I have had cause to write about the Finance Minister’s public statements that are inimical to the health of the economy. So far, she has not relented even as the economy on her watch is taking some beating. At a point she had questioned the integrity of some agencies under her ministry. Then, she had, without facts accused 33 agencies of government based on an audit exercise conducted by one of the parastatals under her Ministry, Office of the Accountant General of the Federation of non-remittance or under-remittance of their operating surpluses to the tune of N450 billion. The money was said to have been generated between 2010 and 2015. Among those agencies allegedly found culpable were, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and others. But few hours after her public press conference, her colleague ministers quickly denied her claim.
Few weeks after this public show and on the eve of one of the Monetary Policy Council (MPC) meetings of the CBN, she went to the gallery again, ordering the MPC Committee members to lower the interest rate in order to stimulate the economy, which she had announced to the public was ‘technically in recession’. With the attendant public outcry over her estimation of monetary policy issues, she came out later to say her comment was her own personal opinion as she lacks the capacity to dictate to the Committee members.
I thought the madam had learnt her lessons. But few days past, when she was receiving the House of Representatives Tactical Committee members on Recession allegedly blamed the ‘excessive powers of the CBN governor for the disconnection between the monetary and fiscal policies. She, therefore, pleaded with the National Assembly to consider a legislation to whittle down the powers of the apex bank governor and institute a check and balancing mechanism in the legislation. According to the report, she was upset that the CBN had the perceived effrontery to decide and act on issues of ‘finance’ without recourse to her, the constitutionally authorised person saddled with such responsibility. To her, the audacious action of the CBN governor attest to the excessive powers massed by the office of the CBN governor that must at all cost be curtailed.
Allegedly grieved, she blamed the National Assembly for yielding to Professor Charles Soludo, a former governor of the Bank’s request for more powers in 2007. In her view, to have allowed such approval as enshrined in CBN Act 2007 is what we are experiencing its consequences today and she was on her knees begging them (legislators) to revisit that Act and cut down the CBN Governor’s powers, and probably make the Bank a parastatal in her Ministry.
I dare ask madam Adeosun to come out openly with her agenda. Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Senator Nenadi Usman and Dr. Segun Aganga (all former Finance Ministers) worked harmoniously with the same Act you are grieving over.
It is a fact that, if what you are campaigning for is granted, then burying CBN in your ministry would not only endanger the apex bank’s independence, but foretell doom for the nation. If I may ask, what can the Finance Minister point to as her achievement to reflate the economy since it moved into recession? The problem is not the autonomy of the CBN, but the inability of the elements within the fiscal authorities to forge seamless coordination with monetary authority. What impression are you creating to the investing world about Nigeria, particularly at this troubled period of the economy, or is the Minister cowed by the achievements of the CBN under the watch of Godwin Emefiele?
We have not seen the required synergy between her and her National Planning counterpart. Everyone is advocating a harmonious synergy between the fiscal and monetary authorities, but the Minister is threading a more sinister path that will lead the nation nowhere. One is not therefore surprised that there have been clamours for her sack from the ministry.
So far, the CBN has helped the government in its economic diversification agenda, even intervened in critical sectors in the economy. It is unfortunate that at this time of dire national economic challenge when all agencies ought to have a common front and device a strategy to enable us come out of the present recession, it is rather worrisome that key elements at the temple of economic management choose to evince centrifugal tendencies just for selfish aggrandizement.
This campaign, once again, the Honourable Minister, is an unnecessary distraction that the economy does not need now.
Aluko wrote from Ago Iwoye, Ogun State.