CBN: Emefiele May Not Return, Says Reliable Source

• CBN: Emefiele May Not Return, Says Reliable Source

The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, may be on his way out as reliable source closed to the governor revealed his efforts to hang on to power for a second term in office may not yield a positive result.

Emefiele, whose tenure as the CBN governor ends next month, has caused division between stakeholders and policy experts on his re-appointment or exit.

A reliable source from the office of the presidency said the president has not been comfortable with the CBN given the fact that he was an appointee of the past administration.

“Buhari all the while had been enduring him as a result of the sensitive position he occupied especially when the country went into what sources described as “avoidable recession.

“The truth is that the Buhari administration had to tolerate Emefiele in the last four years or thereabout, left to Buhari, he would have shown him the way out immediately he came into office. It was for strategic reasons that he was allowed to remain in office. The thinking then was that since the economy went under in their hand, they should be allowed to fix what they have broken”, the source stated.

The source, who did not want his identity revealed as he was not authorised to speak on the matter, said that now that his tenure was over, it was futile for Emefiele to be lobbying for reappointment saying “nobody in Buhari’s kitchen cabinet want Emefiele back, he was only tolerated for this long to solve the problem he presumably created and to stabilise the economy. I can assure you that now that the economy is gaining some level of traction, Emefiele would be booted out in no time, all his lobbying for a second tenure in office is an exercise in futility, he should start packing his personal belongings and vacate that office”.

The source also revealed that three persons including a female of Northern extraction have been penciled down to take over from Emefiele.

“The government is already shopping for his possible replacement. It may actually turn out to be a woman and it would be the first time a woman would be made the Governor of the Central Bank”, the source further revealed.