office of president next year, one stands out: the incumbent governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. Whereas those advocating his candidacy for office of the president are advertising Mr Godwin I. Emefiele as capable, regarding his understanding of the economy, PREMIUM TIMES finds his candidature disturbing. This has nothing to do with his inability to bring about stable domestic prices in his role as Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria since 2014. Or with the many monetary policy contortions that have willfully eroded the value of the naira and the balance on the nation’s gross external reserve in the same period. Nor is our worry with Mr Emefiele’s candidature a response to the Central Bank’s many failed interventions in diverse spheres of the economy, all of which have seen the bank’s balance sheet balloon far faster than the yield on its spend.

Instead, PREMIUM TIMES believes strongly that the operational and administrative autonomy granted the central bank by its enabling statute was precisely to protect the governor from political influence. Indeed, this newspaper recognises no measure of this intent greater than the Central Bank of Nigeria Act’s cap on how much ways and means support the bank may lend the Federal Government – a provision of the Act that, as with so many others, has been shredded by Mr Emefiele’s leadership of the Central Bank.

While Mr Emefiele may have violated the spirit and letter of the Central Bank Act by succumbing to political pressure as Central Bank Governor, as is evidenced by the Bank’s continued monetisation of the Federal Government’s fiscal deficit, PREMIUM TIMES believes that it could not have been the intendment of the framers of the Central Bank Act to protect the governor from political influence by protecting a politician in that office.

If Mr Emefiele wants to run for political office, common sense and good breeding dictate that he does not sully the hallowed offices of the Central Bank as part of this process. PREMIUM TIMES notes that whereas he could have, he has not distanced himself from the clamour of those who would have him become president next year.

It is in defence of the sanctity of a key institution of the country’s economic governance that PREMIUM TIMES calls for Mr Emefiele’s immediate resignation as governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria to pursue his political ambition, if he has any, or to publicly repudiate any association with the groups clamouring for him to run for president.

It is our considered view that the statutory independence granted the Central Bank and its governor is compromised, if not totally eroded, when a sitting and serving Governor of the Bank becomes a closet politician angling or lobbying to be appointed to or to contest for a partisan political office. Whether he openly makes known his partisan political interest or does so through shadow proxies is immaterial.

Once occupancy of a partisan political office becomes his major preoccupation, his commitment to the bank’s service can no longer be guaranteed. His resignation is even more desirable because for as long as he remains at the helm, while he is consciously and calculatingly seeking the occupancy of a partisan political office, the important work of the Central Bank and the monetary policy direction of the country are likely to be subordinated to the pursuit of the actualisation of his political ambitions. In the end, the independence of the Bank is lost. And the nation poorly served by shielding a politician in this very important office.

This concern becomes very critical when we recall the ignominious role played by the Central Bank in the 2015 presidential election and in previous elections.

News

Sack Wike Now, Niger Delta Youths Tell Tinubu

Published

1 day ago

March 15, 2025

Eric

The youth chapter of Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) has issued a 48-hour ultimatum to Minister of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), Nyesom Wike, to retract his publicly disparaging remarks against the Ijaw nation and the leaders of this socio-political body.

According to the youths, it is embarrassing that Wike insulted the late former Federal Commissioner for Information and South-South Leader, Chief Edwin Clark, even in death without respecting him.

Addressing journalists on Saturday, the National Youth President of the Youth Wing, Doben Donyegha, who gave the ultimatum, said that it was annoying that Wike abused the leaders of the South-South geopolitical zone less than 24 hours after its delegation met with the President at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

Wike, during a media chat on Thursday, described PANDEF as “the worst organisation anybody can rely on”, while also calling the board of trustee members of the body “political merchants”.

Donyegha, who also urged President Bola Tinubu to immediately sack the minister from his cabinet, said that the youth wing no longer had confidence in him and that keeping Wike in his cabinet may affect the president’s re-election chances in the Niger Delta come 2027.

The President of the PANDEF youths also asked the Code of Conduct Bureau to investigate the minister, alleging land-grabbing activities in the FCT.

News

Ahead Budget Presentation, Amaewhule-led Rivers Assembly Adjourns Sitting Indefinitely

Published

2 days ago

March 14, 2025

Eric

The Rivers State House of Assembly has adjourned its sittings indefinitely.

The decision to adjourn legislative duties indefinitely was reached during plenary, presided over by the Speaker, Martin Amaewhule, in Port Harcourt on Friday.

The development comes hours after the State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, wrote to the Speaker, informing him of his intention to visit the House to present the 2025 Appropriation Bill for consideration and approval.

The governor, in a letter dated March 13 and addressed to the Speaker, Martin Amaewhule, said he intends to present the budget on Wednesday, March 19, 2025, or any other day within March that the House may deem fit.

Fubara said his decision is in compliance with the Supreme Court judgment and in response to the lawmakers’ request for him to re-present the budget.

He recalled the bitter experience of visiting the Assembly Quarters with his entourage, where the lawmakers were temporarily sitting to present the budget, but he was denied access to the complex.

News

Suspension: Natasha Sues Akpabio, Others for Contempt

Published

3 days ago

March 13, 2025

Eric

The Senator representing Kogi Central Senatorial District, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, has filed contempt charges against the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, and others over her six-month suspension without pay from the Senate.

Others listed in the Form 48 contempt charge, filed before the Federal High Court in Abuja and sighted on Thursday, include the Clerk of the National Assembly and the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges, and Code of Conduct, Senator Neda Imasuen.

It will be recalled that Justice Obiora Egwuatu of the Federal High Court in Abuja, on 4 March, while delivering a ruling on an ex parte motion filed by Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan through her legal team led by Mr. Michael Numa (SAN), restrained the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges, and Code of Conduct from proceeding with any investigation against the plaintiff/applicant.

This investigation related to alleged misconduct following events that occurred during the Senate plenary session on February 20, 2025 and a subsequent referral on February 25, 2025.

The court’s order was to remain in effect pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice for an interlocutory injunction.

The court also issued an order directing the defendants to show cause why an interlocutory injunction should not be granted to restrain them from proceeding with the purported investigation against Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan for alleged misconduct, as such actions would affect her privileges as stipulated in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), the Senate Standing Order 2023, and the Legislative Houses (Powers and Privileges) Act.

Additionally, the court declared that “any action taken during the pendency of the suit is null, void, and of no effect whatsoever.”

The Court granted Akpoti-Uduaghan permission to serve the originating summons and accompanying documents on all defendants through substituted means, such as delivering them to the Clerk of the National Assembly, cited as the 1st Defendant, or by pasting them on the premises of the National Assembly and publishing them in two national dailies.

However, just two days after the court’s ruling, the Senate proceeded to suspend Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan for six months.

In response to the court order, the Senate President contested the power of the court to interfere in the internal affairs of the legislature, arguing that the court lacked jurisdiction to intervene in Senate matters.

In her contempt charge, Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan argued that her suspension constituted wilful disobedience to the subsisting court order issued on March 4 stating that an enrolled order of the interim injunction issued by Justice Egwuatu was duly served on the defendants on March 5.

According to Form 48, the defendants/contemnors “deliberately and contumaciously disregarded” the binding directive of the court and “proceeded with acts in flagrant defiance of the authority of the court.”

The court, in a notice of disobedience of a court order signed by its Registrar pursuant to Section 72 of the Sheriff and Civil Process Act 2004, informed the defendants/contemnors of their wilful disobedience to the court order issued by Justice Obiora Egwuatu.

It warned that defying the subsisting order rendered Akpabio, Senator Imasuen, and the Clerk of the National Assembly liable for contempt of court, which could result in their committal to prison.