The Travails of Emefiele (1) By Shaka Momodu
A few hours after Godwin Emefiele, the then Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was suspended by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on June 10, 2023, he was arrested with a vengeance by the operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS), his case later transferred to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and was only released on bail from the Kuje Correctional Centre on December 22, 2023.
For those who may have forgotten, allow me to refresh your memory with a brief chronicle of DSS’s modus operandi in what turned out to be a complete fiasco. Emefiele’s ordeal started in December 2022, when the DSS secretly and deliberately attempted to mislead a Federal High Court in Abuja to issue a warrant for the then CBN governor’s arrest and detention over allegations bordering on “acts of financing terrorism, fraudulent activities and economic crimes of national security dimension”. It did this while deliberately failing to disclose in that vexatious application material facts about the person it was seeking the warrant of arrest against, including the position of the “Godwin Emefiele” it wanted to arrest.
It took the eagle-eyed Justice J.T Tsoho to spot the mischief and he subsequently declined to grant the application for the CBN governor’s arrest on December 9, 2022, wondering aloud why the DSS failed to state the man’s position. While declining to issue a warrant and detention order sought by the agency, the judge noted in his ruling: “The entire affidavit deposition, especially as per paragraph 4 of the supporting affidavit, purports that preliminary investigation has revealed various acts of terrorism financing, fraudulent activities perpetrated by the respondent and his involvement in economic crimes of national security dimension. These are no doubt grave allegations, but which the applicant has not presented any concrete evidence to support.
“The applicant should have taken the court into confidence, while seeking the exercise of its discretion in favour of granting its application. It is my respectful opinion that the ipse dixit (an assertion made solely by the DSS) of the applicant standing on its own, is not sufficient evidence upon which to deprive a person of his liberty. The respondent in this application is named as ‘Godwin Emefiele’ without disclosure of his status or position anywhere; not even in the affidavit.
“It is left to speculation if the ‘Godwin Emefiele’ is the same person as the serving Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. If it is, then he is unarguably a high ranking public official in Nigeria and indeed occupies a sensitive position as one of the key drivers of the nation’s economy. Therefore, an application of this kind should have evidence of the approval of the respondent’s boss, that such measures are authorised to be taken. I, however, do not find such evidence in this instant application, whereas it is a necessary procedure in the observance of the rule of law disclosed in the supporting affidavit. This is not the situation here, as Godwin Emefiele, the CBN governor, was shown on television, even last night, having an audience with the President of Nigeria. It therefore seems that the applicant intends to use the court as a cover for an irregular procedure, which is unacceptable.”
For any discerning mind, it was obvious why the DSS was after Emefiele. Politics! Pure politics was at the heart of the matter. And that is why it is so dangerous for a security agency to be so brazenly partisan in exercising its statutory powers. What this shows is that on the basis of malicious politics, the DSS can fabricate allegations against an individual and then approach a court to grant an order for the arrest and detention of that individual. And if the judge lacked the presence of mind to interrogate what was presented by the DSS to see if it was enough to deny Emefiele his freedom, he would have gone ahead to grant such a malicious request. Who knows how many of such orders on the basis of fabricated evidence have been used to secure the arrest and detention of innocent people?
Now, over six months after the Federal High Court ruling that left the DSS red-faced and humiliated, the Service, despite a specific court order not to arrest Emefiele, picked him up gestapo-style on June 10, just hours after he was suspended by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. But the agency was obviously not acting in the national interest in its earlier quest to arrest the apex bank governor.
Those who earlier used the Service to go after Emefiele, it seemed, had the twin objectives, viz. to keep him out of circulation before the election and to instigate his replacement in the last days of Muhammadu Buhari’s government. The baffling thing was the total lack of leadership exhibited by Buhari under whose government the DSS ran amok and became susceptible to partisan influence.
Look, if the DSS could do the bidding of the dramatis personae in this government when they were not in power, imagine for a second, the abuses they would use the agency to commit now that they are in power. How else does one explain that after detaining Emefiele for five months, the DSS transferred him to the EFCC without a charge?
The earlier single charge of possession of a gun without a licence it preferred against him was greeted with public derision and scorn. With all the drama it created around the arrest and detention of the former CBN governor, all it managed to come up with was a laughable charge of possession of a rickety dane gun. It was clear to all and sundry that the Service has become susceptible to external influences and has lost its way. It was being used to mete out punishment to perceived enemies.
