By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Kingsley Moghalu, has criticised President Muhammadu Buhari for issuing directive to the CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, to stop provision of foreign exchange (forex) to importers of food items into the country.
On Tuesday, at his home town in Daura, Kastina State, when he received Governors elected under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Buhari directed Mr Emefiele not to allocate a Cent for food imports.
Reacting to this on Tuesday evening, Mr Moghalu said the President has no right to give directive to the CBN Governor because the apex bank was an independent body.
“@NGRPresident should leave @cenbank alone to discharge its mandate independently within the ambit of the CBN Act, and stop ‘directing’ it.
“@cenbank should on its part assertive its independence (assuming it actually believes it should be independent, but the Act says so, clearly!),” the former presidential aspirant said in a series of tweets via his Twitter handle.
The 2019 presidential candidate for Young Progressives Party (YPP) stated further that, “Nigeria’s entire economy appears to have been sub-contracted to our central bank, including industrial and trade policy. In the process, the economy has fared poorly and the Bank has lost its independence. This is sad!”
According to him, “Our marketplace should be regulated and guided in a rational manner that creates a level playing field. Our economy will not be saved by Ad Hoc political decisions like this, handed down by the very institutions that should be shielded from the whim and caprice of politicians.”
He noted that, “The issue here isn’t whether or not CBN should allow access to forex for food imports. It is about whether such an economic policy of a central bank should be imposed by a political authority. A major reason for our poverty, instability and weak economy is weak institutions.”
Adedapo Adesanya