In silent desperation, echoes of which manifest only in sleepless nights and long days, and frantic solicitation that totters on even blackmail, Gowin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, is caught between going against the directive of his boss, President Muhammadu Buhari, or risking his wrath and any eventuality to raise money for the rescheduled presidential election especially.
Last January, President Buhari who is seeking a second term in office, said, “As political parties spread their ideologies and views to every nook and corner of the country, the issue of cash payment to voters and its corrupting influence in electioneering has once again become a topical issue. Try and use text and multi-media messages to seek votes for the party and government. There is no money from the treasury for use in the campaigns. I will not authorize that.” He added, “This message needs to be taken to all Nigerians but we cannot use money from the treasury to share out to prospective voters.
Nigerians want change and we alone can deliver that change. Our people can no longer be swayed by money politics.” The declaration is in tandem with the president’s anti-corruption stance. But it is a dilemma for the political class. In 2015, the CBN, under Emefiele, had, by now, reportedly flung open the vaults for the failed bid of Goodluck Jonathan to get a second term in office. Emefiele can’t do likewise this time. Yet, the bulk of how the campaign organisation of the president would source for money stops at his table.
It was out of this desperation, according to sources, that Emefiele called an emergency meeting of the CBN directors recently. According to the sources, the major agenda of the meeting was how to raise N60billion, which the directors pointedly refused to be a part of for fear of the election going the way of the opposition People’s Democratic Party, PDP’s Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. At the time Emefiele and the former administration were having a field day, they never reckoned that the All Progressives Congress, APC, would upset the apple cart.
Yet, the Presidential Campaign Organisation is in dire need of cash considering that the presidential election was rescheduled from its original February 16th date to February 23rd. When he could not have his way at the CBN, Emefiele, sources within the apex bank said, has desperately sought the help of managing directors of banks, asking them for a quick loan of N5billion each, with the proviso that it would be paid back within one month. This column has been unable to verify if the CBN governor succeeded in raising the cash from the bank MDs.