There was nothing remotely related to the reason for seeking the court’s warrant for Emefiele’s arrest and detention in the first place. Nothing related to economic crimes of national security dimension that the DSS lied to the court then. As the judge noted in his ruling then, the DSS presented no shred of evidence to support its claim, nor has it up till this moment, presented any evidence of terrorism against Emefiele to Nigerians. Instead, after detaining him for over five months, and ignoring multiple court orders to release him, it transferred him to the EFCC, which after about another one month in their custody finally charged him with a procurement breach. It was shocking that this was what they finally came up with.
Now, why should the DSS not be held to account for lying to the court and under false pretense, sought judicial cover for its nefarious intent?
Of course we saw the same thing play out with the suspension and arrest of the then Chairman of EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa who was detained for several months without an explanation.
President Tinubu had repeatedly claimed publicly that there was rot in the CBN under Emefiele. He appointed a special investigator to probe his tenure and regaled the country with the rot uncovered by a man whose own integrity had earlier been called to question. But with all the rot at the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited headed by Mr Mele Kyari, Tinubu has looked the other way, pretending he cannot smell the faeces emanating from that rotten, fantastically corrupt and opaque state-owned oil firm.
The truth is that the president targeted Emefiele for punishment because he believed that the former CBN governor’s naira redesign policy was targeted at him, to weaken his chances of winning the presidential election. Whether that is true or not, I cannot tell. But to those bandying that narrative, is it just possible that such a consequential policy decision would be taken because of one man? Or was it because he had a lot of old naira notes stashed in vaults to torpedo the will of the people? It is noteworthy that out of the eighteen presidential candidates, Tinubu was the only one that complained about the policy.
Anyway, if by any stretch of the imagination that was the case, then I dare say, it was well intentioned and in the national interest. As far as I am concerned, Tinubu’s ascension to the highest office in the land through whatever means and however has forever damaged our national values and self-esteem. You wake up every day believing this dreadful nightmare cannot be true. But it is true. It is very depressing and you perceive that general feeling of melancholy and a sense of foreboding. It is very unsettling that all the precious values of old passed down from generation to generation failed to stop Tinubu from becoming the president of this land of our fathers.
As lawyers are fond of saying, the “fruit of a poisonous tree, is poison”. Early actions and inactions of his government thus far have confirmed our worst fears that this man was and is still unqualified for the presidency of Nigeria.
He is too deeply flawed, too self-centred, too unrighteous, too materialistic, too consumed by the quest for personal benefits and too incapable of rising above primordial ethnic and political/group interests to engender national rebirth. To those who pin all their hopes on him to drive national redemption, it is misplaced. You are betting on the wrong horse. He is part of the problems of Nigeria. Wake up and smell the coffee. Just take a look at many in his cabinet and those he supports to high positions and you will get the message.
I had written about 1,600 words of this article when news broke that the special investigator, Jim Obazee appointed by Tinubu to investigate Emefiele’s tenure as CBN governor had submitted his final report. So I paused this write up to take a look at the report. Some of the initial news stories emanating from the report on Friday last week were very odd, and so I decided to look for the report itself to get a sense of what it actually contained. But having read it, I am still trying to make sense of it, because as in the initial news reports, something just didn’t quite sit well with me.
It looked like a political hit job by a malicious undertaker. I think any discerning mind would immediately see from the very second page of the report that this government went after Emefiele because of the naira redesign policy which Tinubu had claimed was targeted at undermining his chances of winning the February 25 presidential election.
Arguably, it is not a coincidence that the special investigator started off the report with what then Candidate Tinubu feared was targeted at him. The claim that former President Muhammadu Buhari didn’t approve the naira redesign policy before it was implemented by the CBN is clearly intended to prejudice Nigerians against the former governor. It would be a grave mistake for anyone to accept this grotesque report.
Here is a direct quote, or should I say salvo from page two of the report. It reads like the talking points of Tinubu’s inner orbit or another “presidential proclamation” akin to the purported presidential proclamation on the Rivers crisis: “It was surprising that the currency redesign that was done in October last year (2022) was neither recommended by the Board of CBN nor approved by the then President Mohammadu (sic) Buhari. It was a conspiracy against the Nigerian people and specifically the political class by the then CBN Governor (Mr. Godwin Emefiele and one of the erstwhile Deputy Governor (sic) (Mr Flashodun Shonubi). The idea was that of Mr Shonubi (claiming interwoven challenges) and Mr Godwin Emefiele, designed and approved the currency 19th October 2022. The former president tagged along but did not approve the redesign as required by law. It was only mentioned to the Board of CBN on 15th December 2022 after Mr Emefiele has (sic) awarded the contract to NSPM Plc on 21th October 2022.
