Business
WHO IS AFRAID OF GODWIN EMEFIELE?
WHO IS AFRAID OF GODWIN EMEFIELE?
HE’S NOT EVEN SNEEZING AND J
kTHEY ARE CATCHING THE COLD! J
STATEMENT BY FRIENDS
OF GOVERNOR EMEFIELE
In the past few weeks, there have been media reports on the purported interest of the Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, in the 2023 presidential race, leading to stampede by interested parties and vested interests who are resorting to all sorts of blackmail, sponsored articles and choreographed comments on socialmedia targeted at tainting Godwin Emefiele’s image, impugning his character and legacy.
Clearly, the negative attacks are being sponsored by those who see Emefiele as a major threat to their political ambition. Truth is Godwin Emefiele has not confirmed to anyone he is running for President even as he is constitutionally qualified to do so; he has been under pressure in the past few weeks as different groups have been putting up unsolicited campaign for his candidacy. Only yesterday, as the speculation became widespread, a group of his friends under the aegis of FRIENDS OF GODWIN EMEFIELE met with him to clarify his position.
Here is what he told us –
- That he remains focused on his job and will continue supporting the Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government’s economic recovery drive;
- That in his career trajectory, right from his days as a young banker, he never asked, nor lobbied for a job- he was invited by the Board of Directors to be the Chief Executive Officer/Group Managing Director of ZenithBank as he was an integral part of the team, Led by founder Jim Ovia, that transformed Zenith Bank from a start-up to one of Africa’s largest banks with subsidiaries in Ghana, Sierra Leone, Gambia, South Africa, Dubai, China and the United Kingdom;
- In 2014, President Goodluck Jonathan tapped him to be the CBN Governor, a job he didn’t lobby for and in which his name was not among those being considered at that time. He was not even from the geo-political zone that most people thought the job would go to as the president then was from same geopolitical zone with him;
- Today he remains humbled by President Muhammadu Buhari’s decision to grant him an unprecedented second term as CBN Governor- again without lobbying. Thus he will continue to remain loyal to him and the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
- Emefiele told us that he believes it’s the prerogative of President Muhammadu Buhari to plan his succession in line with global best practices for good governance for the continuing peace and progress of the federal republic of Nigeria, as such he will play his part to stabilise the economy for an orderly transition.
- And given that it’s God that anoints leaders, he will leave his faith firmly in the hands of God.
- With these fundamental questions settled, it is imperative to address some of the lies and utter falsehood being pedaled by blackmailers and political jobbers. Who Godwin Emefiele as a threat to their ambition.
FROM BEGINNING AS CBN GOVERNOR
Indeed, when Emefiele assumed the position of the CBN Governor in June 2014, his task was huge, the challenges seemingly insurmountable. Today despite huge headwinds he has calmed the waters and put Nigeria back on the path of growth.
SHARP FALL IN CRUDE OIL PRICE
As you will recall there was a sharp fall in crude oil prices from 2015, which led to significant revenue shortfalls in Nigeria where crude oil represents about 95 per cent of Nigeria’s export revenue. This created major shock for the Nigerian economy, leading to a 13-month recession in 2016. In comparison to the previous years before Emefiele became the CBN governor, the average price of crude oil from 2010 to 2014 was over $100/barrel and this fell to some $30 / barrel with high production costs of some $25/barrel. Despite these challenges Emefiele’s monetary policies supported the Buhari administration and all 36 State governments, ensuring salaries were paid and much more was done, with much less, in infrastructure, steering Nigeria away from much worse outcomes while many oil producers like Kuwait, Russia, Angola and Brunei had longer lasting recessions between of 20 – 60 months.
COVID-19 INDUCED GLOBAL RECESSION
Critics must also understand that the second recession the country entered into in 2020 was as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Then, the global economy (Nigeria inclusive) was plunged into recession because of the pandemic which was unprecedented. It led to declines in economic activities and lockdown across the world Countries like the USA had GBP falling in 2020 by MINUS 31% in Q2, UK by MINUS 19.4% in Q2, EU by MINUS 14.1% in Q2 and Nigeria , with deft response of the CBN had MINUS 6.1% in Q2. As we all know the CBN supported fiscal authorities in the following areas.
N100 billion health sector credit facility for operators in the sector. Today, Nigeria boasts of two world-class cancer centres in Lagos and medical tourism has reduced.
