Former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Kingsley Moghalu, has criticised how the President Bola Tinubu administration is handling investigations into the activities of the immediate past leadership of the apex bank under Godwin Emefiele.
In a thread made on his X account on Sunday, Mr Moghalu argued that the federal government has not treated the investigation with the sensitivity it requires leaving more circumspect members of the public to doubt several reports that have surfaced on social media in regard to the bank’s investigation.
Mr Moghalu also contended that the report improperly became the subject of public discourse, revealing vital details of the investigation and recommendations of Special Investigator Jim Obaze before the presidency had ample time to review it or publicly speak about it.
“The “report” has no signature appended, so we can’t assume it is the real and official report.
“Assuming it is, in fact, the real report, it’s wrong for such a sensitive report to have “leaked” to the public before the President and his government have reviewed and spoken to it. This is because the “report” talks of “chargeable offences” and mentions specific individuals it recommends to be prosecuted in addition to Emefiele,” he wrote.
Mr Moghalu decried the investigation as a media trial which could, in several measures, disregard the constitutional rights of the subjects.
“This is a media trial and prejudices the rights of these individuals named or referred to. This is NOT how a report into the Central Bank of Nigeria should be handled,” he wrote.
Mr Moghalu was the presidential candidate of the Young Progressives Party (YPP) in 2019 and an aspirant for the presidential ticket of the Action Democratic Congress (ADC) in 2023. At both times of his contest, he had spotlighted radical fiscal and monetary reforms as critical to repositioning the country’s downward spiralling economy.
In his commentary, Mr Moghalu argues that the general disposition of the current administration towards the report has paved way for sensationalism, which could ripple back as damage to the country’s image and the foremost banking institution.
“The central bank of any country is a very sensitive institution, and confidence (or the lack of it) in the institution has practical consequences on the ground for Nigeria’s economy.
“As much as the Bank and its leaders ought to be accountable for their official actions, we must consider the continuing damage this kind of sensationalism (which, knowing our country, nothing much is likely to come of it at the end of the day) does to Nigeria’s economy, image, and the institution of the CBN itself. When it comes to law, allegations are simply allegations unless and until proven in a court of law,” he wrote.
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