Emefiele’s Political Naira redesign policy brings Hardship and poverty

“I would expect that the Acting CBN Governor would serve through the remaining months of the current tenure whilst we await the announcement of the next Governor, who expectedly would have a fine balance of market orientation, with some adaptation of regulatory controls that should keep markets at comfortable equilibrium.”

Unlike Dr. Death, Christopher Dunsch, a real-life Texas based surgeon who in 2017 killed nearly 40 patients he operated on between 2011 and 2013, Nigeria’s ex central bank governor, Godwin Emefiele, uses mortal monetary policy errors to ensnarl the vast majority of Nigerians in the dungeon of poverty.

Since Emefiele became the number one monetary policy officer of the nation in 2014, the country has undergone a recession, while a huge number of Nigerians have been living in pestilential squalor, which unfortunately, leaves President Tinubu and his team a herculean task of fixing a battered economy.

Of course, the single most important responsibility of the central government is ensuring price stability and thus contributing to economic development and financial stability.

However, Godwin Emefiele mortal errors are responsible for protracted price instability and economic downturn as red-hot inflation is stealing workers’ wages and disrupting asset prices.

A deep-witted sagacious central banker formulates policies that allures foreign investors so as to shore up the external reserves and magnify business activities and spur economic growth.

But Godwin Emefiele’ opaque, nebulous, and vague policies such as the ban on forty something items from the official widows of the Apex bank in a country of over 200 million without infrastructure to support local production and his inability to curb the foreign exchange crisis brought on by the precipitous drop in crude oil prices exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic eroded investors ‘confidence in Nigeria’s domestic economy as evidenced in a sharp drop in foreign direct investment (FDI).

FDI flows into the Nigerian economy dropped from $8.41 billion in the first quarter to $1.69 billion in the second quarter, accounting for a 80% decrease within three months, according to the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC).

The report had also revealed that the total value of investment interests in the first half of this year fell by $1.57 billion to $10.11 billion, compared with the value recorded in the second half of the previous year.

Nigeria’s inflation rate was 8.06 percent in 2014, and now it has skyrocketed to 24.61 percent in March 2023, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The harsh macroeconomic environment created by Godwin Emefiele has paralysed the manufacturing activities while companies are passing on rising input costs to consumers in the form of higher prices. In short, a lot of firms have closed shop while some have exited the country, a double whammy for a country reeling from high unemployment.

A multi-national consulting firm, KPMG, has said the Nigerian unemployment rate had increased to 37.7 per cent in 2022 and will further rise to 40.6 per cent, due to the continuing inflow of job seekers into the job market.

The number of Nigerians living in poverty stands at over 133 million, according to recent data from the NBS.

Buhari should have chastened Emefiele

Like a dog shaking off fleas, outgoing president Muhammadu Buhari should not have renewed Emefiele’s tenure in 2019, maybe that would have saved the country from this calamity.

Of course, some leaders chasten their economic advisers when there are no improvements in economic conditions or improvement in standard of living.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, had fired four central bank governors in the space of 4 year over high inflation and weak lira