Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State has expressed dissatisfaction with calls for the sack of Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, describing those behind the calls as “Facebook manipulators and palm wine drinkers”.
Oshiomhole said the firing and sacking of the CBN governor should not be a political decision, especially when that governor is performing, as it could spell doom for the economy of the country.
“If a governor is doing fine, his hiring and firing is not a matter that should be discussed by faceless Facebook manipulators, and by the time you unmask the people behind it, you will discover that they are palm wine drinkers,” he said.
He noted that the calls were being made by invisible elements bent on forcing the hand of the government to take actions that are against the interest of the nation.
The governor stressed that with the present challenge of running an economy currently undergoing a recession where inflow of foreign exchange is scarce, sacking the CBN governor could lead to an endless string of devaluation of the national currency that will make it worthless.
He said President Muhammadu Buhari was not fooled by the antics of “people who have been feeding fat on our common patrimony, manipulating the exchange rate and moving money across boundaries”.
Oshiomhole also backed Emefiele in his decision to restrict foreign exchange to the 41 non-essential items that had been barred from accessing funds from the Central Bank.
“It is these speculators, because the CBN governor has been saying we cannot open the doors to all kinds of imports such as toothpicks, tomato paste and all sorts of things who have been feeding fat on our common patrimony, manipulating the exchange rate, moving money across borders, and taking advantage of electronic money transfers, that are behind these campaigns,” he stated.