Something got me thinking. It was the news report that a Federal High Court in Abuja turned down an ex parte application by the Department of State Security (DSS) seeking its order to arrest the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, now more popularly known as Meffy.
That piece of information came as confirmation of a rumour I had come across weeks earlier to the effect that there was a plot to rein in the man for several breaches of the law and for consistently exercising his office in a way that has messed with Nigeria’s economy through allegedly being creator and accessory to actions that sabotaged and imperiled the economy.
Though the Federal High Court turned down the request, the fact of seeking an order of the court in itself was an open confirmation that Meffy had soiled his pants and as such lost the moral strength to continue to preside over that highly respected office and ought to honourably throw in the towel and seek ways to reclaim whatever honour is still left in the name that he bears. Though he will not resign and will disappoint a lot of Nigerians, including me, if he does, Meffy still will have no peace whenever he is sent packing from the office by his employer, the Presidency. For now, he may sit back and play hide and seek with oversight authorities like the National Assembly and, or, use every instrument available to him to stave off the DSS. But, something tells me that it won’t be too long before the long arm of the law reins him in because, as the clock ticks on this administration, he will be holding the short end of the stick. Secondly, the DSS move indicates that power has left, or, is leaving Meffy and, like an old handkerchief, he has been very well and roundly used. There may no longer be further need for him. As Nigerians suspect and also know, the DSS move cannot be independent of Meffy’s employer.
For me, Meffy ought to have been summarily dismissed, with punitive outcomes, from the service of the CBN the very moment he went before a court to seek an interpretation of the laws of Nigeria as it affects his chances of contesting for office as President of the Federal Republic.
That was the height of Meffy’s impunity. That was the very moment that he publicly declared his disdain for proper moral conduct worthy of a leader of his standing. At that very moment, Meffy willfully and freely dragged himself into the political arena, an arena that the ethics of his office demand that he insulates himself from.
At that moment, Meffy confirmed insinuations that he had long become a politician pretending to be managing Nigeria’s monetary and economic policies from the Central Bank. With that, too, Meffy confirmed he was long a card-carrying member of the ruling party, All Progressives Congress (APC), with the wider implication that his time in office was to steer the nation’s monetary policies in such a way that it conferred undue advantages on members of his political party, and, more especially, members of his own circle within that party. He did not care that he had lowered the image of the office. He did not bother that he was dragging the nation’s economy down with him.
Perhaps, Meffy’s second worst in this regard was allowing posters and branded vehicles of his campaign for the office of President to go out in support of a reality that most Nigerians thought was actually a joke. A lot of Nigerians had thought that some smart jobbers, some kind of elevated yahooists, were at their creative best in seeking ways into Meffy’s CBN cash vaults when graphic images of those campaign materials first filtered out. Meffy’s ignominious silence became a stamp of authoritative approval. He was indeed deeply involved despite being subject to public service rules, which precluded anyone holding an office such as his from getting actively involved in politics. He deliberately abused that rule and wagged his tail at his whistlers like a mongrel before its master, thus, also, creating a narrative that became part of the subject matter in the expose of open secrets, in the nasty exchange between Dele Alake and Bayo Onanuga of the APC Presidential Campaign Council and Arise News and its chairman, Nduka Obaigbena.
And, on May 6, Meffy removed the last vestige of doubt about himself and his ambition to move from the CBN to be President of the Federal Republic when he publicly bought the APC Presidential Expression of Interest form and the nomination form for which he coughed out a ‘paltry’ N100 million to the party.
Like all serving ministers that also bought the form, none has been questioned about the source of that money by an administration that, in 2016/2017, hounded Nigerians, businessmen, lawyers and politicians alike into detention cells on the argument that they ought to know that the money that was either shared to them for politics or paid as fees for services rendered came from the security fund.
Till this moment, no agency of the same government has called in any of the affected ministers, including those now in purgatory awaiting recycling, to explain the source of the N100 million they purchased those forms with. Most Nigerians actually see the silence as a stamp of approval on corruption in APC’s almost eight years old government, which has blighted what was obtained in PDP’s 16 years.
And now, House of Representatives member, Hon. Gudaji Kazaure, has become an instant celebrity not for his classic approach to spoken English, but for exposing what he sees as Meffy’s scandalous corruption empire. For Hon. Kazaure, Meffy is the emperor in a corrupt empire where he singly decides who to turn into a billionaire overnight. What Kazaure is saying is not new. Meffy’s predecessor publicly made allusions to the trend long ago. It also formed talking points in bars and gardens around Abuja. Many people allege that Meffy’s encouragement of the parallel forex market was a window to create instant billionaires among members of his cycle within his political party. Hon. Kazaure said you could be in your bed and they send you $10m at the official CBN rate through your bank. The bank would call to inform you that you have been given $10m from the CBN at the official rate. The same bank would open an account in your name and tell you how much they will buy the dollars from you. Once youaccept, your account will be credited with the difference between the CBN rate and what the bank bought it from you. According to Kazaure, that is how easy it is for Meffy to create billionaires.
However, this is without regard to businesses that have privately and publicly begged for forex to be sold to them, not dashed, at the official rate in order to enable them to keep the economy afloat. Meffy will always insist, with finality, that, irrespective of how strategic your business is to the sustainability of the economy, you must source your forex need from the parallel market.
This comes without concern for the impact of the decision on inflation and the purchasing power of average Nigerians. And to attempt to fix the mess he created, Meffy is scratching the surface and creating monetary policies that only emasculate and alienate the poor from further living. Ask, how many rich people withdraw cash from ATMs or POS? How many even queue in banking halls to withdraw N100,000? Obviously, I don’t see Meffy himself, even in retirement, standing before a POS operator to pull the N20,000 limit.
Meffy is now playing poker with Nigeria’s economy. He has helped to derail it. That is a consequence of playing too deep in party politics. He refused to insulate himself from politics and focus on his assignment. In doing so, he worked for canonization by a cabal that has a voracious appetite for prisoner-holding. He got locked in and messed up his blistering career.
Meffy has messed up his name and his time in the DSS massage room, whenever he eventually visits, is not likely to be with a happy ending.