Naira crisis: CBN has been compromised –Ezekwesili

Former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili, has faulted the Central Bank of Nigeria on the Naira redesign policy, noting that the policy has impoverished Nigerians, causing untold hardship in the country.

Ezekwesili who featured in an interview on Channels TV’s 2023 Verdict programme, also said that the CBN has been compromised and is being run by President Muhammadu Buhari from Aso Rock Villa.

“I said it publicly many years ago. I said the monetary policy is being compromised because it was evident that it was being run from the Villa. I said it in this country. What I find very intriguing is how people just don’t follow the things that are spoken.

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“As I’ve said about what we’re seeing today, I got insulted by them, but I couldn’t care about who insulted me, I stand on the path of truth. And here right? Watching every one of those who insulted me for calling attention to the things that were wrong with our politics and the management of our economic policy coming to where I was, let me say years ago.

“So I have no word for the president, because frankly, I’m not one of those Nigerians with any expectation from this president,” he stated.

Ezekwesili said all she wanted now was for the president to make sure the election happened and that the nation got a new government floated by Nigerian citizens.

She added that right now, Nigeria is right on the highest end of indicators of fragility.

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“Nigeria is in a state of higher end fragility, we have always done number 12, number 13. I think last time, we were number 13 on the fragile state index, which means that we are close enough to a failed state. So that level of fragility, you want to push it further. People think that the personal interests of these political rascals should take the country into a state of implosion,” she said.

Ezekwesili insisted that monetary policy had become so completely immersed in the politics of the country, which is such a disgrace.

“Frankly speaking, I don’t even know whether there are economists left in the Central Bank of Nigeria. Because when I look at the serial failure to think through policies, even what we call policy timelines, or to think through the policies on the basis of the evidence that’s on the table, so that data is helping to drive your decision, modern inputs or anecdote, or the whims and caprices of those that you report to, the central bank is compromised and it has to be number one thing on the agenda,” she stated.