Tinubu’s CBN reforms will shut loopholes Emefiele exploited — Presidency

The Presidency on Sunday said the ongoing reforms in the Central Bank of Nigeria were geared towards closing gaps which the bank’s former Governor, Godwin Emefiele, exploited while in office.

The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Ajuri Ngelale, stated this when he appeared on TVC’s Politics on Sunday with Mr Femi Akande.

On June 9, 2023, Tinubu suspended the former CBN chief sequel to an ongoing investigation of his office and the planned reforms in the economy’s financial sector.

The Department of State Services later detained him as operatives combed his Lagos residence, reportedly recovering bags of currency notes and documents in the process.

On July 30, 2023, the President appointed a special investigator to probe the apex Bank, Jim Obazee, the Chief Executive Officer of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria.

The President asked the special investigator to investigate CBN and key government business entities, adding that the investigator would report directly to the President’s office.

In the months that followed, more revelations surfaced, including the forging of the signature of ex-President Muhammadu Buhari and documents purportedly written by Boss Mustapha, the former secretary to the government of the federation, to induce the payment of $6.23m from the CBN.

However, Ngelale said Tinubu is spearheading reforms that would close the loopholes that allowed for the malpractices of the past.

“Moving forward, the kind of elite conspiracy we saw between CBN officials, high-ranking government officials and high-ranking members of the private sector, they’re not going to be able to conspire amongst themselves to find loopholes within the system because we have a president who is an auditor and accountant who will close those loopholes just the way he did in Lagos State many years ago.

“The President (Tinubu) has taken a comprehensive review of the organisational structures that led to Godwin Emefiele putting the nation in the position that it currently is.

“And he has said, even by legislation, that we are going to ensure that not only guardrails are put in place, but that legislative changes be enacted in such a way that this can never happen,” the Presidential spokesman explained.