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Ideas Nigeria Movement (INM), a body made up of Nigerians driven by the tripodal values of nationalism, innovation and a quest to build capacity in leadership, has outlined several factors why it is pushing for Mr. Godwin Emefiele, the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023.
The group of professionals, “business people and Nigerians from diverse ethnic divides whose sole desire is to see a reborn Nigeria bound by the common cord of brotherhood, irrespective of tribe, tongue and religion,” said among the known gladiators and even from among those who are yet to make up their mind, Emefiele is the best man for the job.
In a statement issued by its Executive Secretary, Nadodo Abubakar, the group said: “Nigeria has been ruled by three categories of persons: the politicians, the military and military politicians. By our simple evaluation, none of these categories of persons has been outstanding or has offered the type of leadership needed to light the fire of patriotism, selflessness and productivity that is required to lift the fortunes of Nigerians.
“None has provided the type of vision-driven and target-focused leadership that would help Nigerian youths unleash their creative talents, innovative energies and resourcefulness all of which make them excel overseas each time they have the opportunity,” the group said, adding that Emefiele is the right man to fill the void in good governance missing in Nigeria.
The group cited metrics such as economic management, curtailing insecurity, fighting corruption and promoting innovation as the immediate needs of the nation, positing that Emefiele, given the courage and vision he demonstrated at CBN, would offer the 21st century leadership that would guide Nigeria out of her current quagmire.
On economy, the group said: “Through the multi-sectoral interventions by CBN under his watch, Nigeria has improved her non-oil export, increased local production and yield in agriculture, empowered young Nigerians to play active roles in the agro-business value chain. Deploying the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) alone, CBN has created over 12 million jobs in agriculture, and the number is still growing.
The group faulted those who blame Emefiele for the fall of the Naira at the forex market, saying since the advent of the IMF-led Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) in 1986, and the introduction of the Second Tier Foreign Exchange Market (SFEM), the Naira has been on a one-way free fall from parity to the US Dollar in 1984 to over N500/USD today.
“What past CBN governors did in their time was to pump huge volumes of dollars into the market to defend the Naira. Such disingenuous economics, albeit a knee jerk approach rather than help to grow the economy, left a big gash in the national treasury and created emergency forex billionaires who turned the forex market into a criminal enterprise.”
