The recent poorly implemented and coordinated naira redesign policy is just one of the actions taken by the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, that have caused untold hardships for millions of Nigerians and put the country in a comatose state.
According to our investigations, Emefiele was also involved in a number of dirty schemes, including economic sabotage, terrorism financing, and acts of corruption while serving as the head of the country’s central bank.
This report exposes, for the first time, the dubious and messy schemes involving Emefiele as CBN Governor, many of which are detrimental to the nation’s socioeconomic and political interests.
Recall that PREMIUM TIMES exposed State Security Service (SSS) allegations against Emefiele as the principal financier of the notorious “unknown gunmen” and members of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB)’s operations since 2017.
QUEST TIMES reveals in this report some of Emefiele’s controversial schemes in furtherance of his political interests as CBN governor.
The Agbor connection and “Meffy racket”
The Agbor connection is woven throughout all of this. According to Yusuf Babangida Sulaiman, a member of the Kano State House of Assembly, Emefiele’s entire actions as CBN chief are rife with nepotism, corruption, and shady political ambitions.
Sulaiman commented on his role in the naira redesign saga, saying, “We see the invisible hands of Godwin Emefiele as he seeks to perfect the path for his kinsman Sen. Ifeanyi Okowa, who, like Emefiele, hails from Ika, Agbor axis, Delta State, to become vice president of Nigeria under the PDP.”
Our sources at the CBN confirmed that Emefiele is known for unwaveringly supporting his Agbor kin and doing their bidding at the apex bank. They claimed that the naira scarcity was being used to promote his relatives, including Delta state Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, who ran for vice president under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Nigeria’s recently concluded presidential election.
In January, Okowa was said to have used his powers to protect Emefiele from the DSS. Since then, he has been guarded by a team of Nigerian soldiers assigned to him by the Chief of the Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor, who is also from Agbor.
Emefiele had always relied on Nduka Obaigbena, another Agbor native and media owner, to launder his schemes. Obaigbena allegedly coordinated the infamous “Meffy racket,” a well-funded syndicate analogous to the famous DasukiGate, a huge scandal involving the former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki during the 2015 elections.
Obaigbena is the owner of ThisDay and Arise News. Throughout the naira scarcity crisis, both media platforms ran editorials in support of Emefiele under the guise of “CBN independence” when some state governors sued the Federal Government over the CBN’s clearly failed currency redesign policy. Indeed, on January 27, ThisDay ran one of its pro-Emefiele headlines, “In Battle Against Independent Monetary Policy, House Threatens Emefiele,” implying that his position was correct.
Since 2017, this ring has been accused of being involved in a number of foreign exchange scandals.
Emefiele’s repeated ambushes on Buhari
Emefiele’s initial appointment by former President Goodluck Jonathan in February 2014 was controversial, especially since it came just hours after the suspension of his predecessor, Sanusi Lamido, as CBN governor. Emefiele previously worked as the managing director of Zenith Bank, which was founded by Jim Ovia, another Agbor native from Delta state.
After President Jonathan lost the 2015 presidential election, it was widely assumed that the eventual winner and current president, Muhammadu Buhari, would either fire Emefiele or not re-appoint him for another term in 2019. With this in mind, Emefiele set about devising a number of schemes to ambush the retired army general.
One of the schemes he concocted was to fund agriculture-related projects such as nomadic herdsmen through the CBN’s Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) to boost livestock production at a time when the debate over open grazing was raging. This scheme was allegedly riddled with corruption which led the House of Representatives to set up an ad hoc committee to investigate the N100billion said to have been disbursed by the CBN to states to “build ‘mini’ cattle ranches across the country”.
According to a CBN source, the policies were part of “Meffy’s techniques to appease Northern cabals to re-appoint him for a second term, knowing they may not be pleased with the fate that befell their kinsman, Lamido, who was then the powerful Emir of Kano.”
Emefiele relied heavily on Obaigbena, his kinsman and media owner, for critical public relations services in carrying out so many of his schemes. Obaigbena allegedly coordinates the infamous “Meffy racket”.
The CBN governor is also said to have used ethno-religious blackmail in his bid to be reappointed in 2019. After the president was re-elected, one source said, “Meffy did not know what his status was anymore with the Aso Rock cabal,” so he needed a completely new technique.
Emefiele’s preferred route to the Presidential Villa was said to be via late Isa Funtua, who was ill at the time. Panic broke out in the CBN governor’s office, with Emefiele’s reappointment potentially jeopardized. According to our sources, Emefiele was never on the good side of late Abba Kyari, the immediate past Chief of Staff to the President, who was adamantly opposed to his reappointment. In fact, Kyari was said to be actively looking for a replacement for Emefiele in 2017. His access to President Buhari’s other close associates, such as Mamman Daura and Babagana Kingibe, was limited.
To ensure his reappointment, he launched a covert campaign claiming that Buhari would not reappoint him due to his ethnic or political affiliations. In a well-funded and coordinated campaign, he recruited social media influencers such as Jackson Ude, who runs a disreputable online news platform known for defaming highly placed public officials. The campaign’s main narrative was to accuse Buhari of having an “anti-Igbo agenda” at a time when IPOB separatism was at its peak.
IPOB’s top leadership had also gotten involved. IPOB claimed in one of its broadcasts that Buhari would not re-appoint Emefiele because “he hates Igbo; whether you are from Agbor or elsewhere,” at a time when Ibe Kachikwu, who hails from Onicha-Ugbo, near Agbor, was not re-appointed Minister of Petroleum Resources.
Our sources confirm that he agreed to covert funding for IPOB during this period as part of his political schemes involving high-level proxies.
He also attempted, but failed, to hoodwink President Buhari into endorsing him as his preferred candidate in the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential primary elction in June 2022.