Presidential spokesperson Ajuri Ngelale has made startling allegations against the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, accusing him of depleting the country’s foreign reserve without the consent of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with TVC, Ngelale asserted that Emefiele made significant financial decisions without the approval of the former president, resulting in the expenditure of billions of dollars from the foreign reserve without proper authorization.
“What was done concerning the expenditure of billions of dollars from the foreign reserves was done largely without the approval or knowledge of President Muhammad Buhari,” Ngelale disclosed during the interview.
The president’s spokesperson stated that the CBN governor held significant authority over most of the apex bank’s operations and simultaneously served as the chairman of the bank’s board of directors.
“Yes, that might seem hard for some people to believe, but I want to explain how that could have happened.
“We have one of the few Central Banks in the world where the day-to-day CEO was the governor of the Central Bank and was also the chairman of the board of directors. He was essentially overseeing himself,” he said.
These allegations have sparked widespread reactions from Nigerians, with many viewing them as an attempt to absolve Buhari of any responsibility for the country’s economic challenges during his tenure.
One of the most scandalous events of Buhari’s presidency was the N30 trillion Ways and Means loan, which has been largely blamed for Nigeria’s rocketing inflation.
Financial analyst Kelvin Emmanuel criticized the lack of accountability and corporate governance under Buhari’s presidency, describing it as “an utter failure.”
He outlined various financial decisions made by Emefiele, including swapping bonds for reserves and borrowing money from external asset managers, which he claimed were executed without proper oversight or ratification from the National Assembly.
“Imagine a Presidential Spokesman saying that the immediate past president had no knowledge of the former CBN Governor swapping bonds for reserves to inject financial money into the system without any accountability,” Emmanuel said.
“He had no knowledge of the Governor hiking CRR to 32.5% that stifled lending in the real sector (17.5% above the Bank of International Settlements standard of 15%) in order to finance ways and means.
“He had no knowledge of the Governor drawing down on public sector CRR that was attracting zero percent interest (because public sector cash moved from commercial banks to TSA)
“He had no knowledge of the Governor borrowing money from external asset managers of the bank (that is an offshore account bank drawing down on reserves to reconcile) attracting between 6-9% of interest per annum, and without any ratification from the National Assembly.
“And so ways and means limit of 5% of real revenues for previous accounting year that stood at between $450-500m was violated to $53bn, and because the CBN lacked reserves that was overdrawn below the match for your balance of trade or assets like the comparable liquidity ratio for banks that can be easily converted to settle balance of payments— the currency started taking a hit, and inflation joined.”
Buhari was notorious for denying knowing anything that went wrong under his administration.
Emefiele has been accused of forging the signature of the former president and is currently being prosecuted for alleged procurement fraud and forgery. Many believe that the former apex bank chief is being targeted as a scapegoat.
However, lending credence to the belief that Buhari was aware of the CBN’s financial moves under his presidency, a statement from former Senate President, Abubakar Saraki, reveals that Buhari refused to approve funds for constituency projects of members of the Eighth Senate because he wanted to punish the lawmakers for questioning his loan requests.
Buhari took several loans in his eight years of leadership, shooting Nigeria’s public debt profile from N12.6 trillion to over N80 trillion as his government prepares for exit on May 29.
Saraki, who faced accusations of impeding Buhari’s development initiatives with checks and balances, asserted that the former president withheld funding for constituency projects as retaliation for the Senate’s scrutiny of numerous loan requests.
“For clarification, the Saraki Media Office will want members of the public to note that then President Muhammadu Buhari deliberately refused to approve funds for the constituency projects of members of the Eighth National Assembly obviously to punish the members for questioning some of the loan requests presented by the executive before the legislature,” the statement issued by the head of his media office, Yusuph Olaniyonu, said.
Via Samuel Nwite