Author Name: GlobalVoices.
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Nigerians demand central banker's resignation for dabbling in partisan politics [1]
['Nwachukwu Egbunike']
Date: 2022-05-09 00:00:00
The partisan decision of Nigeria's central banker Godwin Emefiele to stand for election for the nations top job, the presidency, has rattled Africa's most populous nation. The inappropriateness of Emefiele's voyage into partisan politics as the central bank governor and his use of his office to promote his presidential ambition is unprecedented in Nigeria's history.
On May 6, three interest groups purchased the N10 million Naira (about $24,000 USD) presidential nomination form of the Nigeria's ruling party, All Progressives Congress (APC), for Emefiele, reports the Cable, an online newspaper. Emefiele has been a member of the APC since February 2021. Speculation has been rife in the past months about the central banker's interest in the presidential race, with a certain Green Alliance group asking him to contest.
Emefiele, 60, has been Nigeria's Central Bank Governor since June 4, 2014.
On May 7, the central banker, while thanking his group of supporters for purchasing the presidential nomination form, tweeted that should he run for office, he will do so “without proxies in an open and transparent manner.” However, Emefiele was evasive about his partisan ambitions. He left his decision to “God’s Divine intervention,” claiming to go public “in the next few days. The Almighty will so direct.”
But Emefiele's tweets contradict his actions. The central banker had a few days earlier, on May 5, dragged Nigeria's election umpire the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) to court. Emefiele claimed that he will suffer “irreparable damage” if prevented from contesting while still serving as the central bank governor, writes the People's Gazette, an online newspaper.
This afternoon [May 9], the court siting in Abuja, Nigeria's capital, summoned both the INEC and the AGF “to appear before it on May 12 to explain why” Emefiele “should be disqualified from running for President in 2023″, said a news report by the Nigerian Guardian newspaper.
Partisan central banker?
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Act is explicitly clear that the sensitive post of central banker, as in every part of the world, should be occupied by a professional above partisan considerations. Specifically, Section 9 of the 2007 CBN Act states that both the governor and deputy governor of the bank: “shall devote the whole of their time to the service of the Bank and while holding office shall not engage in any full or part time employment or vocation whether remunerated or not except such personal and charitable causes as may be determined by the Board and which do not conflict with or detract from their full time duties.”
Despite the provisions of the CBN Act, Wale Fapohunda, a lawyer and head of the Green Alliance group asserts that there's no law debarring Emefiele from contesting for the office of the president, as a sitting CBN governor. Fapohunda maintained that Emefiele's right to contest was backed by Section 137 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended. Section 137 prescribes situations that will disqualify anyone from contesting for Nigeria's presidency. Fapohunda was obviously referring to Section 137(b) of the 1999 Constitution which states that a public servant must resign his position “at least thirty days before the date of the election.”
Resign or get sacked!
However, many Nigerians disagreed with Fapohunda.
[END]
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