Senator Sani pleads with colleagues over CBN board nominees

The Senator representing Kaduna Central, Shehu Sani on Thursday appealed to the senate to resume screening of the nominees for the Central Bank of Nigeria board in other to enhance its efficiency.

According to the Senator, the situation is worrisome as it had adversely affected the ability and capacity of the apex bank in playing required pivotal role in the nation’s economy.

Rising through order 43 to make the lamentation on the floor of the Senate, Sani pleaded with the upper legislative chamber to confirm the appointment of any nominee for that purpose forwarded to it by President Muhammadu Buhari.

“Mr. President, Nigeria Central Bank is the only central bank in the whole of Africa without a board.

“The CBN is the most important economic fulcrum of our country. I can understand that we collectively here stood to make a position to suspend the screening of nominees but I think we look at the issue of the CBN differently and very critically.

“We can appreciate the fact that it has made some progress – progress in terms of stabilizing the economy, progress in terms of stabilizing the naira, and also progress in terms of appreciating our foreign reserve.

“But we should be mindful that our work as a senate will be lessened if we have a board that can perform an institutional oversight to ensure that the bank is run according to due process and according to the best standard both nationally and internationally.

“The CBN board should be screened in the interest of transparency and probity so that we can truly know what is going on within the bank and we can be properly briefed.