February 09, (THEWILL) – Civil society organisations (CSOs), under the auspices of Coalition of Civil Society Groups (CCSGs), on Wednesday debunked the rumoured presidential ambition of Godwin Emefiele, Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Describing as fake news, the purported presidential ambition, the CCSGs in a statement jointly signed by its President, Bassey Etuk Williams, and Secretary-General, Abubakar Ibrahim, hinted that over 10,000 civil society groups across the federation would declare support for Emefiele, should he decide to run for president in 2023, noting that the group consider him as fit and most qualified for the top office.
While applauding the achievements of the CBN under Emefiele in the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMWs) and small farm holders, the groups also noted his effort towards assisting the nation’s industries to meet up with international standards in the quality of goods produced for export.
They stressed that today, many Nigerians have benefitted from wonderful policies of the CBN such as the Youth Entrepreneurship Development Programme (YEDP), Accelerated Agricultural Development Scheme (AADS), the Agri-business/Small and Medium Enterprises Investment Scheme (AGSMEIS).
“These policies have impacted positively on the lives of many Nigerians. Jobs have been created and millions of Nigerians are happy and grateful”, the coalition said.
The statement titled “Coalition of Civil Society Groups Calls for Caution Over The Spread of Fake News Against CBN Governor”, reads, “The attention of the leadership of the Coalition of Civil society Groups has been drawn to a false, baseless and downright malicious statement allegedly given by a faceless group, against the person of Mr Godwin Emefiele, his office and functions as governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria vis a vis the race for who becomes president of the federal republic of Nigeria in 2023.
“We wish to state here that we are not in the business of dignifying wild and wishful statements that only have a basis in the realm of speculation, but it is important to set the records straight in the interest of defending the interest of an important national institution from the potent danger posed by the spread fake news.
“Indeed fake news is a threat all over the world and it is on this basis that we are putting out this unequivocal statement, as a nonpartisan and non-government organisation that has a clear mandate to ensure accountability of public institutions to the citizens.”
It stated further that the authors of the fake news attempted and failed woefully in trying to combine unrelated issues and ended up showing their hand as sponsored mercenaries against the people of Nigeria by calling into question the integrity of a national institution like the CBN.
The statement further stressed that, “The Nigerian people are unaware of any announcement by Mr Godwin Emefiele to the effect that he is running for the office of president of Nigeria and it is not only unfair to him but also to over 200 million Nigerians to try to keep any qualified citizen from running for office. It is unacceptable to employ blackmail as a tactic to keep qualified Nigerians out of the race to lead their own country: and there can be no legal or moral question that Mr Godwin Emefiele meets fits the bill of being qualified, even if his choice of entering the race is a personal one.
“To have referred to a leading member of staff and former Managing Director of Nigeria’s biggest bank by assets, as a “failed banker” betrays both a lack of understanding of simple facts and an overwhelming high amount of bile against progress and development for personal gain.
“It is a globally acknowledged fact that Mr Godwin Emefiele came into the saddle at a difficult stage in the economic and political history of Nigeria. That the economy has continued to run, without disruption to major government services is down to the extraordinary measures adopted by the government’s banker under the leadership of Mr Emefiele.
“To try to paint the CBN with a partisan brush is nonsensical and reeks of desperation by enemies of the state to cast aspersions on the integrity of such an important institution. We call on these groups, as we are well aware that many of their ilk have been mobilised to further derail the serious reforms that have been implemented by the CBN for sustainable management of the economy in the last 6 years.”
It, therefore, called on the faceless group to retract its statement and apologise to the nation and the CBN Governor for their malicious act, while urging others like them to remain in their hideouts, as we shall not hesitate to push for the full weight of the law and the power of citizens to be deployed against them in the interest of the continued growth and sustainable development of Nigeria.
On power rotation, the Coalition maintained that since the return of democracy on May 29, 1999, there has been “an unwritten convention in the country for power rotation between the North and South.
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