SAN FRANCISCO, December 04, (THEWILL) – The Arewa Young Lawyers Forum Sunday rebuked its President, Sadiq Ilelah for calling for the removal of Mr. Godwin Emefiele as Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), saying the president’s call does not represent the position of the group.
A statement signed by Usman Muhammad Ali, Secretary of the association said the call by Ilelah, which gave President Muhammadu Buhari two weeks to remove Emefiele from office over the poor state of the nation’s economy, did not get the blessing or approval of majority of the forum. The forum called an emergency session to deliberate on Ilelah’s call and resolved to reject it, the Secretary said.
The statement said: “Our attention have been drawn to a publication in Daily Trust and People Daily Newspaper on the 1 Dec 2016 and also in the Authority newspaper on the 2 Dec 2016. The publication was signed by our president Barr Sadiq Ilelah.
“This necessitated an emergency executive council meeting of Arewa Young Lawyers Forum. Thus we met in Kaduna to evaluate the whole thing and resolved as follows. That the press release issued by the president of the Forum in respect of the economic situation in the country talking about the role played by the Central Bank Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, to harness our economic potential or otherwise in which an ultimatum of two weeks is given is an independent opinion of Barr Sadiq Abubakar Ilelah. It lacks the input nor the blessing of the majority of the executive members of Arewa Young Lawyers Forum.
“Besides, the forum is at the point of consultation and collation of data on the same issue. Therefore it’s not time yet to jump into conclusions and indictment. We are now busy with our investigation trying to establish with certainty the persons and institutions responsible for our economic woes. To this end, the forum has decided that the CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele is not indicted neither the Central Bank guilty as at yet. Until then the statement issued by the president of the forum, remains his personal opinion.”
Nigeria is facing its worst financial crisis in over two decades following the fall in the price of crude oil, which accounts for over 70 percent of its budget and its foreign reserves is believed to be around $25 billion.
Emefiele, who took office in June 2014, insists his policies, which is basically promoting local manufacturing and weaning Nigerians off dependence on imports, will get the nation out of the woods.
He blamed his predecessors – Professor Charles Soludo and Emir Muhammadu Sanusi – for wasting over $60 billion that should have been saved when crude topped $100 per barrel.