“It was indeed meant to frustrate the political class and make their election agenda very difficult. It turned out to be a huge punishment to Nigerians and the Nigeria (sic) Economy coincidently. Accordingly, the redesigned (sic) is illegal and should be withdrawn from circulation with immediate effect. Mr Godwin Emefiele, Mr Folashodun Shonubi and other conspirators in this regard should be made to face criminal charges for this aberration that led to loss of lives of many Nigerians, the closure of business (sic) and joblessness.”
You see, it is fairly easy to see through this poorly written hatchet job in which the special investigator had the temerity to assign himself the role of adjudicator. I had to look carefully again to be sure it was actually Obazee’s report. It seemed like a product of malice, designed to achieve a predetermined end, and poorly disguised as an investigation conducted by a professional. Almost every sentence in the report was dripping with hate, malice, and motor park rumours that had been circulating on social media for several months. These were carelessly disguised as the truth and nothing but the truth.
If I may ask, why was he so concerned about the political class being frustrated? Was that one of his terms of reference? Obazee has to tell Nigerians if it was to frustrate politicians from buying votes? And since when did he become the spokesman for the political class? By “political class”, was he referring to Tinubu?
For me, Obazee didn’t need to hide behind a finger by saying that the naira redesign was to frustrate the political class. He should have just named who in particular it was meant to frustrate. At least, then Candidate Tinubu made that claim repeatedly during the presidential election campaign that it was meant to frustrate him.
So which political class was Obazee referring to when the man who appointed him to the job was the town crier on this particular issue? For him to now claim it was to frustrate the political class was disingenuous to say the least. Tinubu had already alleged that the naira redesign was targeted at him. It was actually the reason for targeting Emefiele whom he accused of spearheading the policy.
Furthermore, the claim that Buhari did not approve the naira redesign initiative of the CBN beggars belief. It directly contradicts available public information. In his hurry to deliver an indictment, Obazee forgot that Buhari made a nationwide broadcast to the country to sell the benefits of the policy to Nigerians while asking for their patience and understanding on the implementation. You see, Obazee desperately tried to minimise Buhari’s role to nail the former CBN governor at all cost, not caring a whit about the collateral damage to the former president. Unwittingly, he has done irreparable damage to the integrity and credibility of his entire report.
This really is an insult to the intelligence of all Nigerians. I am baffled beyond belief that Obazee drew such an unflattering conclusion about the former president’s decision making or the lack of it, and was so willing to heap all the blame on Emefiele and a few others. Look, Buhari “tagged along”, yet he made a broadcast giving reasons why he approved the policy. There is a plethora of evidence confirming that the former president approved the policy. On November 10, 2022, in London, after a meeting with the British Monarch, King Charles III, Buhari in an interview defended the naira redesign policy, saying enough time had been given for people to change their old naira notes to the new ones. And that he wanted to leave a legacy of an electoral system free of vote buying.
On November 23, 2022, Buhari himself unveiled the newly-redesigned notes at a ceremony in the Presidential Villa. Again, last month in an interview with the NTA, the former president defended the policy saying he endorsed it to “protect his integrity and to show Nigerians there was no shortcut to success”. It is patently absurd therefore for this so-called special investigator, masquerading as a judge, to actually claim that Buhari merely “tagged along” on such a consequential policy. He must explain to Nigerians what he meant by Buhari “tagged along”.
Maybe he smoked marijuana before writing his report. Pray, if I may ask, why was Buhari tagging along with such a major policy decision he did not agree with? And if true, who was he afraid of? Going by Obazee’s position on such a policy decision, who knows how many of the policies of the former government that Buhari did not approve but merely “tagged along ” with? Who knows, maybe it was Emefiele or one of Buhari’s aides, the all-powerful Tunde Sabiu that disguised as the then president to make the broadcast and to defend the naira redesign on several occasions?
That Obazee deliberately attempted to mislead Nigerians tells a lot about his character. To him, let me restate here, the fruit of a poisonous tree is poison. Since the entire investigation was predicated on malice, its outcome was predictable. By now, I expect that Buhari and his aides should have recognised the damage inflicted on him by Obazee’s claim and react accordingly.
But even if we had to put aside the report, in the build up to the presidential election, Tinubu told us that the Buhari government didn’t know how to think. He decried the exchange rate then and boasted he would teach the Buhari government how to think. He said Emefiele mismanaged the CBN, particularly the exchange rate. When Emefiele was the CBN governor, the naira exchanged for N460 to the dollar at the I&E window, while on the parallel market, it was between N740 and N760 to the dollar.
Fellow Nigerians, what is the exchange rate today that Emefiele is no longer the CBN governor? The naira exchanges at the NAFEX window for N1,039 and on the parallel market for N1,245 to the dollar on the watch of a man who claimed to know how to think better than anyone else. Again, can anyone tell us why the naira notes are scarce under the reign of this thinker?
