A social political group, Agbor Stakeholders Forum has described former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr Godwin Emefiele, as one of the most competent and impactful governors ever to manage the central bank in the history of Nigeria.
The forum said economic indicators in the less than one year of the present administration at the centre have shown that the Emefiele-led administration was the backbone of the nation’s economy under former President Muhammadu Buhari, helping it to survive two economic recessions and put it on the recovery pedestal. The group justified its claim by pointing to the current economic crisis as evidence, adding that the economy has been unhinged and all indices on a free fall.
The group said the ongoing probe and prosecution of Mr Emefiele by the federal government was simply a political witch hunt targeted at his credibility for accepting to salvage an ailing economy. “As we have said several times, Godwin Emefiele’s offence is to carry out the NAIRA REDESIGN POLICY OF PRESIDENT BUHARI. Buhari wanted a last-minute face-saving gambit in the general elections. He wanted to ensure the integrity of the February 25 Presidential Election which had slipped out of his control,” the group said in a statement that was issued by its national publicity secretary, Kanene Kachikwu.
The forum said Emefiele was the pillar and mainstay of Buhari’s era, citing the various economic interventions enacted by Emefiele and his team during his stint in CBN. “We are proud to state that no other head of the apex bank has put up this quantum of transformational work.”
It noted that Emefiele had prioritised the cutting of frivolous importation of commodities that could be produced locally. He restricted foreign exchange on those 44 items to stave off the pressure on the naira, refusing to float the local currency.
The group bragged that Emefiele allowed measured devaluation while he ensured that the bank directly catalysed production in agriculture, manufacturing, medium and small-scale industries and even the entertainment industry, which it said helped to keep the economy afloat.
“From 2014 till his ouster in 2023, Emefiele’s CBN unleashed a slew of direct development finance initiatives across various sectors of the economy. The idea is to eschew the usual lip service paid to production and mobilize productive people and ventures directly,” the group said.
Emefiele’s kinsmen claimed that Lagos State Redline and Blueline rail projects got a combined lifeline of N136 billion to ensure their completion. Kachikwu said without the interventions like the CBN by Emefiel-led CBN, the Lagos rail projects would not have been completed by now.
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