For blocking bank accounts of #ENDSARS protesters against court order and managing the economy badly, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has demanded the resignation of the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele.
PDP further accused Emefiele of going against the ruling of a competent court by blocking the bank account of some Nigerians on the pretext that they were promoters of the EndSARS protest.
In a statement by its Spokesperson, Kola Ologbondiyan on Tuesday, the main opposition Party said that after an extensive review of the abysmally poor state of the Nigerian economy in the last five years, Emefiele, should step aside and allow more competent and less partisan hand to manage the affairs of the apex bank so as to rescue the nations economy from going comatose.
Said the statement: “Our position is further predicated on the fact that a CBN Governor ought to have the competence and courage to offer and implement sound economic policies and check financial excesses, particularly in a situation where the President is not demonstrating a capacity to effectively run a national economy or check corruption and financial recklessness as being witnessed in our country under President Buhari.
“It is very distressing that the CBN under Emefiele, has allowed itself to be bogged down by the repression, corruption and partisanship that pervade the Buhari administration with the resultant plunging of our nation into an avoidable economic recession and untold hardship in the last five years”.
PDP expressed shock that the CBN abandoned its statutory roles and instead, engaged in vindictive clampdown on accounts of private businessmen and refused to lift such clampdown despite the ruling of court of competent jurisdiction.
“It equally scandalous that the CBN is also engaging punitive freezing of bank accounts of Nigerians for participating in the genuine and peaceful EndSARS protests, at a time it should be galvanizing efforts for solutions to the myriads of economic challenges facing our nation presently.
“Such partisan action by the CBN, which had been widely rejected as an act of victimization to economically suffocate Nigerians for calling for good governance, respect for human rights, end to police brutality and manifest slide to lawlessness, is already threatening the stability of our banking sector” PDP stated.
Ologbondiya’s statement said that Nigerians have threatened to close their accounts and boycott financial transactions with some of commercial banks over the matter.
PDP said that the nation cannot afford another round of restiveness, particularly relating to our banking and finance sector, as such will not augur well with the struggling national economy at this time.
“A responsive Central Bank should by now be interested in offering urgent strategies that will buoy up the value of our naira, which has fallen to a devastating N476 to a dollar, thereby wrecking the purchasing power of our citizens under its watch.
“The CBN should rather be thinking of ways to improve on our gross domestic produce (GDP), curb rising inflation, check the deplorable depletion of our foreign reserves, end the reckless borrowing by the Buhari administration; a situation that has produced a debt burden of N31 trillion; as well as the ongoing mortgaging of our sovereignty to foreign interests.
“In fact, under this CBN, with the projected N5.2 trillion borrowing already proposed in the 2021 budget, our nation’s debt will hit a calamitous N36.2 trillion, needless to say that this will plunge our nation into a bottomless pit of economic depression”.
The opposition Party holds that the pandering to partisan and parochial action by the CBN is also responsible for the erosion of investors’ confidence and the dearth of foreign direct investment into our country, leading to a crisis situation in our economy.