CHIDI ANSELM ODINKALU FROM PREMIUM TIMES
In November 2017, it emerged that suspended Governor of Nigeria’s Central Bank, Godwin Emefiele, had significant interests in an off-shore company registered in Bermuda, which held an account with UBS in London. UBS is a multinational investment bank and financial services company with its headquarters in Basel and Zurich in Switzerland.
Disclosures released by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) in the Paradise Papers revealed that Mr. Emefiele owned 49% of Oviation Asset Management since 2009 and was a director in the company from January 2013.
According to The Guardian newspaper in London, “Oviation was part of a structure that imported two jets via the Isle of Man. The latest purchase, a $50m Gulfstream G550, arrived in November 2015. It replaced a $33m Gulfstream G450, imported in 2013.”
15 months before the import of the second Gulfstream, in June 2014, Mr. Emefiele became the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). In this capacity, he also chaired the board of the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting PLC, which is responsible for printing Nigeria’s currency.
Section 9 of the CBN Act of 2007 requires of both the Governor of the Central Bank and his deputies that they “shall devote the whole of their time to the service of the Bank and, while holding office, shall not engage in any full or part-time employment or vocation, whether remunerated or not, except such charitable causes as may be determined by the Board and which do not conflict with or conflict with their full-time duties.”
This prohibition places three constraints on the CBN Governor: one substantive, another procedural, and a third ethical. Substantively, it bars him from moonlighting in any other job or vocation, whether or not remunerated. Procedurally, he needs the approval of the Board of the CBN before taking on any role outside the bank. Implied in this is an obligation of full and honest disclosure on the part of the CBN Governor. As an (additional) ethical standard, the Act precludes the CBN Governor from putting himself in a position that conflicts with his full-time duties.
As the head of a “public corporation” (which the CBN is), Mr Emefiele, as CBN governor, is also subject to the Code of Conduct for senior public officers contained in the 5th Schedule to the Nigerian constitution, which imposes on him standards of conduct with reference to asset disclosure, acceptance of gifts and donations, and holding of overseas interests.
For Mr Emefiele, these standards were ornaments of convenience. Three years into his office as the CBN Governor, his interests in Oviation were still intact. Contacted by The Guardian for an explanation in November 2017, Mr Emefiele claimed that he “gave instructions for his shares to be handed back” to his former employers, a Nigerian bank, in 2014. For a central banker, this claim showed either a tendency for the cavalier or habit of casuistry.
On or about 4 May, 2022, Mr Emefiele was a guest of President Muhammadu Buhari in the presidency. The following day, some characters claiming to be armed Niger Delta militants endorsed Mr Emefiele for the presidential ticket of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), promising to lay down their arms if the party were to hand the ticket to him.
