CBN Is Illegally Printing Money For Buhari Government – Prof. Moghalu Says

Former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Professor Kingsley Moghalu has declared that the apex Bank under Godwin Emefiele sees itself as a quasi-fiscal agent, using its ability to print money, for the government of the day.

Moghalu, who stated this on his Twitter handle @MoghaluKingsley, said that this is what the rent-seekers and parasites that benefit from this situation justify as “unorthodox” central banking as in central banking in Zimbabwe and Venezuela.

According to him, the right politics must be played by doing the right thing if Nigerians desire to renew and revive the nation’s economy, stressing that institutions that are statutorily independent must enjoy such while competence should govern critical aspects of our national life.

He noted that in the current scenario, the leadership of the Central Bank evidently does not believe in the concept of central bank independence in its operations, saying; “Rather, the Bank asks “how high?” once the Presidency says “jump”.

Moghalu, who contested to be Nigerian President in 2019 on the platform of the Young Progressives Party (YPP), particularly expressed concern that the nation’s apex bank which is supposed to check the excesses of the Federal Ministry of Finance and the political elite, has seriously compromised under the leadership of Godwin Emefiele.

The former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, also blamed the nation’s nose-diving economy on the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, stressing that her fiscal mismanagement of Nigeria is a calamity.

In his words; “What is the result today? Between a mismanaged fiscal space and a deeply compromised central bank that has sold its soul to politicians and private sector profiteers, the wheels have come off the Nigerian economy.

“If the CBN is busy printing money for the government through illegal ‘Ways and Means’ lending, and then pretends to be fighting inflation by belated raises of the Monetary Policy Rate and what one commentator aptly termed a “dubious” cash reserve ratio policy on commercial banks, how can we fight inflation successfully?

Moghalu pointedly accused Emefiel’s leadership of the CBN as an appendage of the government rather than being independent, stressing that the wheels have come off the Nigerian economy, which he noted is a victim of a mismanaged fiscal space and a deeply compromised Central Bank that has sold its soul to politicians and private sector profiteers.

Moghalu further said; “It’s not often I agree with Nigeria’s Minister of Finance Zainab Ahmed. Not because of anything but because I fundamentally disagree with what I consider her fiscal mismanagement of Nigeria. But at least she recently gave an honest assessment of how broke-assed Nigeria is now.

“As for my dear beloved @cenbank and its Governor, the less said the better. For that, I believe, is the ultimate calamity. Why? Normally, the Finance Minister directly answers to the President.

“But where a @cenbank is truly independent, as we were in our time, it can serve as a check, in the national interest, on the worst excesses of profligate politicians that often dot Nigeria’s landscape of high-level public appointments.

“Please don’t tell me that “inflation is a global phenomenon” just as some will mischievously or ignorantly refer to the levels of debt to GDP ratios of advanced, productive economies.

“There is a difference between real global challenges and us fundamentally killing our own economy with our own hands in the service of corruption, vested interests, and incompetent political leaders.

“The combined fiscal, monetary and forex calamity superintended by the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and Planning, on the one hand, and the leadership of the CBN of the past 7 years, on the other, is a tragedy for Nigeria that could have been avoided.

“The effects on the lives of the average Nigerian are truly sad to see. This is a cautionary tale for the next President of Nigeria.

“The CBN is the greatest repository of fine, competent technocrats in the Nigerian public sector today. Other agencies of government have in the past relied heavily on the Bank for the secondment of competent personnel. The same caliber of economists and technocrats is still there. The politics at the top has tied their hands,” he stressed.