Emefiele: Lost but found

It’s difficult to dismiss the stories around the disappearance and reappearance of the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, as just another spark from our hyperactive rumour mill. The Department of State Services had, in December 2022, filed a suit at the Federal High Court Abuja for authorisation to arrest him over wild allegations of terrorism financing […]

It’s difficult to dismiss the stories around the disappearance and reappearance of the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, as just another spark from our hyperactive rumour mill. The Department of State Services had, in December 2022, filed a suit at the Federal High Court Abuja for authorisation to arrest him over wild allegations of terrorism financing and economic crimes. These were frightening charges, especially because the accused had had the ears of the president and had, thus, seemed to have enjoyed immunity to perceived witch-hunts.  

In rejecting the application, the court pointed out that the DSS, in a clever move, failed to disclose Emefiele’s status or office in the application or the affidavit, compelling them to speculate whether it’s the CBN governor or a namesake, and then noted what’s in the mind of every Nigerian bystander: “an application of this kind should have evidence of the approval of the respondent’s boss, that such measures are authorised to be taken”. 

That the president’s authorisation wasn’t sought suggested that the DSS were after an interest other than that of the president, and whether theirs is the best for the nation is yet to be established. The Chief Judge of the Federal High Court Abuja, Justice John Tsoho, could see through the charade, that the court was being tricked into enabling and legitimising chaos. With or without a court order, the presiding judge said in his December 9, 2022 ruling, the DSS had the power to arrest Mr Emefiele if they had reasonable suspicion to do so, and that their resolve to seek the court’s arrest warrant to serve as a cover for an unusual and ambiguous procedure must be for lack of concrete evidence.  

Mr Emefiele went off the radar since then, deepening the climate of suspicion, and rumoured to have been on the run by the curious nation. For an institution that’s announced a critical monetary policy, the naira redesign, and promised to enforce it, the report that the man in charge of such controversy is missing stirred up certain feelings of foreboding. It also signals the return of familiar dabbling in a state matter. Such policing showmanship isn’t only needless, it could’ve been easily handled by either the presidency or the legislature.  

• ‘Some people using religion for economic, political agenda’
• Electoral offences you should know and their penalties

Mr  Emefiele’s predecessor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, also became a target of the DSS after alerting that $20 billion from the nation’s oil earnings was missing from the state’s coffers in 2014. The whistleblowing misadventure led to Mr Sanusi’s removal from office and, having had enough of the state-authorised harassment, he filed a suit to seek restraint from the police and the DSS from arresting, detaining or otherwise harassing him. In a counter-affidavit, the DSS filed in response to Mr Sanusi’s lawsuit, they accused him of terror financing, and cited that as the reason for impounding his international passport.  

Unlike Mr Sanusi who was at war with then President Goodluck Jonathan, the current CBN Governor doesn’t seem to have had a fallout with the president. When Mr Emefiele’s controversial Naira redesign policy was under attack, and opposed by the outraged public and the National Assembly, he found the support he desired from the president—and that quelled the antagonistic reactions to his policy.  

But the true proof of Mr Emefiele’s grace has to be his curious presidential aspiration. Venturing into politics in a fashion that alarmed the country while still occupying a sensitive high office could have only been with the blessings of the president, and that compromising ambition at the height of disastrous monetary policies reassured us of his place in Buhari’s government.  

Mr Emefiele came out of his hiding this week, the reports of his return have been contradicting. Reacting to the viral stories that DSS operatives had invaded the CBN headquarters to round up Mr Emefiele on Monday, the DSS spokesman, Peter Afunanya, dismissed the “false news making the rounds that its operatives invaded the Central Bank of Nigeria and arrested its governor” as “fake news and quite misleading.” 

But there seems to be another explanation, probably another spark from our rumour mill, as the reason the DSS couldn’t arrest Emefiele. The twist is alarming, and the most dangerous in this saga so far. Heads of the armed forces, according to reports, are out to stop the DSS from barking at the CBN governor. On January 17, the Daily Sun reported that the approval for the private jet that brought Mr Emefiele back to the country was secured by service chiefs, adding that “military men had been positioned… at the private wing of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos,“ which prevented any move by the DSS to attempt arresting the CBN governor.” 

However far we intend to write and dispense these stories, the most significant reality is that Emefiele has been found, and the first case before him at the court is, surprisingly, not from the DSS. “A Federal High Court in Abuja has summoned Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, to appear on Wednesday over a $53 million judgment debt arising from the Paris Club refunds,” Daily Trust reported on Tuesday, and that “The suit arose over an alleged $70 million judgment against Linas over the lawyer’s services in the Paris Club refund, which Emefiele was said to have released only $17 million, leaving an outstanding $53 million.” 

So, whether Emefiele’s return is from hiding, or annual leave as the apex bank’s spokesman announced to dispel the wild rumours and unexplained events, is immaterial. The bigger question now is, based on the allegations levelled against him and the brewing inter-agency war and the fact that there’s still a duly-elected president to whom all parties in the drama report, what next?