…Also Balkachuwa As Appeal Court President
SAN FRANCISCO, March 26, (THEWILL) – Without any dissenting voice, the Senate on Wednesday confirmed the appointment of Godwin Emefiele as the substantive governor of the Central Bank Of Nigeria (CBN). He will replace the suspended governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, in June when his tenure will expire.
The senators also unanimously confirmed the appointment of Hon. Justice Zainab Balkachuwa as substantive President of the Appeal Court.
President Goodluck Jonathan had forwarded the names of Emefiele and Balkachuwa to the Senate for consideration and confirmation as CBN boss and Appeal Court President respectively
The Zenith boss ,Emefiele, was subjected to two hours of grilling by the senators during which he declared that contrary to some widely held opinion, the economy of the country is stable with $39bn in foreign reserves.
He maintained that there should be synergy between the CBN and the Ministry of Finance to achieve economic growth.
According to the banker, the core mandate of the CBN is to ensure that the country has a strong foreign reserve and maintain a healthy financial system, adding that the devaluation of the naira, should never be contemplated on account of the import dependent nature of the Nigerian economy.
“The Central Bank of Nigeria is the monetary authority whereas the Ministry of Finance is the fiscal authority. It is important that in their relationship, they must work in one direction. They must push in one direction. If we push in opposite directions what you will find is that we are not going to be able to achieve economic growth and development that we are talking about.
“It is important that both the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank move in one direction. If the decision is that we should pursue a conventional policy, both the Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance should be seen to move in one direction. So, we expect that there should be a collaborative relationship where they are both ready to work together for the common good of Nigerians,” he said.
Continuing, he said, “I will not spend any money in contravention of the law. I would plead that you allow me yield on the issue of monies because these matters are in the court and I don’t want to make any statement that would be seen to be subjudice.
“I think one of the core mandate of the Central Bank is to ensure that we maintain a legal tender and they must respect it and ensure that whatever need to be done so that our own Naira is used as a strong legal tender. I will take it as a primary responsibility to ensure that the attempt to dollarise the Nigerian economy is discouraged. We should not allow it, because it would create problem for the economy.
“I am aware that the core mandate of the Central Bank of Nigeria is to achieve the monetary and price stability. Another core mandate of the CBN is to ensure that we have a strong and build strong foreign reserve. We are also expected to ensure that we have a strong financial system in Nigeria. ”
On the employment problems in the country, he said decisions taken at Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will be those that will improve the dire unemployment crisis in the country
“On the back of this mandate, we would work very hard to ensure that we achieve macro-economic stability in this country where inflation rate shall be seen to continue to come down. Where interest rate shall be seen to continue to come down. And where we would as much as possible continue to maintain a strong exchange rate for the country and build a strong foreign reserve.
“We would ensure that if approved, that whatever monetary policy decision that would be taken would be those that would improve the level of employment in Nigeria. Because we know that employment is very important. We know today that we have an employment emergency in Nigeria.
“And we must ensure that whatever decisions we take at the CBN in the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) would be those that would lead to improvement in the level of employment in Nigeria. We would ensure that we work with the manufacturing companies to ensure that we improve on their level of production and by extension ensure that we improve and achieve economic growth in Nigeria”.
He further explained that growing the economy of the country is much more important than having a stable economy and this can be achieved through development banking model, adding that countries like Brazil and Mexico used the model to grow their economies
“Aside from these core mandates, we would ensure that the CBN and all stakeholders in the economy that we would play a central role towards ensuring that we grow the Nigerian economy. Growing the economy of Nigeria is a very important assignment other than just the core mandate of ensuring that we have a stable environment.
“We would do this through the Development Banking Model. The DBM is a model that have been tried and tested in different jurisdictions in the world. In fact in some of the frontiers and emerging markets in the world , we have seen development banking used as a tool towards achieving economic growth, development and industrialisation. In the Latin American countries of Brazil and Mexico, development banking was used to achieve economic growth and development in these areas. And today Brazil is seen to be one of the BRIC states in the world. ”
On her part, Bulkachuwa decried the poor funding of the Judiciary and sought for its improved funding , adding that most judges in Nigeria are computer Illiterate.
“On the funding of the judiciary, this is a very serious issue with us. We are the biggest court in the country. We have 90 justices as at now. We have 16 divisions of the Court of Appeal. But our budget this year is N10.1billion. The justices have their salaries, allowances which should be charged on the Consolidated Revenue Fund. So if you take that out of the N10.1billion, what are you left with? Then we need courts and houses for our justices but we cannot continue.
“And then we have so many houses of the Justices, they are dilapidated, they are out of fashion. Like the ones in Lagos, they are the old colonial houses that were given to our Justices since the time Supreme Court days because we inherited both the houses and the courts from the Supreme Court. We cannot renovate them because we lack the funding to do that. Some of our houses are in a sorry state. If our justices are comfortable, I assure, you have the best set of judges in Nigeria.
“It takes me also to the dwindling budget of the Judiciary. I don’t allocate the budget. I am just confined to what we have and we have been trying to manage as much as we can. But we had to cry out. That is why we cried out last year and we are still crying out. We need our budget to be looked into. We need to have tools because our tools are our books, comfortable quarters and then comfortable houses.
“A judge will sit in court maybe till 5 pm. He will go back home maybe rest for two hours and then he will spend the whole night working and then come back to the court the next morning. So if his condition is perfect or if his condition is manageable, I am sure, we will have more production,” she concluded.
Congratulating Emefiele and Bulkachuwa, Senate President David Mark charged them to add value to their respective fields.
“These are two very key appointments and the amount of time we spent on it is a clear indication of the importance that we attach to these confirmations. The two people involved are very distinguished Nigerians and our prayers would go with them that Justice Bulkachuwa would deliver Justice on time and Emefiele would ensure that he does the prescribed responsibilities of the governor of the Central Bank without fear or favour,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Senate Committee on Banking and Finance has screened the nominee for the position of the Deputy Governor of the CBN, Adelabu Adebayo Adekola, and the Senate may confirm his appointment next week .
EMMA UCHE, ABUJA
