Not a few people, especially lawyers and economic experts were piqued when the charge sheet – containing the two allegations preferred against the suspended Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele was finally unveiled at the weekend. The two charges are that Mr. Emefiele was in possession of a single barrel shot gun without licence; while the second reads that he was found with 123 rounds of live ammunition (Cartridges) without licence. Those who reacted to the charges against Emefiele said they are eighter ridiculous, frivolous or vexatious.
That’s the irony of expectations. Many had expected that Emefiele’s detention for over a month by the Department of State Service (DSS) would produce a mindboggling outcome. The secret service had accused Emefiele of terrorism financing, a reason they had tried to arrest him during the past administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Those who spoke on the issue unanimously agreed that the charges are yet another evidence of the shoddiness and tardiness with which the nation’s security agencies do their jobs, despite the huge budgetary allocations to them. It smacks of professional incompetence to arrest a citizen first and thereafter to scout for reasons to justify the arrest, they said. The fear now is that it could have negative implications for the country’s financial system.
Lawyers berate secret service
“The matter has ended. Emefiele is a free man. He goes back to Oxford to pursue his PHD. They can’t charge him for any offence,” principal partner of Ubani & Co. law firm, Monday Ubani said. Speaking to this reporter, Mr Ubani said the frivolous charge shows that the DSS does not have a case against Emefiele. He said the secret service simply arrests, inflict injuries on suspects by way of coercing them to make induced confessions, a reason they often keep suspects in detention for long periods.
“If they detained Emefiele for this long only to charge him for illegal possession of firearm, it means they don’t have a serious charge against him. There is no way Emefiele couldn’t have had licence for a gun. Does it mean the long detention was to investigate if he had a gun? It’s ridiculous. Elsewhere like the United Kingdom, investigations are concluded before arresting a suspect. And they arrest you and quickly charge you to court. That’s why they don’t detain the person illegally,” the legal luminary said.
Like Ubani, Lagos-based lawyer Inibehe Effiong said, “This is ridiculous, extremely ridiculous, if you are keeping somebody in custody for over 30 days and the reason for detaining the person is possession of firearms, it shows that the agency is not serious, it shows that the government is not serious. It shows that they have taken Nigerians for a fool.”
Effiong said if the “illegal” possession of firearms was the sole reason for the detention of Emefiele, then it only gave credence to the position some people held ab-initio that his trial was political. Like Effiong who said the intention of the government is not necessarily to punish him for whatever infractions Emefiele may have committed “but to prosecute him and punish him for standing against the candidacy of Tinubu and APC,” Ubani said “The matter has ended. All the busy body was to get him out of the central bank. They just wanted him out of the central bank.”
Implications
What destructions have been wrought? How difficult will it take the DSS and the incumbent administration at the centre to prove that Emefiele’s removal from office was not a political witch-hunt or a deliberate action to pave way for the appointment of a stooge into the coveted position of a central bank governor?
Professor of economics at University of Benin Hassan Oaikenan said failure of the authorities to provide a watertight case against Emefiele and his embarrassing removal from office could create a cobweb of distrust over the financial system and cause panic and fear to rip through the system, causing a possible hurricane of investments’ reversal out of Nigeria’s ailing economy.
Professor Oaikhenan said, “Not unexpectedly, the way Emefiele was removed and detained (in the manner of a common criminal) would further dent whatever remains of the credibility of the financial sector in particular and the economy in general, considered against the background of the strategic importance of the Central Bank in every country and its economy. Not unexpectedly, it has the potential to create a huge crisis of confidence for the country’s financial sector before serious minded foreign investors and foreign financial institutions, with the potential adverse implications for the rating of the economy by rating agencies. The cost and consequences of the crisis of confidence so created and the poor rating that it could engender will only manifest with the passage of time!”
The Nigerian economy is already lying comatose, with serious and genuine foreign investors having left the country in droves and progressively over the years, given the hostile business in the country, as evidenced by the country’s consistent poor showing in several key indicators of the soundness of an economy, such as ease of doing business, country competitiveness indicators, corruption perception index, etc. Oaikhenan said having left in their good numbers, the genuine and serious-minded investors have largely left the Nigerian economy for scavengers, masquerading as foreign investors!
He also spoke the mind of Professor of financial market in Nasarawa State University, Keffi, Joseph Uwaleke who said the rule of law should apply in handling the issues around Emefiele and his stewardship at the CBN. “This is the minimum expectation from investors and foreign development partners who monitor events in the country’s financial system.”
Some experts say with the obvious sinister removal of Emefiele as head of the CBN, many lenders and investors (foreign and local) would become imperiled.
In that same regard, chief executive officer, Dairy Hills Limited said the rule of law is one of the most important metric foreign investors use as a tool to measure the ease of doing business, and grounds for which to deploy capital into a country.
He therefore said that the federal government needs to understand that every single thing it does is a signal to international investors on how issues on ‘’fair hearing’’, ‘’fundamental human rights’’, “equality before the law’’ and ‘’independence of the judiciary’’ is situated.
Independence of the CBN
Mr Ubani said his removal again makes it obvious that the CBN is not independent. “This man (the President) will simply bring somebody that will be subjected to him. It’s the same thing. It goes on. It’s a scam. He will bring somebody who will be subject to him. That’s how Abacha and other former Heads of State have been raping central bank. There is no independence.
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Not unexpectedly, it has the potential to create a huge crisis of confidence for the country’s financial sector before serious minded foreign investors and foreign financial institutions
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