Godwin Ifeanyi Emefiele (CFR), Nsukka, Harvard and Stanford University-trained economist turned banker, who served as governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from 4 June 2014 until he was suspended by President Bola Tinubu, on 9 June 2023, will probably go down in history as the most criminally minded and the worst Nigerian CBN governor.
Undoubtedly, Emefiele was a master of his game. A PDP sympathiser brought in to supplant Sanusi Lamido, believed to be sympathetic to APC on account of his relentless criticism of massive corruption going on in Jonathan’s administration, effortlessly manipulated an untrusting Buhari who just watched him as he broke all rules, including attempting to succeed his principal even as a sitting CBN governor.
As a leader with the mindset of a feudal lord, Emefiele gave Buhari all feudal lords’ want – unalloyed loyalty. Buhari overlooked Emefiele’s criminal tendencies, which were apparent from his handling of $2.1b released to the former National Security Adviser, Colonel Sambo Dasuki (retd), which was shared as election largesse to reappoint him for a second term.
But how was Emefiele able to cover up his criminal enterprise for eight years, whether in terms of foreign exchange manipulation, where his friends who did not bid secured allocation freely deployed for round tripping, printing of over N30 trillion through ways and means, half of which was suspected to have been stolen, and various multibillion CBN intervention programmes that produced only fake rice pyramids?
Emefiele had a useful ally in a section of the media that opted to trade its constitutional role of holding other institutions of state accountable and serving as agents of socialisation, for crusading for crooks, a very rewarding endeavour when they are executed on behalf of influential bank owners who converted depositors funds to private use, governors who desperately need the judiciary to retain their opponents’ stolen mandates, and, of course, those who stole the country blind by confiscating national patrimony in the name of privatisation and monetisation self- serving policies.
Emefiele was a toast of ARISE TV and her Thisday platform, especially since his reappointment for a second term by President Buhari. They had waged war after war against anyone who dared to raise questions about Emefiele’s character, including the House of Representatives and its speaker, vice president Osinbajo, candidate Tinubu in the 2023 election and some APC governors that went to court to compel Emefiele to obey the Supreme Court judgment.
It is on record that Emefiele held the nation hostage during his politically motivated currency re-colouring exercise, as angry and hungry Nigerians, denied access to their money, laid siege to banks and ATM centres. The House of Representatives tried to persuade an unfeeling and arrogant Emefiele to consider the suffering of Nigerians.
Thisday immediately embarked on a crusade on behalf of Emefiele, with a front-page January 28, 2023 story titled “In battle against independent monetary policy, House threatens Emefiele.” The crusaders dismissed the House invitation of the CBN governor to appear before its banking committee over the lingering currency crisis, in line with its statutory oversight function, as a plot to “erode” CBN’s independence.
After his repeated failure to honour House committee summons, the then House Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, had threatened to invoke relevant sections of the law to effect Emefiele’s arrest by the police for undermining the efforts of the House to carry out its oversight functions. Thisday and its self-proclaiming patriots accused the speaker of pursuing personal interest, claiming the invitation was “against the provisions of the law.”
Vice President Osinbajo was not spared by ARISE, self –proclaimed patriots. When, in November 2021, he criticised the Central Bank governor for what he called an “artificially low” exchange rate, claiming he was convinced that the demand management strategy adopted by the CBN needed a rethink, it was from far-away Paris, during Nigeria International Partnership Forum, that Nigerians were told, through ARISE Correspondent, Adefemi Akinsanya, that the Vice President missed the point. He debunked the VP’s accusations of poor collaboration between Nigeria’s fiscal and monetary authorities. Emefiele also spoke of pumping close to N3trillion loans to manufacturers at a single digit rate and more monies to Buhari’s policy of creating 100 million jobs in four years.
