Senate strips CBN Gov of Board chairmanship role, others
By Tunde Opalana
The Senate on Tuesday inched closer to striping the CBN Governor of the Board Chairmanship role as a bill tailored towards an amendment to the CBN Act scaled second reading at plenary.
The Bill sought to amend CBN Act No. 7 of 2007 which allows any incumbent Governor of the apex bank to also serve as Chairman of its Board.
Sponsored by Senator Umar Sadiq Suleiman (APC Kwara North), the piece of legislation seeks for appointment of a person other than a sitting CBN Governor to be the Chairman of the Board.
The Senate in the bill, also seeks to divest the Board of CBN, powers of determining and fixing salaries and allowances of its members and considering and approving the Annual Budget of the Bank.
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Leading the debate on the bill titled: “A bill for an Act to amend the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Act No. 7 of 2007 to enable the appointment of a person other than the Governor as the Chairmen of the board”, Senator Umar said global best practice in apex banking operations across the globe does not allow for a Chief Executive Officer to hold the position of Board Chairman.
“This bill as clearly stated, seeks to divest the Governor of CBN, chairmanship of the Board as obtainable in other countries of the world.
“A different person with requisite qualification and required knowledge on monetary and financial policies, should be made Chairman of the Board.
“Separation of the two positions will enable any sitting CBN Governor to focus more on fiscal and monetary policies than politics of the Institution”, said the Kwara lawmaker.
The bill if passed into law will definitely will reduce powers of the CBN Governor.
In her contribution, Senator Betty Apiafi (PDP Rivers South) said the intended amendment was very necessary in view of the way the incumbent CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, was branded as a contestant for the Presidential ticket of the ruling All Progressives Congress ( APC ) in May this year.
“The CBN governor went out of his way to contest for presidency while in office in the 2022 presidential primary election.
“This would not happen anywhere in the world, given that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) sensitive materials were expected to be kept in the bank.
“Godwin Emefiele having attempted to contest presidency has made Nigerians to lose confidence in the bank storing the INEC materials”, she said.
The Senate President, Ahmad Ibrahim Lawan, however, cautioned Senators to focus on the proposed amendment rather than dabbling into the alleged attempt by the CBN governor to contest as that wasn’t part of the general principles of the bill.
He thereafter, put the bill for voice votes for second reading which secured approval of majority of the Senators, making him to mandate the Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions to work on it and report back in four weeks.
