President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has suspended the Central Bank Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, CFR, from office with immediate effect.
This , according to a release by the Director of Information Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation ,Mr Willie Bassey , is sequel to the ongoing investigation of his office and the planned reforms in the financial sector of the economy.
Mr Emefiele has been directed to immediately hand over the affairs of his office to the Deputy Governor (Operations Directorate), who will act as the Central Bank Governor pending the conclusion of investigation and the reforms.
There had been serious outcry for the sacking of Emefiele over his Naira notes redesign project which caused hardship for the masses and was believed to be politically motivated .Some supporters of the All Progressives Congress, APC, presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to sack the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Governor, Godwin Emefiele.
Bayo Onanuga, Tinubu’s campaign Director of Media and Publicity, said Emefiele should be sacked because Nigerians don’t deserve his bumbler.
Onanuga made the call while responding to a Twitter user who noted that naira redesign was not APC’s policy. He wrote: “This is NOT APC Policy. This is not Tinubu’s Manifesto.”
Responding, Onanuga tweeted: “This was then under Major General Muhammadu Buhari. There was no suffering then to get new notes.
“PMB, sack Emefiele now. Nigeria doesn’t deserve this bumbler in CBN.”
In 2022, CBN introduced the redesigned N200, N500, and N1000 notes.
CBN had fixed January 31 for the mopping up of the old naira notes. But, the deadline was extended to February 10 following public outcry by Nigerians.
However, Nigerians have been witnessing naira scarcity following the deadline by CBN for the mopping of the naira notes.
Banks had claimed they haven’t received enough supply of the new naira notes from the CBN to end the scarcity.
Many had called for his sacking under President Muhammadu Buhari but the president gave some reasons for not sacking the Governor of the Central Bank over his partisan activities.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Mr Buhari said the Governing Board of the CBN had the power to determine if the governor erred or not.
Mr Emefiele came under fire in May after a group procured the N100 million presidential expression of interest and nomination form of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
The CBN governor later rejected the presidential forms, noting that should he heed the call to run for the presidency, he would use his “own hard-earned savings from over 35 years of banking leadership to buy my own Nomination Forms.”
Despite the outcry against his partisanship, Mr Emefiele also sued the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice over his eligibility.
He asked the court to stop INEC from disqualifying him from participating in the primary election of his preferred political party.
Amidst all these, Mr Buhari refused to call the CBN boss to order or relieve him of his position.
