Will the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr Godwin Emefiele, bow to speculated pressure to run for the 2023 presidency? KUNLE ODEREMI writes.
Talks about the possibility of Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr Godwin Ifeanyichukwu Emefiele running for the 2023 presidency has gone beyond hushed tones. Diverse vested interests in the presidency have continued to throw up what looks like a discreet and well-knit agenda in the burgeoning buildup to the election year.
News about the moves by some forces to draft the CBN governor into the race first appeared in the public space about a year ago. The report was promptly denied by close aides to the CBN boss. Apparently, the denial only buoyed the spirit of the powerful forces behind the agenda to up the ante after testing the waters. The campaign has gradually assumed a life of its own, resulting in the birth of groups in the advocacy.
About a month ago, some prominent politicians met at a location in Ikeja in Lagos State to map out strategy for the presidential contest. The name of Emefiele featured prominently and consistently during the meeting. They claimed that the plot to drag him into the presidential contest was real by some influential politician, contrary to the denials by some close aides to the CBN governor. But those original promoters of the Emefile for president agenda were said to have other alternatives. The real Plan B of the group is to prop up one of the serving ministers from the South-West to run for the exalted office.
Contrary to denials in certain quarters, the Godwin Emefiele project is indeed real. For the umpteenth time, the aides to the CBN governor have tried to let it go but it has kept coming up and resonating in very high places and quarters, including the political arena. Last January, a top politician privy to the activities of the promoters of the Emefelie project gave an update on the underground and discreet moves. He named another serving minister as possible aspirant in case the Emefiele project runs into a hitch. The said minister is a scion of an old political block from one of the states in the South-West. But he said the Emefiele project was top on the card.
The plot came at a time some power blocs reportedly sold a dummy for former President Goodluck Jonathan flying the kite of the APC in 2023. Jonathan made Emefiele the CBN governor, while President Muhammadu Buhari renewed the tenure for another five years. The emergence of The 2022 Committee comprising serving and former state governors, as well as other highly exposed and profile politicians has also sent tongues wagging. There are insinuations that it is an effort by the corporate sector to be fully engage in the process that would throw up the next president in the next dispensation. But the presence of other contenders for the presidential seat in the meeting has created a seeming confusion on the real motive of the body vis-a-vis the Emefiele project. Apart from denying the insinuations, the committee claimed that its mission to rescue the country from the miasma of failed promises and bad governance.
Spin doctors, media team have gone on the fast drive to showcase the CBN governor and why he should run for the presidency. Appointed in 2014, Godwin Ifeanyichukwu Emefiele, who hails from Delta State, was reappointed in 2019 for the second term of five years by President Muhammadu Buhari. The second tenure of the Delta-born economist will lapse in 2024.
The contention of those promoting the Emefiele project is that he in the best position to sustain the legacy of the administration, having been involved in their reforms, conception, implementation and execution, as well as funding. It is also believed that since he sits on the board of a mighty CBN, with its enormous power and awesome resources, he could manage the economy well and result into a fast recovery and return it to the path of growth and development. Coupled with that reason is the question about ethnic balancing of power in the politics of the country. He has been the CBN governor since 2014.
With his background as an Igbo man, though from Delta State, he perfectly suits the quest for power shift to a major ethnic nationality in the country. The narrative is that the South-East would likely be receptive and disposed to his candidature. However, a number of leading politicians of Igbo extraction already in the race, include a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Chief Anyim Pius Anyim; Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State; boardroom guru, Sam Ohunabunwa; former governor of Imo State and serving senator, Rochas Okorocha.
