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From Uche Usim, Abuja
Following startling revelations from the Jim Obazee-led panel that investigated the running of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) under Godwin Emefiele, an economic expert, Dr Muda Yusuf, has called for an urgent amendment of the apex bank’s Act to close the gap for power abuse and arbitrariness.
He also called for the appointment of independent people into the CBN board and not those hand-picked or recommended by the CBN Governor.
Yusuf, who is the Director General, Centre for Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE), told Saturday Sun that the CBN was in dire need of institutional reforms which also requires legislative amendment of the 2007 Act.
He charged the presidency not to lose steam in frontally overhauling the apex bank to restore its dignity that was terribly-eroded by actions taken by Emefiele and his team while they ran the regulatory body.
Yusuf’s admonition follows media reports credited to Jim Obaze’s panel that Emefiele, as CBN Governor, illegally lodged billions of naira in about 593 bank accounts in the United States, United Kingdom, and China, without the CBN’s Board of Directors and Investment Committee’s approval.
The CPPE DG said: “We need to close spaces of power abuse by any CBN Governor without eroding the autonomy as prescribed by law. But I think president Tinubu has begun the CBN reforms he pledged. He has removed the former management and installed a new one.
“The CBN governor has emphasized strict compliance to the rules. This is key in fixing any reputational damage we already suffered. It’s part of the reforms.
“The composition of the board is also key. We should have more independent members and subordinates of the Governor. We need to restructure the board in a way to have independent voices in terms of representation.
If we say the CBN Governor is powerful and autonomous, it’s for a reason but it should not be abused”, he explained.
The Obaze report disclosed that Emefiele allegedly deposited £543, 482,213 in fixed deposits in UK banks alone without authorisation.
“All the accounts where the billions were lodged have all been traced by the investigator.”
The investigator also found that Buhari did not approve of the naira redesign, adding that it was Tunde Sabiu who first told Emefiele in September 2022 to consider the redesign of the naira.
On October 6, 2022, Emefiele wrote to Buhari that he wanted to redesign and reconfigure N1,000, N500 and N200 notes.
“The former President tagged along but did not approve the redesign as required by law. Buhari merely approved that the currency be printed in Nigeria. The redesign was only mentioned to the board of the CBN on December 15, 2022, after Emefiele had awarded the contract to the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Plc on October 31, 2022,’’ the documents noted.
The special investigator also found that N61.5 billion was earmarked for the printing of the new notes out of which N31.79 billion had been paid.
As of August 9, 2023, findings revealed that N769 billion of the new notes were in circulation.
The probe of the CBN also revealed the fraudulent use of N26.627 trillion Ways and Means of the Apex Bank as well as the misuse of the COVID-19 intervention fund.
