Former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) employees have urged the National Assembly not to amend the institution’s enabling law.
The pensioners/retirees said CBN’s autonomy rests on four pillars: regulatory, supervisory, institutional and budgetary independence, all of which the proposed amendments would erode.
The CBN Pensioners’/Retirees’ Club, in a statement by its president Chief Patrick Anene and General Secretary Alhaji Jiya Isado, said the proposed amendments would weaken the institution and undermine its autonomy.
Among the proposed amendments are the removal of the governor as the board chairman and replacing him with an outsider; subjecting its budget to National Assembly approval, and divesting the board of the power to fix the remuneration of its members.
“The benefits of CBN autonomy to the economy and financial system are enormous and should not be whittled down because of the negative consequences.
“A new legislation that abridges the bank’s powers would be counterproductive to central banking global practices,” they said.
Aside from eroding the CBN’s independence, the pensioners fear the proposed amendments would further politicise its operations.
The association noted that Section 1(3) of the CBN Act 2007 provides that the institution “shall be an independent body in the discharge of its functions”.
The pensioners/retirees said: “Bringing in an outsider who could be a politician as the Chairman of the CBN Board, the highest decision-making organ of the bank, might likely lead to the Bank being subjected to unwholesome political influences which could be detrimental to its operational efficiency and, by extension, the national economy.”
They added the combination of the roles of chief executive officer and board chairman, which is obtainable globally, is to prevent a struggle for power.
The pensioners said: “Whereas previous amendments (1991, 2004 and 2007) had tended to strengthen the CBN’s operational autonomy, the proposed amendments, if effected, would be going in the wrong direction by seeking to reverse them.
“Without the autonomy, the CBN enjoyed over the years, some of the major reforms it undertook, such as the universal banking of 2000, the banks consolidation of 2004 and the 2009 regulatory intervention, among others, which most Nigerians widely applauded, couldn’t have been possible.
“Distinguished Senators…, we are most respectfully imploring you to immediately jettison that idea of tampering with the CBN Act 2007 currently in place as being proposed by some of-your colleagues because doing so would neither be in the interest of the CBN itself as an institution nor the Nigerian economy or Nigeria or Nigerians as a whole.”
The pensioners believe rather than reducing CBN’s powers, the National Assembly can deploy its oversight functions to ensure accountability in the institution.