By Uche Amunike
The Human Rights Writers Association (HURIWA) has made a call to the National Assembly to apply every legislative power they can to kick out the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele, from office.
Speaking, Sunday, through a statement signed by the group’s National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, he stated that signs of irredeemable arrogance and total disregard for constitutional provisions has been largely shown by the CBN Governor, hence their appeal that the Legislators should not let him destroy the Nigerian economy with his extreme and anti-people fiscal and monetary policies.
The group cited the recent withdrawal limit policy of the CBN which they described as ‘obnoxious and senseless’, with the argument that if President Buhari could be impeached by the legislative arm, the CBN Governor should not be allowed to continue to grandstand and ride roughly on the National Assembly.
Hear him: ‘Emefiele’s arrogance and abuse of power have reached an intolerable height. He has destroyed Nigeria with improperly anchored monetary policies, especially the withdrawal limits that make Nigeria looks like a communist state. He may argue that it will enable a cashless economy, but Nigeria has no infrastructure to support that yet.’
‘HURIWA demand that National Assembly uses its powers to compel Emefiele to suspend the policy, he is not bigger than all of Nigeria and if his monetary policy has the potential of destroying Nigeria and leading to job losses and other unintended consequences, he must be called to order as he is not more powerful than all of Nigerians.’
‘Rather than let Emefiele destroy the economy, the National Assembly should insist on him suspending the withdrawal limits that are draconian and anti-people. National Assembly must act decisively and save PoS operators from going extinct, creating opportunities for sophisticated crimes to escalate in an already charged and security-threatened country.’
They also condemned President Buhari for not sacking the CBN Governor in spite of his inherent failures so far.
Hear him: ‘Is Emefiele the sacred cow of Buhari? What business do both of them have together so much so that Emefiele has been left in office even after he has failed woefully and even ventured into partisan politics by wanting to run for President as a card-carrying member of the All Progressives Congress, reportedly purchasing campaign buses and even approaching the court to stop his removal for going into partisan politics even whilst holding his position as CBN governor? Emefiele can’t be allowed to get away with this arrogance of power.’
Recall that the House of Representatives, Thursday, demanded that the CBN should suspend its latest policy which sets limits to cash withdrawals at deposit money banks and other financial institutions. They also summoned the CBN Governor to explain the policy to the parliament. This was after a House member, Aliyu Magaji moved a motion of urgent public importance during plenary.
Even though lawmakers warned that the policy would affect businesses adversely, Minority Leader, Ndudi Elumelu maintained that it would checkmate crimes because funds would now be tracked through the banking system.
