Former Presidential aide Omokri faults Moghalu for calling out Jonathan over Emefiele

By Sunday Ogbu

Former presidential aide, Mr. Reno Omokri has faulted former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr Kingsley Moghalu for blaming ex-president Dr. Goodluck Jonathan for the misdeeds of the immediate past governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Godwin Emefiele who was alleged to have been indicted by a presidential investigation panel.

Omokri was reacting to Moghalu who called out both former President Jonathan and Gen. Muhammadu Buhari for appointing and reappointing Emefiele, who he described as incompetent and corrupt, to head the nation’s apex bank.

In his response posted on his social media handles, Omokri said Jonathan should be praised for handing over a financially viable and stable Nigeria to the succeeding administration.

Below is the full text of his statement:

“I am not sure Mr. Kingsley Moghalu is being charitable by attacking Godwin Emefiele and, in the same breath, complaining about a media trial. His approach is a bit puzzling. You attack those engaging in a media trial and then add, most bizarrely, to the media trial. What is his agenda? What does he aim to achieve?

“Mr. Moghalu may or may not be right that Emefiele is the “WORST and MOST damaging Central Bank Governor in Nigeria’s history- incompetent and ill-prepared for the role.” However, it is hypocritical to complain about a media trial and then proceed to give a media judgment against the man you are defending against a media trial. Again, what is Moghalu’s argument? Where does he stand?

“I have deliberately refused to commend or condemn Mr. Emefiele since his ordeal. A Senator sent me the report by Mr. Jim Obazee of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria. I read it. It makes for interesting reading. But it would be shallow of me to render a judgment, whether in the media or privately, as this matter is before the courts.

“However, Mr. Kingsley Moghalu’s puzzling behaviour does not stop there. He goes on to incredibly indict former President Jonathan. He asks him to give explanations “for the collapse of Nigeria’s central bank under Emefiele and the subsequent trauma to Nigeria’s economy. What sort of grandstanding is this?

“In the Obazee report, the alleged wrongdoings of Mr. Emefiele were not carried out under President Jonathan, who courageously abided by the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2007. And because of his discipline, at the time he handed over to General Buhari on May 29, 2015, Nigeria was on a sound financial footing, with a debt-to-GDP ratio of roughly 19%, before 2013, which shrank to 12% after Nigeria’s GDP rebasing of 2014, and a budget deficit of under 5%, with an average GDP growth rate of over 6% for the five years he was in office. What explanation does Mr. Jonathan have to give besides the above, which calls for praise?

“And even if his claims are true, which they are not, how does Kingsley Moghalu absolve himself, seeing as he was also a Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria between 2009 and 2014? Yes, he may have been disappointed that former President Jonathan did not reappoint him as Deputy Governor after his term expired in 2014 or even appoint him as the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, as he hoped. But that does not mean he should throw away proper jurisprudence and begin to assume that the allegations against Emefiele are proven and to blame President Jonathan rather than focus his acid pen on the Buhari era, during which these malfeasances were alleged to have occurred.