Naira Crisis: Central Bank Governor, Emefiele’s Crime Was More Than Electoral Fraud – Soyinka

Prof Wole Soyinka, the world-renowned Nigerian Nobel laureate, has slammed the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele.

He slammed Emefiele over the naira redesign policy and recent naira notes crisis which plunged the entire country into financial disarray.

Soyinka in an interview on Channels TV on Monday said Emefiele’s crime was against humanity and even more than electoral mago mago (Yoruba word for fraud).

The Nobel laureate said, “Emefiele has committed a crime against humanity, over and beyond even any electoral mago mago (foul play),” Soyinka said.

“He struck at the heart of the subsisting survival principles, minimal needs and entitlements of the ordinary people in the street.”

For Soyinka, President Muhammadu Buhari allowed Emefiele to let Nigerians suffer.

“Don’t bully me. Don’t take my voice away. Don’t take my economic potential away, my economical entitlements. Don’t throw me on the mercy of sadists like Emefiele,” he said.

“He and his boss, Buhari, because ultimately responsibility rests with him [Buhari] to have allowed this to happen. But he [Emefiele] is the expert. He’s the one who gives the advice, he’s the one who executes the policies.”

Soyinka accused the CBN governor as reducing the country to a state of despondency.

Recounting his own experience, the activist said, “Even a few days ago, when I sent a text to the bank and a cheque came back, they had no cash.

“One of the bankers eventually brought me something from his own stash and explained to me what had been going on, how they would sit and wait for money to come.

“You can’t buy a newspaper. You can’t buy guguru (popcorn) and epa (grounduts), which means that you cannot pay for the plantain; which means that the farmer cannot even pay for transportation of the goods from his farm to the [markets].”

SaharaReporters had also on March 22 reported that Emefiele admitted that Nigerians experienced difficulties in carrying out online banking transactions due to the deluge of online transactions that hit Nigeria’s banking industry during the cash crunch.

The CBN governor who apologised for the online transaction failures had said the apex bank would sustain the current monetary tightening regime following the continued rise in headline inflation that has posed significant risks to Nigeria’s economy.

He had said, “I must apologise. Yes, online channels fail. But no doubt it is as a result of the deluge of online transactions that hit the banking industry. But it is being resolved.

“On a daily basis, our Payment System Management Department monitors the online payment platforms so as to make sure that when there is a downtime, they are quickly resolved so that transactions can go on smoothly.”