- A one-year extension of a moratorium on principal repayments for CBN intervention facilities;
- The reduction of the interest rate on intervention loans from 9 percent to 5 percent;
- Strengthening of the Loan to Deposit ratio policy (i.e. stepped up enforcement of directive to extend more credit to the private sector);
- Creation of N400 billion target credit facility for affected households and small and medium enterprises; •Granting regulatory forbearance to banks to restructure terms of facilities in affected sectors;
- Improving FX supply to the CBN by directing oil companies and oil servicing companies to sell FX to the CBN rather than the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation;
- Additional NGN100 billion intervention fund in healthcare loans to pharmaceutical companies and healthcare practitioners intending to expand/build capacity;
- Identification of few key local pharmaceutical companies that will be granted funding facilities to support the procurement of raw materials and equipment required to boost local drug production.
- N1 trillion in loans to boost local manufacturing and production across critical sectors;
DEVELOPMENTAL-ORIENTEDCENTRAL BANKER
But despite the challenges, the CBN under Emefiele has in the last seven years maintained a developmental- oriented approach in supporting the federal government to address challenges across various sectors of the economy and has initiated far-reaching reforms.
RICE PYRAMID
One issue the critics have continued to raise is the issue of the rice pyramid which was recently unveiled in Abuja. But these arm chair critics have failed to understand that through the Anchor Borrowers7 Programme (ABP), an initiative that was introduced by the Emefiele-led CBN, the lives of a lot of rural farmers have been transformed. The rice pyramid which had taken place previously in Minna, Kebbi, Gombe, Ekiti and Abuja, showed how Emefiele has used agriculture to support the federal governments wars on insecurity. The rice pyramids were build bag by bag in all the states the programme had been launched since December 2020, when it was first launched in Minna, Niger State. The programme held last month to unveil the world’s largest rice pyramid in Abuja was also an initiative of the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN).
ANCHOR BORROWERS7 PROGRAMME
The ABP has been described as a major agricultural breakthrough and a source of pride to the country, as farmers, especially rice farmers, have continued to count gains under the scheme. The programme has increased banks7 finance to the agricultural sector and enhanced capacity utilisation of agricultural firms. From an average yield of 1.8 metric tonnes per hectare in the pre-ABP era, the initiative has increased the country’s average yield per hectare for rice paddy and maize to about five metric tonnes per hectare.
REDUCTION IN IMPORT BILL
Additionally, there has been a significant reduction in the country’s rice import bill, from a monstrous $1.05 billion prior to November 2015, to the current figure of $18.50 million, annually.
TAMING COVID-19
The disruption caused by the COVID-19, which also contributed to the significant drop in the price of crude oil exposed the economy’s weak underbelly. In Nigeria, the Emefiele-led CBN acted swiftly, almost when the first case broke out in the country, by unveiling a raft of policy initiatives aimed at reducing the adverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy.
CACOVID
Emefiele also spearheaded the creation of the Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID), an initiative that brought all the private sector business leaders under an umbrella in the fight against the spread of the pandemic. This was why in its latest Article IV Consultation released in February 2022, the International Monetary Fund praised Nigeria’s effort in fighting the spread of the virus.
OTHERS
There are many other measures announced by the CBN Governor which will be detailed in due course like the support to Technology, Digital innovation, the Creative Industries and the 15 Trillion Infrastructure corporation recently launched.
- CONCLUSION
Apparently, those behind the sponsored negative reports are afraid of Emefiele’s towering personality and service to Nigeria. But they must understand that he cannot be stampeded any way. He is focused on delivering the mandate of the Central Bank; he is rebuilding The economy of the country through import substitution policies and using agriculture to create a new rural middle class from ground up. . Those who continue to criticise the rice pyramid are too ashamed of giving glory to whom it is due. Emefiele is focused on his unfinished job and should not be distracted.
Signed
Friends of Godwin Emefiele
NNPCL and Corruption’s Final Throes
By Pius Olasanmi
In the twilight of the Obasanjo administration, when Nigerians were still capable of being outraged, when Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) of refineries was a buzzword that still held some mysticism to bamboozle citizens, during a conversation, a certain man said something profound. The man said, “As a businessman, if I were the owner of these refineries, knowing that they are three decades old, I would take the last money I have, hire bulldozers, raze them to the ground, and obtain loans to build new ones.”
When we pressed him further on why he would engage in such waste, he explained that repairing the refineries is the real waste. He explained that even if the TAM were honestly carried out, a thirty-year-old refinery would never compete favourably with a new one that would integrate contemporary technology. Operating at its best, such a refinery would never be comparatively more efficient. It is therefore pointless to have spent another one naira on the refineries at that point.
