Category: autopost

Two of Nigeria’s leading newspapers – The Nation and Leadership – just chose President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as Person of the Year for 2023. In the tradition pioneered by the American news magazine Time in 1927, this award goes to “a person, a group, idea, or object that “for better or for worse… has done the most to influence the events of the year.”

In most election years in the United States, whoever is elected president becomes the magazine’s Person of the Year. So, Tinubu’s selection by the aforementioned newspapers reflects the traditional pattern.

But well before his election in February and inauguration on May 29, there was a powerful individual whose actions had the potential to influence the outcome of the general elections and impact the economic wellbeing of millions of Nigerians. His name is Godwin Emefiele, former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

There are different ways to measure how much progress a country is making. You could look at the GDP, how many people are living below the poverty line, literacy level, state of public infrastructure and so on.

Another way is to examine the conduct of people in public office. This is especially important given our history that speaks largely of incompetence, mismanagement and corruption. Emefiele’s actions earlier this year exemplified much that is wrong Nigeria – impunity and decay of institutions.

Late in 2022, the CBN served notice that it would introduce new designs for certain naira denominations and set a date in January 2023 for which this task must be accomplished. The initial excuse for the action was that the bulk of the nation’s cash was floating outside the system. The swap was supposed to vacuum all of that money back into bank vaults.

But as we would all soon learn there was more to it than economics. In reality, it was a move designed to frustrate certain political figures who the then administration felt had stockpiled an unbelievable amount of naira for vote-buying.

While the desire of having an electoral process that wasn’t compromised by cash was laudable, the currency swap was not only ill-timed, its execution was disastrous. There was a stampede to returned old notes with very few new ones to replace them.

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ATM’s were empty; banking halls became battles zones. We were told to go cashless using online transfers. The problem was most banks lacked the infrastructure to support this. It was the perfect Nigerian nightmare produced and directed by Emefiele.

If the fallout from the naira redesign fiasco was just about inconvenience, it would have been pardonable. There were more deadly consequences. People actually died as result of inability to access cash for treatment of their loved ones. Many small businesses shut down and as of today no one really knows how much was lost to this hare-brained scheme.

Such was the degree of suffering that at its height, Professor Wole Soyinka, accused the former CBN governor of crimes against humanity. Speaking on Channels Television, he blamed then President Muhammadu Buhari for enabling him.

“Emefiele has committed a crime against humanity, over and beyond even any electoral mago mago (foul play),” Soyinka said.

“He struck at the heart of the subsisting survival principles, minimal needs and entitlements of the ordinary people in the street.

“Don’t bully me. Don’t take my voice away. Don’t take my economic potential away, my economical entitlements. Don’t throw me on the mercy of sadists like Emefiele.”

Despite the well-documented chaos in the banking system, despite mass suffering, the government of the day and CBN chief pressed on regardless. It was as if their actual goal was to allow things fester until there was a countrywide breakdown of law and order that would have necessitated the postponement of elections – just to prevent a feared outcome.

Initially, it sounded like a conspiracy theory but, in reality, the nation was sleepwalking into a constitutional crisis. That was until elements within the All Progressives Congress (APC) woke up with a start. What followed was the curious situation of three ruling party governors dragging the Buhari federal government before the Supreme Court.

That was not all. Speaking at a campaign stop in Abeokuta, Ogun State, APC presidential candidate Tinubu denounced the currency swap which he alleged was targeted at him. He declared defiantly that even if fuel taps were shut and all naira notes locked away, the nation would vote and he would be elected. The rest is history.

The passage of time hasn’t lessened the intrigue around the currency swap. In a recent interview Buhari claimed credit for authoring the redesign. He wanted to ensure his “integrity was unquestionable.” But in the last week leaked portions of the report of Jim Obazee, Special Investigator probing the CBN, suggested the former president’s aide, Tunde Sabiu, may have been the driving force.

What is clear is that but for the intervention of the apex court, nothing would have moved Emefiele and the forces behind him to change course. Nigeria’s saving grace was that the government stopped short of openly defying the Supreme Court.

Emefiele has been a very unique CBN governor, and not necessarily because he was good at the job. A former Deputy Governor of the bank, Kingsley Moghalu, reacting to the Obazee report leaks, made these withering comments in a lengthy X post: “My views on Emefiele’s performance as CBN Governor have been a matter of record even when many now opining on the matter of his performance on the job were mute.”

“He is, without debate, the worst and most damaging Central Bank Governor in Nigeria’s history – incompetent and ill-prepared for the role, and from all available information from his actions, doubtlessly severely challenged with integrity.”

But what makes him special goes beyond questions of competence and integrity. Rather, this country has never seen a CBN governor with such overt political ambitions. First, it was whispered, and then it grew into a loud murmur that Emefiele was interested in succeeding Buhari as president.

He did nothing to squelch the rumours, offering only equivocal responses. A so-called ‘Friends of Emefiele’ group which visited him in February to discuss the 2023 presidential contest, quoted him as saying “he would leave his fate firmly in the hands of God” with regards to choice of the leadership of the country.

It was a response that sparked widespread outrage, with many demanding he resign to concentrate on his political ambitions. Just to show that he and his backers could no longer wait for God, the media soon discovered a plot in Abuja chock full of branded ‘Emefiele for President’ campaign vehicles.

It was also revealed that as sitting CBN governor he had registered as a member of APC in his ward in Delta State. It was unprecedented

But despite crossing the line so brazenly, despite compromising his position with political exposure, his boss in Aso Rock saw nothing so untoward as to require his sacking. That, again, made the man special.

As the year winds to a close, Emefiele is dominating the headlines again. The allegations in the leaked Obazee report are so grave and mindboggling that we would be listening to his explanations either through press statements or from the dock for much of the coming year.

Everyone who lived through January and February in Nigeria would remember the period as the time when the naira pulled a disappearing trick with a little help from the then CBN boss. After a short respite, the onset of the festive season with the ongoing cash crunch shows that the spirit of Emefiele is still upon us. The man didn’t walk alone and he clearly didn’t work alone. For the terrible fallout of his actions throughout this year, he is the Alternate Person of the Year.