Emefiele creative under severe economic challenges, say kinsmen

• Insist current economic woes vindicated him • CBN gov exonerates self from current economic woes

Kof the embattled former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria ( CBN), Godwin Emefiele, under the aegis of Agbor Stakeholders Forum ( ASF), yesterday, described him as a hero and not a villain as being painted for being creative amid economic challenges.

The forum posited that Emefiele is an economist and a thoroughbred banker, who helped to found and build one of the biggest banks, noting that in the fullness of time, history will preserve his records as one of the most competent and impactful governors to ever manage the CBN.

In a statement signed on their behalf by Kanene Kachikwu, the forum noted that less than one year after he was forcefully and illegally removed from office, in just nine months of this administration, the economy has unhinged, and all indices are on a free fall. According to them, a cursor y review of the yearly reports of the CBN from 2014 to 2023 showed, in bold relief, the enormous economic interventions enacted by Emefiele and his team over this period.

They said: “We are proud to state that no other head of the apex bank has put up this quantum of transformational work.

As CBN governor, his first task was to curb frivolous importation of commodities Nigeria can produce locally . He restricted foreign exchange on those items ( 44 of them). “With the support of President Muhammadu Buhari, Emefiele never allowed the naira to float and fail helplessly against the currencies of developed economies of the world, as President Bola Tinubu and the current CBN governor are doing today, knowing that the naira can never survive in such free market competition. “Emefiele allowed measured devaluation, while he ensured that the bank directly catalysed production in agriculture, manufacturing, medium and small- scale industries, and even the entertainment industry, among others.

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