By theGBJournal Editorial Board
FRI 16 APRIL, 2021-theGBJournal- It is tragic that the first response of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele and the Federal Ministry of Finance on the revelation that they printed money for distribution through the Federation Account was a denial.
The CBN Governor has now turned around to threaten the Governors over the funding provided to them in 2016 by admitting that it was also printing of money which validates the veracity of the revelation by the Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki. There have been some attempts to create a false equivalence between the printing of the Naira by CBN and the stimulus packages in the US and other developed economies.
Here is the difference. In those economies, the stimulus packages were products of legislative deliberations by the elected assemblies of the people, making them fiscal rather than monetary instruments.
In our own case, the Federal Government has effectively unconstitutionally borrowed funds from the CBN for distribution as if they were distributing revenues rather than liabilities. Realizing the impact of such disbursement on the Naira exchange rate based on economic principles, Emefiele is applying panel-beating regulations to shore up the Naira value with consequential adverse effects on foreign direct investment flows.
This is probably why Emefiele sees the revelation as a personal attack rather than the provision of information to the public who need to know.
Interestingly, Emefiele has only now confirmed that the 2016 bailout money was in fact loans even though at the time, the impression given to Nigerians was that it was the Buhari’s Federal Government that provided the funds to the States out of the President’s magnanimity!
Nigeria’s economic management can never be professional where the CBN Governor takes dictation from the President and is not accountable to the people through the legislature.
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