This did not start with him, it started with his predecessor the highly respected but sanely controversial Emir Sanusi. All of a sudden, the CBN Governor develops the messianic complex, wanting to solve all the problems of the country. With intervention funds, the Governor starts to intervene in areas, it does not have any constitutional right nor the capacity to intervene.
It has become so prevalent that whole regions have now started accusing this present Governor of marginalizing them regions in his movements like he was some sort of elected Official with a budget. Nigerians being what we are only watch and clap as the role of the CBN is being decimated and spread thin by activities that it was not set out to perform.
I have received the news of the CBN working with the Bankers committee plan to take over the National Theatre with the active support of the Lagos State Government . according to reports, it would be building an Entertainment Industrial Park with a princely sum of N22b or thereabout.
This totally saddens me because of the flagrant lose of focus by the CBN under this fella. If you look and if I am not wrong, the CBN’s constitutional role remains the supervision of Monetary and Fiscal policies of the Economy. Working with the economic team to ensure that the economy is on an even keel. But what we are seeing here is the CBN in its messianic tendencies usurping not only the roles of designated Ministries but also that of the private sector.
What we are seeing here now is regulatory economy coming in through the backdoor. While on the one hand, the Government is privatizing and commercializing. Pulling back from areas they have no business in to raise much needed cash for other areas of immediate exigency we now see the CBN on its part pulling Government and its famed inefficiency into the economy. Or how else are we going to explain this whopping sum that would be sunk into what is apparently a huge white elephant project.
Let me state it here very clearly, the entertainment industry by its very nature is self driven and can only be maximized if it is arrow headed by private initiative. It is even more critical because unlike other sectors, its currency is not physical but ideas and vision driven. When you now take red tape and those who only understand collateral to drive it what you wiil get is mud in the face and wasted resources.
This so-called industrial Park is a waste of time and would go the same way things like this have gone. The National Theatre that they would be throwing this money at was also born out of this kind of myopic thinking, today it is a huge albatross on our necks. Such edifices litter the Country all creating one sick derelict of our profligate existence. Much more recently, Ambode in Lagos built some theatres in his bid to encourage and support the industry, today they stand obsolete in their obscurity.
Please the CBN has no business in show business or any business for that matter. The best the Government can do is to promote the industry by throwing up practitioner friendly policies like copy right protection, level playing fields, support for lending to the infrastructural parts of the industry through the provision of soft loans, tax rebates amongst other such incentives. Direct involvement is a no go area and as been proven will lead to unmitigated disaster and if we are not careful mute the growing industry.
The industry has grown tremendously despite Government and its policies and what we are seeing is the Government struggling to catch up with regulation and this kind of thoughtless intervention. We have seen serious Nigerian Media entrepreneurs through their blood build globally recognized platforms using some very original Nigerian vision and ethos.
What is needed is definitely not a CBN driven by the euphoria of an unprecedented tenor renewal to distract genuine practitioners with half brained money guzzling ideas when paucity of funds continue to bedevil genuine practitioners.
Emefiele and his suits are better of focusing on the weakened economy and its attendant effects on standard of living and other indices of quality of Life instead of this macabre dance on hot coals in their bid to play to a much suffered gallery.
Mr. Duke Shomolu,
While i understand that you may personally have an issue with the CBN Governor Mr. Godwin Emefiele, journalistic integrity should prevail that you bring the other side of the argument against the CBN Governor. I am not a fan of the CBN Governor nor some of his policies but in my opinion the CBN deserves commendation for acting on its mandates to 1. Ensure Price & Monetary Stability and 2. To promote a sound financial system. Any economic/financial analyst worth his salt knows that without the CBN’s intervention in critical areas of the economy, the recession that Nigeria encountered and our subsequent recovery from that will have been far worse. Since 2015, when the President Muhammadu Buhari administration came into power, the CBN has been severely stressed to the point of breaking point in trying to maintain the economy. Any economy in the world stands on the twin structures of fiscal & monetary policy. But in Nigeria with a government that came in largely incompetent and unprepared for governance taking the government over 6 months to have a cabinet in place, the CBN has been the one shouldering the economy single handledly on its shoulders. With fiscal policy largely ineffective and poorly articulated, the Federal Govt has resorted to the CBN as 3. Banker and adviser to the Federal Government to intervene in critical situations just as with any commercial bank and its customers. Imagine the bail out to states, anchor borrowers program and other intervention programs and the effect on the economy and its citizens if the CBN had refused to help the Federal Government. The situation will have been chaos, the effect worse on the economy and the CBN will have failed in its mandates of ensuring price and monetary stability. I think the Federal Govt through the Minister of Finance are the ones supposed to be called out and made accountable for the present situation in the economy. The situation has gotten so bad in the economy that the DMB’s are refusing to lend credit to the real sector of the economy thereby hindering growth. But can you blame them, when the economy is largely under developed with huge infrastructural challenges hindering businesses from performing well. The CBN had to find creative means to increase the Loan to Deposit Ratio in order to enhance lending. Most of the major economic policies needed to stimulate the economy to grow are fiscal in nature and strictly in the purview of the Federal Government. Therefore, i feel that this is an unnecessary attack on the CBN and its governor and should be re-directed to the Federal Govt via Minister of Finance.
Interesting write up, but I beg to differ on a whole range of issues, from the theaters that were only commissioned last year which are far from obsolete or your comment that the entertainment industry doesn’t need funding or financial assistance from the central bank of Nigeria. I would assume you have little knowledge about the entertainment industry and also assume you have some other issues with the CBN governor.
He isn’t perfect, but I believe that with an economy that needs over 110 trillion annually invested over the next 10 years according to McKinsey’s report on Nigeria’s infrastructure deficit, the best the country can do is make certain key money-making industries more appealing for foreign direct investment.
If you were a moviemaker you wouldn’t be complaining about this CBN’s proposed intervention. I would also assume your core is maybe in finance, about the CBN’s official role, I wouldn’t say much, but I know it’s their duty to make sure as the bank of the country money is going to who needs it the most, and if the likes of Kunle Afolayan and Kemi Adetiba can make profit without the deep pockets of the country I guess they will do a lot better with the right funding from the government. We already have the market across Africa for our movies, so there isn’t anything wrong with scaling up investments in that area. I may agree with you that it should be handled by the right agencies so there is proper follow up within the chain of commands, but with the deficit in investment across the country I don’t think the CBN is out of order in taking the bull by the horn and trying to make do with what we have.
About the God-like persona didn’t see information about that aside you linking his to Sanusi.
It’s important to analyze but do it with more facts as figures. Nairametrics is about the metrics not just the biases of the writer. Love what you guys do, but please more professionality
I’m with the Duke on this one. We find it so easy losing focus of what is primary and chasing shadows. Government has no business being in business. It’s best investments are in properly evaluated social goods that serve as enablers. We would be way better off were government to stick to the basics: get competent hands, formulate complimentary policies aimed at clearly defined objectives, monitor implementation and ensure continuity even when governments change. Do this and you wouldn’t resort to panic mode; running pillar to post to stimulate consumption or generate revenue; travelling the world over looking for investors that eventually cant stay. Truth is government does not have an infinite capacity to do it all. You simply need to create the environment that encourages the private sector to play its role. This is the price weve been paying for politicising governance; we run all kinds of permutations ending up with the wrong people overseeing or supporting serious affairs.
God complex, hm! Well it is always possible if you know and understand what the name God is derived from.