The House of Representatives has passed for second reading a bill to prohibit the Governor, Deputy Governors and Directors of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from partisan politics. The bill, sponsored by Sada Soli (APC, Katsina) seeks to amend section 11 of the CBN Act by making additional provisions for grounds for the removal of the CBN governor and others. The House passed the bill for a second reading on Tuesday without any debate and referred it to Committee on Banking and Currency. It seeks to amend section 11 (2) (F) of the Central Bank Act 2007, to increase the requirements for disqualification and cessation of appointment. Moving the motion on the bill, Mr Soli said the bill seeks to cure the mischief in the principal Act which is ambiguous on a CBN governor being partisan.
“This amendment is no prejudice to anybody because the Act was tested and it was found weak. Therefore, we need to strengthen the CBN as the last lender of resort of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and to restore its credibility from the shock it suffered in the course of interpretation of the law,” said.
He stated that according to section 11 (2) (a-f), there is no mention as related to the political parties or partisan politics of the Governor of the CBN or its Directors. The proposed section 11(2f) reads: “The governor, deputy governor or director shall cease to hold office in the bank if he is a member of a Political Party or involved in partisan politics”
Mr Soli said the “changes will enable any person who is interested in partisan politics to cease as the Governor of the central bank and this will give more honour to the position of the CBN governor and deputy governors.”
When the motion was put to vote by the Deputy Speaker, Idris Wase, the “ayes” had it.
Emefiele’s ‘presidential bid’
The bill comes on the heels of the interest the incumbent CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, reportedly showed in contesting for the presidential ticket of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) at the party’s primary election held in June. In February, a media editorial called on Mr Emefiele to resign and pursue his political ambition, if he had any, or publicly distance himself from groups clamouring for him to contest the forthcoming presidential election. While Mr Emefiele kept mum over his reported presidential ambition, pictures of a fleet of branded campaign cars bearing his photo flooded the Internet. Amid calls from various quarters including the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for him to step down as the CBN governor, Mr Emefiele spoke on it for the first time in May following reports that a group had purchased the N100 million worth of presidential nomination and expression of interest forms of the APC for him.
He said although he had yet to decide to contest the presidential election, should he heed the call to run for the presidency, he would use his “own hard-earned savings from over 35 years of banking leadership to buy my own Nomination Forms”.
Although Mr Emefiele refused to confirm or deny having a presidential ambition, he filed a suit at the Federal High Court in Abuja seeking an order to restrain the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and others from compelling him to resign as the CBN governor to run for office in 2023.
He expressed fear in his court documents that INEC and the Attorney-General of the Federation were making “frantic efforts to disqualify” him “from participating in the presidential primaries scheduled for June 3 2022, for not resigning from his office before the parties’ primaries.”
The court, in May, struck out an application by Mr Emefiele, seeking an interim order to shield him from being disqualified to contest the APC’s primary election. Mr Emefiele would later withdraw the suit. He eventually did not participate in the APC’s primaries.