A few months later, I had a conversation with a then-lawmaker on an entirely different matter. I mentioned that the National Assembly has failed by not crafting legislation that would criminalise and punish public office holders who foist wrong decisions on the country. The logic: a public office holder need not steal to be punished, wrong decisions should attract penalties for an office holder who opts for the worst of all options when there are less injurious ones.
These established premises speak to the ongoing nauseating efforts at revisionism by those who wrecked the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and its previous iteration, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Notably, this campaign to rewrite history is traceable to Engineer Mele Kolo Kyari, the disgraced immediate past Chief Executive Officer of NNPCL and his hirelings. They have suffocated the news and the public opinion space with even more lies than they spun while in office.
The Saint Kyari campaign is anchored on convincing Nigerians that the Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna Refineries were fully functional when he was booted out of office. So brazen is the campaign that one of its talking heads challenged the group chief executive officer (GCEO), Engr. Bayo Ojulari, to “inform Nigerians categorically what happened to the functioning refineries he inherited from his predecessor, Engr. Mele Kyari.” The effrontery.
We have not forgotten so soon the charade that followed the baffling claim that Nigeria has spent $2.8 billion on the repair of the refineries, while they are not churning out even a single litre of refined product among them. Saint Kyari and his goons played all manner of tricks, all of which embarrassed President Bola Tinubu, who had counted on ticking off the return to productivity of the refineries as part of his achievements, only to realise that he was deceived into celebrating phantoms. Tragic.
Lest we forget, 200 trucks were arranged as props in a well-directed video clip to celebrate the re-streaming of the Port Harcourt Refinery. The disappointment. Nigerians were to learn from several reports that the Port Harcourt refinery was not producing and was instead using old, stored petroleum products to load trucks. Worse still, the Kyari crew was passing off sanction-tainted Russian-sourced crude oil refined in Malta as locally refined products. More insult was piled on the assault on our collective sensibility with the lies that the Port Harcourt Refinery exported semi-finished products. Brazen.
Meanwhile, Kyari and his hirelings called those who pointed out or protested these glaring scams all manner of names. They hid behind industry technicalities and jargon to create the impression that those of us who knew Nigerians were being robbed did not understand what we were saying. The point remains that a $2.8 billion investment can potentially build a refinery with a capacity of around 100,000 barrels per day (bpd). Of course, the actual capacity of such a refinery will depend on various factors, including the complexity of the refinery, the technology used, and the location. That is the amount that Kyari’s regime at the NNPCL took and did not give Nigerians refined products.
Fast forward to Kyari’s sack and the appointment of Engineer Bayo Ojulari, who has demonstrated that things can indeed be done differently. Kyari’s exit was expectedly followed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) going after him and his associates. The extent of the theft is better understood against the backdrop of N80 billion being found in the bank account of one of his associates. They went on the run.
Perhaps because the EFCC was biding its time on securing international warrants for the arrests of these characters on the lam, they have become emboldened. They have decided to fight back and rewrite the story of their participation in the greatest fraud against Nigerians. Engineer Ojulari’s renewed mindset, which is entrenching a semblance of the transparency Nigerians demand, became their natural target. The demons that once roamed around the corporation came out with malevolence. They started spinning stories of corruption to tarnish the incumbent who refused to hide their crimes. The objective: bring Ojulari down. But alas, he is winning the war as it stands.
His innocence is proven, and it is glaring that those who want him out are mere charlatans who can no longer ply their corrupt wares because of the impact of the new reforms. Corruption in the NNPCL is in its final throes. The fake news being unleashed against the incumbent leadership is akin to corruption’s last kicks as reforms in the sector strangulate it and its practitioners. The reforms must take place in the NNPCL, whether the industry demons like it or not.
As a parting shot, Kyari and his associates would do well to prepare their defence. In addition to accounting for the $2.8 billion they laundered in the name of repairing the moribund refineries, they must also answer for the poor decision to fix that which is irretrievably broken. Awarding contracts for Turn Around Maintenance of 59-year-old refineries that a right-thinking person had suggested should be demolished almost twenty years ago, when they were only 30 years old, is criminal. Trying to deceive Nigerians that the fake repairs worked is treason.
Olasanmi is a public affairs analyst writing from Lagos.
GRANDIS 5STAR LUXURY APARTMENT & SUITES SET TO REDEFINE LIVING IN VICTORIA ISLAND
Set to Rise elegantly against the Lagos skyline, is the Grandis 5Star Luxury Apartment & Suites. According to Adejuwon Ademola, The General Manager of the Development company, it is more than just a residential building
“it’s a lifestyle statement. Standing 17 floors high in the heart of Victoria Island, this revolutionary masterpiece of modern architecture will offer a panoramic 360° view of Eko Atlantic, Victoria Island, and Ikoyi, transforming every apartment into an exclusive penthouse experience for the world’s most discerning elite.”
