Port Harcourt—A Niger Delta youth leader, Richard Akinaka has slammed the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Godwin Emefiele, over his alleged involvement in politics while in office.
Akinaka who is also a businessman described Emefiele as a morally weak aspirant hiding behind doublespeak to contest for president under the All Progressives Congress (APC).
According to Akinaka, while he has nothing against anyone with the requisite qualifications to seek political office, he believes that Emefiele vying for political office while still CBN governor is a gross violation of ethics and misconduct not needed for anyone vying for such exalted office.
He averred that Section 9 of the CBN Act, 2007 provides that “the governor and the deputy governors shall devote the whole of their time to the service of the bank, and while holding office, shall not engage in any full or part-time employment or vocation, whether remunerated or not.”
He pointed out that politics is a vocation and the CBN Governor is not allowed by law to engage in partisan politics.
It is unthinkable that Emefiele, despite his embarrassing failures in managing the country’s economy still wants to further wreck the entire country, he said.
In his words: “Every young Nigerian, especially those of us within the age bracket of 40 years and below, should be concerned with what is going on in this country to the extent that it should be our priority to decide what the next set of leadership we desire. Because we have a great stake in this country now.
“But in the interim, what is the major issue now is the level of decadence in our public sector. The loss of value to the extent that public offices have now been driven by the whims and caprices of those who occupy them.
“I see no reason why the Central Bank Governor will be politically exposed. Though he has a right as a Nigerian to contest elections, but not at the expense of the office, he occupies. When campaign billboards and branded cars as well as posters are everywhere about his ambition and he is denying it.
“But right now, it is on record that nomination form has been bought and according to him or media reports, it was bought by local farmers. A form worth 100 million naira! It is not true. With the level of hunger ravaging this country, I don’t think the local farmers have the money to make such contributions.
“It is rather unfortunate that he cannot come out boldly to own up to his aspiration because he doesn’t want to resign from his office and this is the height of immorality and irresponsibility and for me, this alone should disqualify him.
“In any case, what does the CBN governor Emefiele has to offer to Nigeria seeing the level of the economic woes we have in this country under his watch? What else does he have to offer this country that he has not done?
“So, I am calling on the National Assembly, as a matter of urgency, to enact a law so that people in public offices will not have the undue advantage to use government resources and influence to pursue their political aspirations.
“What is going on is wrong; Emefiele has a mark of honour which I know he has lost and should resign immediately and save the sanctity of that office if he wants to contest.”
