CBN Gov Emefiele Joins 2023 Presidential Race, Obtains APC Form

It is now confirmed that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele, has picked the Expression of Interest and Nomination forms to seek the presidential ticket on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Our correspondent learnt that Emefiele picked the N100 million forms from the party’s Organising Secretary at the International Conference Centre (ICC) in Abuja, on Friday morning putting to rest speculations on his interest to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari come 2023.

In the last couple of months, rumours have been riped that the apex bank governor was being primed by some power blocs within the APC to gun for the party’s sole ticket as its flag-bearer in next year’s presidential polls.

The ruling party spokesman, Joseph Morka confirmed that Emefiele, who has been running affairs at the CBN for about eight years now, acquired a form on Friday to officially indicate his interest in becoming the presidential candidate at the APC special presidential primaries holding from Monday, May 30 to Wednesday, June 1, 2022, ahead of the general elections slated for February 2023.

Emefiele, 60, is joining a strong field of aspirants that includes Professor Yemi Osinbajo, who has been Buhari’s Vice President since 2015; APC’s National Leader and former governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu; former Governor of Imo State, Owelle Rochas Okorocha; Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi; and former Party National Chairman, and Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.

The long list of aspirants also has the Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State; the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Senator Chris Ngige; Governor David Umuahi of Ebonyi State, Pastor Tunde Bakare; Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi; former Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun (APC-Ogun Central); former Senate President, Senator Ken Nnamani and Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajuba among others.

Meanwhile, efforts to reach the spokesman for Emefiele proved unsuccessful as calls to his phone numbers were not going through at the time of filing this report.

Appointed in February 2014 by former President Goodluck Jonathan shortly after announcing the suspension of his predecessor, Sanusi Lamido, the former Managing Director of Zenith Bank made history as the first CBN governor to be reappointed in 2019 as President Buhari gave him a second term in office.

Amid the mounting pressure for him to join the race by a political, Friends of Godwin Emefiele, the CBN boss had in March 2022 maintained that his interest was more focused on helping President Muhammadu Buhari to finish his administration well.

In one of his tweets, Emefiele said; “My focus at this time is a robust monetary policy and fighting inflation, which is now a global problem; building a strong financial system in an increasingly uncertain global economy, development finance and supporting farmers and manufacturers in our self-sufficiency and import substitution drive, raising N15 trillion for InfraCo infrastructure financing, building a world-class International Financial Centre in Lagos, as well as support the @MBuhari administration to finish strong.”