Amina Mansur
The Presidency has said many approvals for fund release within the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) under Godwin Emefiele did not have the signature of former President, Muhammadu Buhari.
The Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale in an interview with media personality, Chude Jideonwo, said the last administration had to take some responsibilities for some of the things that happened in the apex bank under Emefiele.
“President Bola Tinubu has come out several times in fairness to him (Buhari), to say, ‘Look, this is what happened under the previous administration’. I think we have to acknowledge the fact that he (Tinubu) understands more than anyone that many of the approvals within the CBN that brought us to this point have no signature to President Muhammadu Buhari and had no knowledge of President Muhammadu Buhari,” Ngelale said.
He said that even though President Tinubu supported Buhari’s administration, he had not hesitated to disclose to Nigerians things that were not healthy to the economy that happened under his predecessor.
“We are not hiding behind the figure on this issue, I think I have been very clear that the prior administration does have to take responsibility for the fact that Governor Emefiele was left in office even though he was inherited and he was given a second term to continue doing what he ended up doing.
“That responsibility and that decision were made by President Muhammadu Buhari irrespective of the fact that President Buhari knew what was going on in the Central Bank of Nigeria. So, there is a responsibility to be taken there, I have to be very categorical about that.
“Now, that does not however mean that you throw the baby out with the bath water. We don’t say because these things happened in the Central Bank of Nigeria, President Buhari was devoid of achievement or devoid of progressive administration.
“Having infrastructure matters, working on ease of doing business, making sure that people can register a company in 48 hours as against six months before they came into office, these things actually have impacts with the responsibility attracting investments into the country.”