CBN Governor, Emefiele May Resign January To Run For Presidency

The INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, announced on April 28 last year that the presidential election would be held on February 18, 2023, noting that the commission hoped to release the timetable and schedule of activities for the election immediately after the Anambra State Governorship election that held on November 6.

INEC is probably waiting for the assent by President Buhari of the 2021 Electoral Act amendment Bill that was passed by the National Assembly on November 9, 2021, for it to release the timetable.

The Act extended the dates that political parties must submit the names of their candidates to INEC from 60 days to 180 days before the date of the election. If the President assents to the bill, it becomes a law and INEC would be expected to design its timetable by the provisions.

Section 31 of the old Act had to do with the submission of candidates’ names and their affidavits by political parties.

Section 31 (1) reads, “Every political party shall not later than 60 days before the date appointed for a general election under the provisions of this Act, submit to the commission, in the prescribed forms, the list of candidates the party proposes to sponsor at the elections, provided that the commission shall not reject or disqualify the candidate (s) for any reason whatsoever.”

The section has now been amended with the amendment of subsections 1, 6 and 8.

The amended Section 31 (1) now stipulates that submission of lists of candidates by political parties shall be done not later than 120 days before the date appointed for a general election and candidates must have emerged from validly conducted primaries.

Emefiele, coming from the banking industry which is a prominent sector of the business community will not have problems raising the money for the nomination form of the party and that of the INEC and also for campaigns if he becomes the flag bearer of the APC.

The CBN governor will be expected to have the political clout with grassroots appeal and a good record of experience in politics to rub shoulders with other contestants especially Tinubu, who is widely believed to be the one that made the current APC. Emefiele is also expected to have a presence in 516 local governments representing two-third of the 774 in the country.

The idea for the merger of President Buhari’s former party, the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) that produced APC to wrestle down powers from the PDP which ruled for 16 years is said to have originated from Tinubu. President Buhari contested against the PDP and failed three times before being victorious on the platform of the APC, a feat which was ascribed to the strategies of Tinubu

Tinubu, known as a dogged fighter and a strategist, while as Lagos governor between 1999 and 2007, made the state a frontrunner amongst the 36 in the federation despite being starved of monthly federal allocations from 2003 to 2007

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo withheld the monthly allocation to Lagos, following the refusal of Tinubu to reverse the creation of 37 Local Development Councils (LDCs) that increased the number of local councils in the state to 57 for easier democratic administration. The withheld allocation was released by late President Umaru Yar’Adua during the tenure of Babatunde Fashola, former Lagos governor between 2007 and 2015. Fashola is currently, the Minister of Works.

Emefiele’s tenure will be remembered as one that empowered local businessmen, especially farmers through the various intervention programmes on which the CBN expended about N3 trillion.

Most popular is the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) which targets MSMEs such as smallholders farmers. Pharmaceuticals and health institutions are also beneficiaries of the CBN intervention programmes.

Speaking on a TV programme, Emefiele said, “I can tell you that, between 2020 and now, our data shows that we have disbursed at least N2 trillion, almost N3 trillion in loans to households, to MSMEs, to smallholder farmers, to pharmaceuticals and health institutions.

“We have also given these funds to some of our large agricultural companies that want to get back again to business, to manufacturing companies who are accessing long term 10 years loan with two-year moratorium with single-digit rate. I have data that shows we are playing our part.”

The eight years that he has spent will also be remembered as the period during which the CBN veered off from its traditional and statutory roles of managing the macroeconomy. Section 2 of the CBN Act 2007 states the principal objects of the Bank shall be to – (a) ensure monetary and price stability; (b) issue legal tender currency in Nigeria; (c) maintain external reserves to safeguard the international value of the legal tender currency; (d) promote a sound financial system in Nigeria; and (e) Act as a banker and provide economic and financial advice to the Federal Government

Another memory of the tenure will also be the stifling exchange rate. The exchange rate was N163.24 to a dollar as of 30 June 2014 and now, it is N415.70 per dollar at the official rate while it hovers between N560 and N567 at the black market.

Afam Mallinson Ukatu, the National Chairman of Non- Metallic and Mineral Products, a sectoral group of Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) told insidebusiness.ng that many manufacturers are not able to have access to forex and this is leading to factory collapse, especially in the steel sector of the economy.

Also, huge loans from CBN/AMCON totalling over N2 trillion to the banks remain unpaid despite the quarterly declaration of huge profits by banks. It was also learnt that several billions of naira of commercial agriculture scheme loans to several prominent persons in the country are also not performing