The Central Bank of Nigeria’s Director in charge of Corporate Communications, Mr Isaac Okorafor, has dispelled rumours suggesting that the CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, has been sacked.
In a quick phone interview, Mr Okorafor emphasised that nothing of such has taken place because the CBN Governor “is still in his office working.”
Other sources close to the situation in Abuja also confirmed that Mr Emefiele has not been sacked. According to a particular source who was not named, the CBN Governor’s tenure will expire in June. And he has a whole lot of functions to attend between now and then.
“There is nothing like that, the governor is here, his tenure expires in June. In fact, he has functions to attend to tomorrow, one of which is to meet with stakeholders in the cotton value chain on Tuesday, March 5, (today).”
Recall that unconfirmed reports circulated yesterday, suggesting that Mr Emefiele had been sacked by the presidency and given two weeks to vacate his seat for someone else.
The news elicited many responses from Nigerians, some of whom wondered if President Muhammadu Buhari had just helped his opponent (Alhaji Atiku Abubakar) to fulfil his electoral promise to get rid of the CBN boss.
In the meantime, Emefiele’s future as CBN Governor is uncertain
As mentioned above, Mr Emefiele’s first term as CBN Governor will expire in June. Normally, he could aim for a second and final term in office. But the possibility of this happening is very slim. After all, no CBN Governor has done more than one term since 1999 when Nigerian returned to democratic governance.
As we reported last week, there are already about eight people vying to replace Mr Emefiele as Governor of Nigeria’s apex bank. One of them is Mrs Aishah Ahmad, who is currently a Deputy Governor at the CBN.
