By Ehi Braimah
SUN. 12 FEB, 2023-theGBJournal| For those who do not know, “Mefy” is the alias of Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) who completed his first term of five years in 2019 and was re-appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari for another term of five years. Ten years is a long time in a high profile position that is the cynosure of all eyes.
Do you know what it means to be a CBN governor? Mefy’s tenure began on June 4, 2014 when he was first appointed by former president Goodluck Jonathan. Before this appointment, he had spent about 26 years in commercial banking and rose to become the group managing director/chief executive officer of Zenith Bank.
Our CBN governor holds a degree in banking and finance from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) and he is a proud alumnus of Stanford University, Harvard and Wharton Graduate Schools of Business. As you can see, Mefy possesses excellent credentials from some of the best universities in the world.
However, since he became CBN governor, it has been a roller-coaster ride for the former university lecturer.
I don’t know how Emefiele wants to be remembered after he leaves office but if we review his role as CBN governor and performance as a “politician” between June last year and now, his rating in the court of public opinion is at an all-time low.
Clearly, this was not Mefy wanted and I’m sure he is not enjoying the negative publicity currently damaging his reputation. Anywhere he turns these days, the media spotlight is on him for the wrong reasons.
Two issues which have spun a wide web around him stand out: his foray into presidential politics and redesign of the naira. If we interrogate these issues extensively, we can write a book on Mefy and his misadventures. To be clear, he could become a victim of his own folly.
What exactly was Emefiele thinking when, as a sitting Central Bank governor, he showed interest in the presidential race under the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) without first resigning his position? I still cannot wrap my head around the idea and when the news travelled around the world, it was not well received – to the best of my knowledge.
The CBN governor wanted to eat his cake and have it because he knew the heavens will not fall – a pattern that fits into our pervasive culture of impunity. He was not grandstanding when he approached a federal high court in Asaba for injunctive reliefs to prevent anyone from scuttling his presidential ambition.
That was audacity taken too far as a sitting governor.
Mefy was deceived by his close friends, power brokers and dim-witted opportunists into believing he stood a chance in the race for the presidential ticket of APC which turned out to be a wild goose chase.
It was part of a grand scheme to derail the presidential primary of APC but it backfired. He was not the only one lined up for that sinister campaign.
Mefy was not supposed to mix his position with the murky waters of politics. He failed woefully on that score, no matter how his PR machine tries to spin the story. As CBN governor, Mefy ought to ring fence his office from the duplicitous behaviour of politicians and guard it jealousy.
Exposing himself to politics and politicians the way he has done is to compromise the integrity and high ethical authority of the office. Mefy should have resigned immediately after committing the unforced error.
Indeed, Mefy’s strategy team had even gone ahead to form different committees and made several important appointments to drive his political campaign.
According to insiders, eight ministers serving in the Buhari administration attended a strategy session on Mefy’s presidential project last year at Eko Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos. Little did Emefiele know he was being set up with a lot of money going down the drain.
If he truly wanted to be president of Nigeria, wouldn’t it have been better to complete his second term as CBN governor? Who stampeded him? Why did he punch above his weight? What point was he trying to prove?
The Central Bank of the United States – also known as the Federal Reserve System or simply, Fed – has a board of governors headed by Jerome Powell. Is it also possible for Powell to wake one morning and announce a presidential bid in the United States alongside other candidates while still serving as chairman?
What of the Bank of England? Can Andrew Bailey, the governor, also muzzle his way through parliament in the UK and seek to be the country’s prime minister while still in office?
Mefy has his job well cut out for him as CBN governor. He is the head of a powerful and influential financial institution with full autonomy that acts as a banker and provides economic and financial advice to the federal government; issue legal tender currency, maintain external reserves to safeguard the international value of the naira and promote a sound financial system.
Taken together, Mefy’s mandate is to promote the public interest – and defend it. But how well has he performed?
Under Mefy’s watch, the naira crashed to the point that one dollar exchanges for more than N750 in the black market. It can be argued the forex crisis is not entirely his fault but it would appear Emefiele was hoping to reverse the free fall of the naira as president – what he is unable to achieve as CBN governor.
The same Mefy had earlier accused the founder of Aboki Fx – the discredited online platform for live exchange rates – for “manipulating” our exchange rate from his base in London and threatened to “deal” with him. What has changed since then? Do we now have a better exchange rate?
Mefy knows that foreign currencies – especially the dollar, pounds sterling and euro pegged at ridiculous exchange rates – are hawked openly at our international airports as well as the streets of Nigeria, or is he not aware? What is he doing about it? How is it different from those who spray naira at social events much as I dislike the idea?
Forex challenges aside, the redesign of the naira and its implementation have threatened to paralyse the economy. Mefy is on the driver’s seat of the project and smack in the middle of the crisis – he is having no respite even as he tries put on a bold face on the outside.
Mefy is human, too after all. He is deeply worried inside.
No one can say for sure whether the naira swap policy was politically motivated but what is clear is that not enough new notes were printed and implementation of the policy has been disastrous, inflicting pains and hardship on everyone.
Although the naira swap policy has the backing of President Muhammadu Buhari, what also became evident was lack of stakeholder engagement. Initially, finance, budget and national planning minister, Zainab Ahmed, denied knowledge of the naira redesign initiative during a senate hearing in Abuja last year. She was not carried along.
The deadlines set for the policy also proved to be unrealistic and it has triggered a significant pushback effort by different bodies and individuals – including the intervention of the Supreme Court after some states challenged the policy.
The chorus everywhere is that the deadline should be extended; more new notes should be printed abroad since our local agency does not have the capacity while the new and old naira notes should be allowed side-by-side for transactions until such a time that we have enough of the new notes in circulation.
Perhaps, Mefy did not expect the national outrage caused by the currency chaos in addition to the lingering petrol scarcity. With the general elections in view, it was easy to suspect sabotage.
In a strongly-worded statement, Bayo Onanuga, the director of media and publicity of the APC presidential campaign council (PCC) called for the sack of Emefiele as CBN governor “following the uproar that trailed his controversial naira swap policy” and for “making Nigerians pass through harrowing experiences and untold hardship in the past two weeks”.
If Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu wins the presidential election, what will happen to Mefy’s job?
Meanwhile, the CBN governor has also been having a running battle with the Department of State Services (DSS). The secret policy accused Mefy of money laundering and financing terrorism. These are weighty allegations that are still on the table, although in a Bloomberg report, Emefiele’s defenders believe that politicians are targeting him because of the currency reforms.
At a time like this, not many people will envy Emefiele. Even if he is a cat with nine lives, it is dangerous to ride the back of a tiger except he has survival options.
These are indeed tough times for the banker from Agbor in Delta state – an area where you will find his contemporaries and benefactors such as Jim Ovia, the Chairman of Zenith Bank. General Lucky Irabor, Nigeria’s chief of defence staff and Nduka Obaigbena, media entrepreneur, are his kith and kin from the Agbor axis.
Mefy, you are the one in the eye of the storm – not your friends or associates. Think of the pressure on your family and the legacy you plan to leave behind which is already at stake. What is your exit strategy?
You need to urgently print and deliver more cash into the hands of Nigerians before it is too late. It is the only way to save the situation as we gradually migrate into a cashless society which is your long-term goal.
Braimah is a public relations strategist and publisher/editor-in-chief of Naija Times (https://ntm.ng)
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