Godwin Emefiele, The Nigerian Economy And The Rest Of Us, by Mike Asekome

It has become too clear but too late to understand that Godwin Emefiele was not qualified and was not the best material to have been appointed as the CBN Governor as his limitations have become evident at the first major challenge of what it really takes to be a CBN Governor.

Mr Emefiele has a very narrow qualification and background. Bsc in Banking and finance and MSC in Finance from the same university of Nigeria, Nsukka and all through his banking career he worked in Zenith Bank where he rose to become the MD of Zenith Bank without exposure to national economic and monetary policies formulation and their transmission mechanisms on the more complex national economy and the wider financial system apart from in his commercial bank.

I have closely googled and examined Emefiele academic literature and biography and saw no evidence of exposure outside his narrow banking exposure in Zenith Bank. I didn’t see any research publications on the wider economy and the wider financial system.

Emefiele has no grip of Economics, development economics and development Finance which are required to hold the position of a CBN Governor. Those of us who know the difference between these areas of exposure are not surprised about Emefiele disatrous failure and its disastrous impact on the economy in the last few weeks.

He misunderstood and wrongly took the CBN to be a commercial bank that are known for securely keeping financial assets for customers, granting loans and recovering such loans within agreed deadlines. In the CBN the greatest function is economic and monetary policies and development finance and their interplay on the entire economy.

The results and impacts of such policies are not achieved by force and by short deadlines. This is Emefiele’s limitation hence his obvious failure in the face of this challenge that combines economic and monetary policy implementation.

You would recall that the tenure of Prof Soludo faced the greatest global economic and financial challenges and crisis where many banks and financial institutions worldwide were shaken to the very foundations, many closed even in the USA but because of Soludo economic and development finance expertise and clear head focused policy direction, Nigeria and the Nigerian masses, the banks, and the Nigerian economy survived and came out even stronger.

Prof Soludo is a first class economist, development finance expert, and development economic consultant with world wide intimidating research publications with a good grip on monetary and fiscal policy management.

Currency redesign and implementation is the simplest challenge to any CBN Governor who knows the implications of monetary and economic policy and their transmission mechanisms on the masses.

Unfortunately, Godwin Emefiele lack of understanding and apparent attempt to otherwise manipulate the system by targeting some political variables and apparent lack of adequate readiness for the exercise got us to where we are today. The lesson is that appointments to sensitive and strategic national positions should be based on the best materials for such positions. Godwin Emefiele could have been good for Zenith Bank or any other commercial bank but definitely not the CBN.

The Writer, Mike Asekome is a Professor of Development Finance.