To underscore the Emefiele project, a body called The Green Alliance, said the former chief executive officer of zenith bank remained the best man for the presidency in the next dispensation. Accordingly, the convener of the group, Wale Fapounda declared: “This forum has come together to come and plead and beg Godwin Emefiele to run as president of Nigeria in 2023. He introduced a multiple exchange rate regime to try to mask pressure on the Naira and avoid a series of devaluations. He has engineered bank policies and programs that have supported job creation and fostered inclusive growth, in addition to key macroeconomic concerns such as inflation and exchange rate stability. He has come up with new strategies to navigate the Nigerian economy through hurdles such as the challenge of foreign exchange inflow, the exchange rate, the economic recession, stagflation, financial inclusion and the rise in the value chain of the majority of crops in Nigeria.”
In October 2021, some northern groups, under the Partnership for Peace and Community Development, PPCD, had publicly identified with his economic and financial policies designed to sanitize and protect the economy from collapse. The groups included the Arewa Youth Council (AYC), Northern Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN), Northern Women Emancipation, (NEW), Arewa Youth Parliament (AYP) and the Arewa Youth Federation (AYF). The convener of PPCD, Comrade Muhammad Sada, had presented an address titled: “Partnership for Peace and Community Development in Appreciation of the Good Policies of CBN in the Area of Agriculture, Forex Policy and E-Naira.” He had accused “some faceless individuals and groups of trying to malign, distract and discredit the hard earned reputation of CBN under Emefiele’s leadership.” Some spin doctors have gone on the prowl, in the deliberate effort to promote the Emefiele project. For example, one writer has taken on perceived opponents of the plot, describing them as merchants of it will not fly. According to him, “Emefiele as CBN governor has been brave, creative, and unorthodox in steadying the Nigerian economy. Emefiele understood early that Nigeria, like many developing countries, didn’t have the luxury of certain macroeconomic fundamentals and conditions for the CBN to be strictly fixated on price stability. Instead, he created a bespoke sustainability and growth path untraditional yet effective. From the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, which has boosted local production of agricultural products, created jobs, and saved Nigeria much needed foreign exchange, to policies on financial inclusion, payment systems, and interventions in critical sectors, to cutting excessive importation as a foreign exchange policy measure, Meanwhile, CBN spokesperson, Osita Nwasinobi, has dismissed the report and urged politicians not to distract his principal. Therefore, the energy his antagonists have already dedicated to and expended on killing the idea of him running for office before the plan itself is hatched is both premature and misplaced.”
Opposition
Despite the silence of the CBN governor on the issue of if he is under pressure to run for the presidency, a semblance of opposition is building up. Both individuals and sundry groups are not comfortable to the plan. For example, Arewa Peace Initiative (API), a group of northerners in the diaspora, urged Emefiele not to run in his own interest. It claimed that his tenure as CBN governor has not been impressive. According to the president of API, Dr. Umar Muhammad, Emefiele should complete his job as the CBN governor.
But the ongoing plot to pressure the CBN governor to run for the presidency is bound to elicit mixed feelings from the Igbo in the South-East. Having been vehement and resolute in their demand that an Igbo from the zone be the next president, many of them are likely to perceive the CBN governor as truly representing the South-East. And the president of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Ambassador George Obiozor has sounded a note of warning in the event of the zone being shortchanged over their request. He advised that whichever part of the country that produces the next president would send a conspicuous message to all Ndigbo Worldwide about their destiny in Nigeria. To secure the future and preserve national unity, Professor Obiozor said the Nigerian political elites must avoid the prevailing political myopia and contrived amnesia surrounding Nigerian political history over the imperative of North-South rotation. ”I understand clearly the dilemma faced by these leaders but Nigerian politics is at a point of no return where national destiny is at stake and where patriotism and political wisdom must supersede personal ambition.” Professor Obiozor pleaded with the nation’s political class to drop all fears and prejudices against Ndigbo and to forge a common front to move the nation forward. He noted that Ndigbo as an ethnic nationality is blessed with a good number of capable, patriotic and credible personalities who are eminently qualified to govern the country and meet the expectations of the citizenry through equity, justice and fairness.
