Fire In The President’s Kitchen

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele, recently announced plans by the apex bank to redesign some Naira notes-N200, N500, and N1,000. He said that the new notes would be in circulation by December 15, 2022, even as he said that the old ones would remain valid till January 31, 2023.

However, two days after the announcement, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmad, rejected the idea, warning that it would have a devastating effect on the economy. The minister who disowned the policy during a budget defence at the Senate said that there would be severe consequences if CBN did not rescind the policy step.

It must be noted that the CBN is the agency of government charged with the mandate of enunciating monetary policies and ensuring financial systems stability. The minister is in charge of fiscal policies. Both the CBN Governor and the minister report directly to the president who, in this instance, is known to have given the CBN the go ahead to act on the policy.

The purpose of this editorial is not to delve into the merits or demerits of the new naira notes policy. Or for that matter, whose duty it is to take decisions on such a policy. Our concern is the penchant for President Muhammadu Buhari’s appointees to work at cross purposes. It has continued to happen repeatedly.

We also frown at the position of the minister of finance who publicly distanced her ministry from the position taken by the CBN even as the Permanent Secretary of the ministry is on the board of the CBN and may have participated in this decision-making process. For the President to issue a press statement to clarify his own directive is certainly not good enough. It is inappropriate and a clear sign that there is a disconnect within the administrative chain of the government

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Sadly, this has been the practice within the administration and we believe this has to stop. It gives the impression that the President is not in charge. Or that some of his appointees lack the discipline to act in concert to achieve set government goals.

We recall the embarrassing situation involving the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the minister of Justice and Attorney General as well as the Police Service Commission and the Inspector General of Police (IGP). The disturbing aspect of this shame is that no one deems it worrisome enough to call the quibblers to order.

It is also pertinent to point out that the minister of finance had announced in August that the government will fix a five per cent tax on call, message, and data policy as part of a new finance law. However, the minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, said he was not consulted before the minister went public with the tax regime. He promised to use every legal instrument available to fight the decision.

In 2019, the  Special Adviser to the President on Social Investments, Maryam Uwais, had denied the claim by the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Farouq, that the National Social Investment Office (NSIO) had no exit plan for N-Power beneficiaries.

Similarly, in 2020, President Buhari approved letters containing different directives on how Marilyn Amobi, managing director of the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Company (NBET) would end her tenure. In a statement, the then minister of power, Sale Mamman, announced that Nnaemeka Ewelukwa would succeed Amobi in office and directed that she proceeds on terminal leave with immediate effect. However, a letter from the ministry of finance said the president has approved that Amobi is allowed to serve out her tenure which would end on July 24.

Instances of these inter-agency shows of shame are endless including the one involving the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), Abike Dabiri-Erewa, who sparred publicly with Pantami over office space. In a video tweeted by NiDCOM, Dabiri-Erewa accused Pantami of ordering gunmen to throw out staff of her commission from an office that the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) gave them. Responding almost immediately, Pantami described NiDCOM CEO’s claim as a “fat lie.” These sordid displays of a lack of unanimity are not healthy enough in an environment that requires team spirit to drive policies.

In the considered opinion of this newspaper, issues of this nature should be resolved in-house instead of this proclivity to play to the gallery by some government appointees.  We think it was time the President put urgent measures in place to put out the raging fire in his kitchen.