Developed by Dumarco Construction Limited, a globally acclaimed company with decades of delivering complex, high-value projects in the highly regulated petroleum, oil, and gas industries, Grandis 5Star brings unmatched international safety standards, uncompromising quality, and timeless elegance into Nigeria’s luxury property market.
> “When you live in Grandis, you’re not just buying a home—you’re investing in peace of mind, world-class safety, and an effortless luxury experience that will remain pristine for decades,” says Adejuwon A. Ademola, General Manager of Dumarco Construction Limited.
The Gold Standard in Safety and Quality
Dumarco’s roots in the oil and gas sector mean the company operates to some of the strictest safety protocols in the world. Every stage—from conceptualization, design, construction, to long-term maintenance—follows internationally accepted procedures and quality assurance measures. Cutting corners is simply not in Dumarco’s vocabulary.
> “In the oil and gas industry, there’s no room for compromise. We’ve brought that same discipline and zero-tolerance for mediocrity into property development,” says Ademola. “That’s why Grandis will be one of the safest and most enduring residential developments in Nigeria.”
To ensure transparency and prevent (project complacency), Dumarco deliberately separates the developer, contractor, and consultant roles, engaging only the most competent professionals in each respective field. Dumarco’s project team includes globally recognized contractors such as Julius Berger, Cappa & D’Alberto, and Elalan, Migliore Construczione & Tecniche (MC&T) and their partners VENCO IMTIAZ CONTRACTING COMPANY (VICC) based in Dubai, UAE, Business Contracting Limited, alongside leading consultants like Morgan Omanitan & Abe, LAMBERT, and James Cubitt.
Grandis – Investments, appreciation, returns and profitability
Our selection process for the location of the project alone was pains-taking and completely thorough scientific process. Top professional companies were employed to conduct a scientific data acquisition and analytical survey of the entire Victoria Island, Ikoyi, Lekki and Eko Atlantic before a project site is selected. Analyzing and acquiring areas developmental charts and trends, studying and gathering historical and present sale prices, rental charge and occupancy rates over a 50 year period from every individual street before the selection of the location of any of our developments especially true for the Grandis Project
He adds,
“Our clients and residents can be rest assured that the location of Grandis has been scientifically proven through all existing data to provide our clients with a 100% occupancy rate, highest developmental location, highest rental income and investment returns. ”
The Grandis Experience
Located minutes away from international corporate headquarters, embassies, and landmarks such as Eko Hotel, Radisson Blu, and the Radisson Red, Grandis offers unmatched convenience for professionals, diplomats, and high-net-worth individuals. Every residence is designed for both indulgence and efficiency, with high-grade finishes, smart-home systems, and private amenities that ensure seamless living.
From sunrise over the Atlantic to the glittering Lagos night skyline, residents will enjoy uninterrupted luxury, supported by discreet and highly trained staff, advanced security systems, and a design that prioritizes comfort and privacy.
> “We designed Grandis for people who want everything—security, elegance, convenience, and the assurance that their home will look as spectacular in 20 years as it does on day one,” Ademola notes.
A Legacy That Lasts
With its combination of visionary architecture, peerless safety, and meticulous maintenance planning, Grandis is built to remain iconic for generations. Thanks to Dumarco’s meticulous approach, the building’s service charges are expected to remain low while its value and appeal continue to appreciate over time.
In a market often marred by shortcuts and substandard practices, Mr Ademola says
Grandis stands as a beacon of what luxury living should be—safe, spectacular, and built to last.
“Grandis 5Star Luxury Apartment & Suites — Where safety meets sophistication, and every detail is designed for a life well-lived.”
He added
Website -www.dumarcoltd.com
Project website – www.26idowutaylor.com
Email [email protected]
Tel / WhatsApp +234 9077777883
GM – Adejuwon A. Ademola
celebrity radar - gossips
Nationwide Talent, One Broadcaster: Tinubu Picks Pedro, Bello, Din, Mohammed to Lead NTA
-
society5 months agoRamadan Relief: Matawalle Distributes Over ₦1 Billion to Support 2.5 Million Zamfara Residents
-
Politics2 months agoNigeria Is Not His Estate: Wike’s 2,000‑Hectare Scandal Must Shake Us Awake
-
society4 months agoBroken Promises and Broken Backs: The ₦70,000 Minimum Wage Law and the Betrayal of Nigerian Workers
-
society3 months agoOGUN INVESTS OVER ₦2.25 BILLION TO BOOST AQUACULTURE