But with the protracted battle among the different power centres in the APC, those behind the Emefiele agenda are in for stiff internal opposition. The tendencies that coalesced into the emergence of the party in 2014 are still potent and uncompromising over issues relating to their individual caucuses. He still has to contend with the calibre of national leader of the APC, Bola Tinubu, Governor Dave Umahi, Rochas Okoroacha and Orji Uzor Kalu and perhaps others still waiting in the wings to declare their bid for the presidential ticket of the party.
Meanwhile some individuals expressed their opinions on the said current discreet moves for Emefiele to join the contest.
Secretary General of the Yoruba Council of Elders (YCE), Dr Kunle Olajide
It is a big surprise to me because for anybody to be a prospective and successful president must himself have a dream of becoming president, he must have the aspiration; he must have the objective. You don’t just drag anybody from anywhere, no matter how highly placed; he might not have the flair for the job and he might not have the aptitude and if doesn’t have the aptitude for the job, no matter how successful he has been on his own career line, he may not necessarily make a successful politician. The president of a country is a political position and success in the academia or as a technocrat does not willy-nilly transit to success as the head of a political office in a country as diverse as Nigeria. For me, I’m not excited about it all and I will be surprised if he accepts to be dragged and compelled into what he does not have aspiration for at his level. You must your vision for that office; you must have a vision of what you want the country to become; and not success as a professor or technocrat running an organised system. You think that you can transpose or transfix that into the driver’s seat of a heterogeneous country like Nigeria. It is big surprise to me when people go and compel someone who has never imagined of becoming the president of this country.
Legal practitioner and chieftain of the pan-Yoruba group, Afenifere, Chief Supo Shonibare
There are several conspiratorial theories out there in the polity and I suspect some are deliberately contrived red herrings to lure us into joining issues with what may simply be a speculative or non-existent ambition. I would rather offer my opinion on the suitability of individuals who have publicly declared their intention to contest for the office of President. After a public declaration one can then determine the suitability of the candidate to ensure unity through rotation between Northern and Southern Nigeria, thereby affirming the imperative of our championing and encouraging inclusiveness in the polity.
The candidate must also be able to navigate our economic management requirements needs by being independent and capable of taking decisions in the interests of the collective and not any sectorial interests in the polity. The individual also has to have displayed the capacity to enable restructuring and devolution of powers from the centre and the ability to proffer solutions to our deteriorating security challenge.
A chieftain of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Anthony N Z Sani.
There have been too many reports about who to contest and not to contest bordering on mere conspiracy theories being bandied about. First there was the one that said former President Jonathan was being drafted to contest in 2023 despite the provision in the amended constitution that no president can take the oath of office more than twice. The former president has taken oath of office twice already. Now, we are reading that the CBN governor is being drafted to contest in 2023. But, we have not known Mr Godwin Emefiele in the cockpit of politics. As a result, we would rather take the reports as mere flying of kite by vested interests.
An author and pro-democracy activist, Honourable Shehu Bankle-Hameed
I don’t know if you can “drag” anyone into anything without holding them to ransom. So the attempt to drag the CBN governor into the 2023 presidential race is already an attempt to hold the presidency to ransom by the organisers of this “kidnapping” attempt, because that is what it is. So, the bandits who have been described before as Fulani herdsmen, now officially denoted as terrorists, have found brotherhood in high political orders of 2023. If the unsuspecting Nigerian citizens get trapped by these sets of business and political bandits- because their composition includes many of those who though massively connected and vulgarly rich, they are mostly padded on by corruption in high places. The consequences of such unashamedly organised attempt are ineffective government, massive graft ordination in the system, open nudity and loss of integrity in voting and results of choices made. The question may also be asked if the persona involved is qualified or not. The answer is abundantly clear, a sitting expert whose oversight saw more than two consecutive recession and a dreaded regime of hyperinflation, including poor finance, fiscal and economic growth and policies, cannot be trusted with anymore position of power, influence or authority.
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