By Ikechukwu Okaforadi
Amidst the controversy trailing the sack of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) recently, some legal practitioners, under the aegis of Public Interests Lawyers League (PILL) have faulted the nomination of Godwin Emefiele for the position.
In an open letter addressed to President Goodluck Jonathan at the weekend, and jointly signed by Abdul Mahmud and Peter Uwabuike, president and publicity secretary respectively, the lawyers rejected the nomination of Emefiele for the plum job, describing him as a product of a “corrupt corporate governance environment.”
PILL stated that Emefiele, who, until his nomination, was Managing Director of Zenith Bank PLC, presided over a deposit bank that competed with other deposit banks. Based on this, the group argued that he should not be appointed to regulate over competing rival banks, since he has interest in the sector, even as the league expressed concern that the rivalry that exists between Chief Executives of deposit banks will adversely affect the restructuring regulatory frameworks of the financial sector and deepen poor corporate governance practices.
The league therefore called on President Jonathan to protect the CBN as an apex regulatory institution from influence, to secure its independence and to save it from the kind of injury that it would suffer as a result of possible appointment of Emefiele.
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