Candidate Bola Tinubu in the 2023 election was similarly viciously attacked by ARISE’ self-proclaimed patriots in the service of Emefiele. He had publicly criticised the government claiming the CBN policy was targeted at him to scuttle his presidential campaign. His APC supporters threw their weight behind his remarks. ARISE, of course, took sides with Emefiele, and the president, who they claimed were acting in the public interest. They spoke of a bullion van found in his house during the 2019 election in which he was not a participant.
For ARISE, Emefiele could do no wrong. In February 2023, Governors Nasir El-Rufai (Kaduna), Yahaya Bello (Kogi) and Bello Matawalle (Zamfara) dragged the Federal Government before the Supreme Court, complaining of the time frame for the exchange of the re-designed naira. According to them, “the majority of their state indigenes have been unable to exchange or deposit their old naira notes as there are no banks in the rural areas where the majority of the population of the states reside.” What they got from Emefiele was his insistence that the February 10 deadline remained unchanged.
But the battle cry from ARISE that claimed, without proof, that the governors were driven by a desire to buy votes was “fact check me, it is all about the governors’ shenanigans.” They even went farcical, questioning the right of the governors to appeal to the Supreme Court when they did not go to court over the abduction of Shaibu five years earlier
In May 2022, Emefiele expressed his desire to succeed President Buhari by filing a lawsuit at the Federal High Court in Abuja seeking an order directing INEC and the Office of the Attorney General not to stop him from contesting the presidency. While Nigerians demanded the removal of the CBN governor and accused him of violating multiple provisions of the Central Bank Act, Emefiele’s media enablers found nothing.
After being dressed in borrowed robes for eight years, what Nigerians can deduce from various recent judicial pronouncements is that Emefiele engaged in corrupt practices.
For instance, Justice Bogoro, in his judgement, held that the following funds and properties are proceeds of unlawful activities, which are bound to be forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria: $4.7m, N830m, and multiple properties linked to Emefiele by the Federal High Court in Lagos.
The funds, forfeited to the Federal Government, were held in First Bank, Titan Bank, and Zenith Bank accounts managed by individuals and entities including Omoile Anita Joy, Deep Blue Energy Services Limited, Exact Quote Bureau De Change Ltd, Lipam Investment Services Limited, Tatler Services Limited, Rosajul Global Resources Ltd, and TIL Communication Nigeria Ltd.
The properties affected include 94 units of an 11-floor building under construction at 2 Otunba Elegushi 2nd Avenue, Ikoyi, Lagos; AM Plaza, 11-floor office space on Otunba Adedoyin Crescent, Lekki Peninsula Scheme 1, Lagos; Imore Industrial Park 1 on Esa Street, Imoore Land, Amuwo Odofin LGA, Lagos; Mitrewood and Tatler Warehouse (Furniture Plant at Bogije) near Elemoro, Owolomi Village, Ibeju-Lekki LGA, Lagos; and two properties purchased from Chevron Nigeria, located in Lakes Estate, Lekki, Lagos.
Others are a plot at Lekki Foreshore Estate Scheme, Foreshore Estate, Eti-Osa, LGA; an estate at 100 Cottonwood Coppell Texas Drive, Coppell, Texas, owned by Lipam Investment Services; land at 1 Bunmi Owulude Street, Lekki Phase 1, Lagos; and a property at 8 Bayo Kuku Road, Ikoyi, Lagos.
Similarly, on 22 June 2024, in another related case, a Federal High Court granted the final forfeiture of properties worth over N12.18 billion to the Federal Government. EFCC Chairman Olukoyede described the seizure and forfeiture as “one of the most significant in the nation’s history.”
The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, sitting in Apo, presided over by Justice Jude Onwuegbuzie, also struck out an application filed Godwin Emefiele, seeking to reclaim the 753 duplexes and apartments located at Plot 109, Cadastral Zone CO9, Lokogoma District, Abuja, and measuring 150,462.84 square metres, which had already been forfeited to the government.
Now who is going to save us as the new normal today is for corrupt people to go to court to defend the disproportional share of our resources they illegally cornered while those crusading for them daily assault our sensibilities mouthing patriotism, even when it is not lost on us that “patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.”
