The Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele’s alleged involvement in politics on Sunday attracted more strong condemnations, with senior lawyers and other eminent Nigerians calling for his immediate resignation.
Senior lawyers and top politicians insist that Emefiele’s continuous stay as the CBN governor was dangerous to the economy.
They said this as the Chairman of Ward 6 in the Ika South Local Government Area of Delta State, Mr Nduka Erikpume, in a telephone chat with one of our correspondents on Sunday, said the CBN governor had registered as an APC member.
When asked whether Emefiele had registered in the APC, Erikpume said, “Yes, he has registered since February 2021. He is our member.”
Amid widespread condemnations of his alleged presidential ambition, the CBN governor had headed to a Federal High Court in Abuja to seek a constitutional interpretation on his non-resignation while pursuing his political interests.
Sources said that the CBN governor had reached out to a constitutional lawyer and human rights activist, Dr Mike Ozekhome (SAN), to seek interpretation of the constitution and public service rules on public servants seeking elective positions while in office.
A highly placed source in the CBN revealed that the case had been scheduled for today (Monday).
He said, “Emefiele has just briefed Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN) as his lawyer. He has just filed a case in court and is coming up tomorrow (today, Monday).”
Several efforts to get the reliefs being sought by Emefiele from the source proved abortive.
Although the details of the suit were still sketchy Sunday night, another source in the APC said Ozekhome was taking up the matter “for certain constitutional interpretations.”
Three interest groups – the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria, Friends of Emefiele and Emefiele Support Group – last week paid N100m for the APC presidential expression of interest and nominations forms for Emefiele.
But the CBN governor, in a tweet on Saturday, said he was still waiting for God’s direction, adding that he would purchase the N100m forms himself if he entered the presidential race.
He said that he would continue to serve the country in his capacity as CBN governor until he received divine counsel to contest for a higher office.
But a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Kunle Adegoke, in a telephone said the CBN governor should resign his appointment and become a politician if he intended to contest in the 2023 general elections.
He said, “The governor of the central bank is expected to be impartial and not be driven by his own personal interests or the interests of a political party. Emefiele, as the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, represents all Nigerians and in that capacity, he is obliged under the constitution to serve each person irrespective of their political party or affiliation.
“With that evident, it would be grossly irresponsible for anybody to be agitating for the CBN governor to join politics. The CBN governor is not entitled as a citizen of Nigeria to contest for a political office, but where he desires to do so, he will have to resign his appointment and become a politician, strictly speaking.
“The honourable thing for him to do is to resign if he is the one behind all these calls for him to come and contest. Where he is not the one, he ought to have come out earlier than now because we could see on social media, the branded vehicles and then the claim that farmers have spent N100m to buy him a nomination form of the All Progressives Congress. That is questionable. The few farmers who are debtors under the Anchors Borrowers’ Programme cannot now be deploying their resources towards this.”
