From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
Former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Presidential aspirant of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) Prof Kingsley Moghalu has described the current CBN governor’s involvement in politics as a “massive breach of rule of law”.
Maghalu stated this while picking his expression of interest form at the ADC Secretariat on Tuesday in Abuja.
According to him, Section 9 of the CBN Act makes it clear that the governor and the deputy governor are not allowed to engage in any other employment or vocation.
He stated that Nigerians do not have any business promoting the CBN governor’s political ambition as it stands against the law.
He said “Section 9 of the CBN makes it clear that the governor and the deputy governor are not allowed to engage in any other employment or vocation. A vocation is something that could take up your time, it may not be a job, it may not be something you could put your hands on, but once your mind is there but for the CBN Governor, his heart and mind is in politics up to the extent of going to a law court to support his ambition.
“First of all, I want to say Nigerians have no business in rewarding this massive breach of the rule of law because the action of the CBN governor shows contempt of the rule of law. And the individual has been incompetent and Nigerians should not promote incompetently.
“Inflation is a very serious issue. If you have high inflation in a sustained manner the way we have it. It is a performance failure of the CBN because the President does not manage inflation, statutorily it is the function of the CBN. And under the CBN act, CBN is supposed to be independent. When I was the deputy governor of CBN in 2009/ 2014. There is a monitoring committee that ensures that prices of things are stable. We were able to bring inflation from double-digit down to 8 per cent before we left office. Now inflation is around 16 per cent.
In addition, the presidential aspirant gave a long list of steps he intends to take in order to rejuvenate the nation and its economy.
According to him, security and education would be among the areas of his core focus as they are the major drivers of a country’s economy.
He added that lack of political will was one of the factors weakening the fight against insecurity in Nigeria.
“If Nigerians vote for me to become the President, insecurity will become a thing of the past. Because for me, the first thing to fight insecurity is the political will. I will take out anything that threatens the lives and properties of Nigerians.
“I will also invest heavily on intelligence. The USA is able to keep terrorists away and security its territory due to its high intelligence.
“We will also look at the Police Force because a breakdown of the Police Force is a breakdown of the country’s security. I will employ 1 million Nigerians into the Police to expand its workforce for efficiency”
“ASUU strike will never happen again when I become President. I will dedicate 20 per cent of the country’s annual budget to education. This is because I understand the importance of education and will invest in it.”