Prominent civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), on Sunday, tasked the National Assembly to use its legislative powers to kick out the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele from office as his recurrent actions have shown his irredeemable arrogance and flagrant disregard of constitutional provisions.
HURIWA’s National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, in a statement, said the National Assembly should not let Emefiele destroy the economy with his draconian and anti-people fiscal and monetary policies including the obnoxious and senseless withdrawal limits which will only make life harder for Nigerians and make thousands of players within the finance ecosystem like Point-of-Sale operators lose their jobs.
The group said if President Muhammadu Buhari can be impeached by the legislative arm, Emefiele should not be allowed to continue to grandstand and ride roughshod on the National Assembly and talk down on Nigerians as if we are all slaves.
Section 8, Subsection 4 of the CBN Act requires that Emefiele addresses the National Assembly twice a year on the bank’s monetary policies and plans but the all-powerful CBN governor has so far not carried the legislative arm along in the operations of the bank.
It is on record that the National Assembly did not approve any budget for redesigning the naira notes as the apex bank didn’t present any supplementary budget for that purpose. The legislative arm also did not approve the redesigned naira notes as well as the e-naira digital currency launched over a year ago.
Emefiele, buoyed by his alliance and dalliance with President Buhari, also said there is no going back on the cash withdrawal limits after the Senate and the House of Representatives kicked against the policy. Also, the Governor of Adamawa State, Ahmadu Fintiri, accused Emefiele of targeting the political class with the cash withdrawal limit policy.
Commenting, HURIWA’s Onwubiko said, “Emefiele’s arrogance and abuse of power have reached an intolerable height. He has destroyed Nigeria with improperly anchored monetary policies, especially the withdrawal limits that make Nigeria looks like a communist state. He may argue that it will enable a cashless economy, but Nigeria has no infrastructure to support that yet.
“HURIWA demand that National Assembly uses its powers to compel Emefiele to suspend the policy beside he is not bigger than all of Nigeria and if his monetary policy has the potential of destroying Nigeria and leading to job loss and other unintended consequences, he must be called to order as he is not more powerful than all of Nigerians.
“Rather than let Emefiele destroy the economy, the National Assembly should insist on him suspending the withdrawal limits that are draconian and anti-people. National Assembly must act decisively and save POS operators from going extinct and creating opportunities for sophisticated crimes to escalate in an already charged and security-threatened country.
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“Is Emefiele the sacred cow of Buhari? What business does both of them have together so much so that Emefiele has been left in office even after he has failed woefully and even ventured into partisan politics by wanting to run for President as a card-carrying member of the All Progressives Congress, reportedly purchasing campaign buses and even approaching the court to stop his removal for going into partisan politics even whilst holding his position as CBN governor? Emefiele can’t be allowed to get away with this arrogance of power.”
