By Adedapo Adesanya
A member of the House of Representatives, Mr Tajudeen Adefisoye, has lambasted the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele, for failing to honour invitations to him to explain to Nigerians his different policies, including the exchange rate regime.
The lawmaker, in a post on Twitter, said the central banker behaves as if he is “bigger than Nigeria” and should not be summoned to answer questions concerning his policies.
Mr Adefisoye, who represents Idanre/Ifedore Federal Constituency of Ondo State at the National Assembly, described the current value of Naira to the Dollar at the unofficial window as “scary”.
On Monday, the local currency further depreciated against the greenback at the black market by N5 to N550/$1, while at the official Investors and Exporters (I&E) segment, it lost 75 kobo to sell at N412.75/$1.
Nigerians, like the politician, have continued to express worry over the development at the FX market lately, warning that the Naira could plunge to N700/$1 at the end of the year.
“The exchange rate thing is getting scary; high inflation and the businesses are suffering. We [have] invited the CBN Gov a couple of times to come and explain his policies but he doesn’t even honour invitations. He was summoned and still didn’t respond. [It} seems the man is bigger than Nigeria,” Mr Adefisoye expressed his frustration on Twitter, which has been banned by the Nigerian government for the past 100 days.
The outburst of the lawmaker has forced many Nigerians to question the official ability of the legislature, the lawmaking body in the country, to summon any member of the executive as contained in the country’s constitution like their counterparts in the United States and others.
Despite this, many also saw reason as the forex situation continues to bite harder with the Naira weakening by the day across all government-regulated channels and equally at the unregulated channel.
As the rates continue to climb, the disparity across the channels continue to widen as business owners and other users of forex have to get the dollar by other unofficial means.
The Naira, which used to sell below N200/$1 in early 2015, started to fall lately after the CBN discontinued the sale of FX to Bureaux De Change (BDC) operators in July 2021.
