BEVERLY HILLS, January 18, (THEWILL) – Erstwhile Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Prof. Charles Soludo, has again taken a hit at former President Goodluck Jonathan, accusing him of turning the CBN into the Presidency’s Automated Teller Machine, ATM, while he held sway as President.
He equally accused the Jonathan administration of running the apex bank like a movie plot from Uganda under the late maximum ruler, Idi Amin Dada. Idi Amin ruled Uganda with an iron fist between 1971 and 1979, and has been described as one of the most corrupt African rulers. His dictatorship was captured in a movie titled ‘Idi Amin of Uganda’.
Soludo bared his mind in the latest business edition of The Interview magazine, where he described the CBN as “the ATM of the Presidency,” under Jonathan, which was exploited at random to produce cash for the government.
The renowned economist expressed regrets that despite the central bank’s statutory independence, it has continued to be a victim of high wire politics, often “electrocuting” its leadership.
According to him, “Recent revelations regarding the ‘arms-gate’ (short for the $2.1bn scandal involving the former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki) and the apparent abuse of the CBN as an ATM by the Presidency should get reasonable people thinking.
“Imagine a scenario where a President can order the CBN to create an intervention fund for national stability and the CBN literally ‘prints’ say, N3tn, and doles it out as cash to the President to prosecute an election campaign, or for just about anything he fancies. It is a scary thought.
“We are going down a dangerous path that ruins the economy. I don’t know any other country where such is tolerated, except perhaps what I watched in a movie about Idi Amin and his governor of the central bank.”
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