Cash policy: Finally, House admit CBN deputy governor for briefing

…as Emefiele cites ill health, official trip abroad for absence 

By Christiana Ekpa

The House of Representatives, Wednesday resolved to admit a deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN in charge of Financial System Stability, Mrs. Aisha Ahmed in place of the governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele to brief the lawmakers on the recent monetary policies of the apex bank especially the cash withdrawal limit of N100,000 weekly.

Recall that Emefiele had on Tuesday told the House which summoned him last week that he was outside the country on official engagements.

The communication necessited a re-invitation of the governor for appearance before the House either in person or by proxy on Thursday.

But at Wednesday plenary, Emefiele wrote the House that he was still abroad, adding that he was attending to some health challenges and would therefore delegate Mrs. Ahmed to led a committee of governors to the briefing.

Reading the letter, Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila said “The Clerk has just received a letter and his letter says 

We refer to your letter of December 20, 2022 on the above subject matter inviting the governor of Central Bank of Nigeria to appear before the House on Thursday, December 22.

“Regrettably, the Governor is out of the country on official engagement as well as attending to the some health challenges. He is therefore unavailable to attend this briefing.

“Giving the urgency associated with the briefing, the committee of governors led by Mrs. Aisha Ahmed deputy governor, Financial System Stability is prepared to brief the House”.

Buttressing the point, Gbajabiamila pleaded with his colleagues to allow Emefiele’s representative to brief the House tomorrow.

He said: “Honorable Colleagues, at this stage, we have to rise above certain things and not make it personal anymore in the sense there is a very critical issue which is the the issue of this new cash policy. If the governor has said he is out of the country and in good faith, he is attending to health conditions, if that is the case, would it serve this house to continue to insist on his physical appearance? Two: would it serve the interest of the country to say we will wait whenever he comes back in January because a lot would have happened between now and then? 

“But if he’s asked somebody who’s fully equipped with all the facts, who can be questioned by the House, who’s the deputy governor, Financial System Stability which is what this is all about and who is coming with the committee of governors, I think the point has been made. Let’s hear from her because if we hear from her, we are hearing from the governor. It is akin to me going somewhere and I ask the deputy speaker to represent me and they said no, deputy cannot come. I think under the circumstances, if he had said he was in Nigeria and could not make it, that will be unacceptable. So, I think we should consider it. Whatever the resolution of the House, we will go with it.”

But the House became divided with some agreeing to Gbajabiamila’s position and others suggesting the representative briefed the House Committee on Banking and Currency instead of the whole House.

Hon. Segun Odebunmi who made the suggestion said “Mr. Speaker, Hon. Colleagues, I want to remind you that millions of Nigerians are looking up to the House as the House of the masses and I believe that you always stand by the masses of this nation. I am a member of the House Committee on Banking and Finance and I can tell you authoritatively, this is my 12th year in the House, I have never seen the kind of the CBN governor we have today in terms of respecting the constitution of this country. The whole House is not inviting the governor and he is giving excuse upon excuse. If the House wants to consider the representative of the governor, then, I will suggest you refer him to the committee of the House so that they can report back to the House. But if you are now inviting the representative of the governor to come and speak to the House, Mr. Speaker, it will not augur well with the institutions of the House. I want to suggest that if that is the opinion of the House, then we refer them to the  committee of the House.”

But Hon. Olajide Jimmoh said it was not out of place to allow Emefiele’s representative to brief the House.

“Mr. Speaker, I want to suggest that considering the fact that we have heard from the letter sent to us, this is an institution, the CBN is also an institution, we should not go on personality. We have invited the CBN governor. If he’s not going to be around and they have promised that another body from the CBN will come and address this institution. For purpose of clarity and other germane issues that are of necessity, I think we should allow that to happen”, he said.

Similarly, the chief whip of the House, Hon. Mohammed Mongunu in his remarks said that it was the resolution of the House on Tuesday to allow  representative.

“The Human memory is momentary. If I  refresh our memory, yesterday, our resolution is to the effect that if the CBN governor is still out of the country, he can nominate a competent official of deputy Governor that can come and brief the House. Now, he’s still out of the country. He has nominated a deputy Governor to come and brief the House as per our resolution. So, what he has done is in consonance with the resolution that was passed by this House. We should allow the deputy governor to come and brief the House. We are only interested in the facts, not the personality.  In that sense, we should allow resolution to stand”, he said.