Is Nigeria’s Central Bank Governor legally qualified to join the 2023 Presidential race?

There are a plethora of political bigwigs that have so far indicated interests in the presidential race, despite every other contestant who has publicly declared or has shown an implied interest to join in the contest for the presidential seat, the CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele’s interest came as a shock to everyone.

It is astonishing because of the post he is currently occupying as the Chief Executive officer of the number one financial institution in Nigeria. He occupies a very sensitive position that by all ethical standards, he has no reason to belong to a political party or participate in partisan politics or indicate interest in any elective position until he has resigned or relinquished his position as the Governor of the central bank.

Aside from ethics, codes of conduct and morality, the question is; is there any extant law that prohibits Mr. Emefiele by the reason of the position he’s currently occupying as the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria from contesting for any elective post in Nigeria? 

First of all, it is in doubt that it is the fundamental human right of every Nigerian citizen to exercise his franchise; to exercise his right to vote and be voted for. Any and every person who has identified him or herself as a member of the Nigerian society and a party to this social contract has been armed by the provisions of section 40 of the constitution of the federal republic of Nigerian to the right to indicate interest, join a political party, participate in politics and contest for any elective post in so far as that individual is of the right age and he is of the right qualifications. 

Therefore, Mr. Emefiele’s been a Nigerian citizen before anything else is in every length and breadth of the law qualified to contest for any position in the country but the controversies arose out of his current status as an active public servant and not just a mere public servant of low cadre but someone who is occupying a sensitive position in the public service; the next question this brings to fore is; whether Mr. Emefiele as the CBN Governor is qualified to contest for the presidential seat whilst he is still retaining his position as the chief executive officer of the CBN?. 

To answer this question, the provisions of S. 9 and section 11 of the CBN act will come to the rescue. According to the provision of section 9 of the CBN act, 2020, The Governor and the Deputy Governors shall devote the whole of their time to the service of the Bank and while holding office shall not engage in any full or part-time employment or vocation whether remunerated or not except such personal or charitable causes as may be determined by the Board and which do not conflict with or detract from their full-time duties. To this effect, the Governor of the CBN or any of the deputies in the institution is thereby prohibited from joining or engaging in any other remunerated job including participation in active politics which will be a total distraction to them. The Governor by the provisions of this section is expected to resign if he has an interest in going into any other job or joining active politics.

Furthermore, section 11(3) of the same CBN act 2020 also provides that The Governor or any Deputy Governor should resign his office by giving at least three months’ notice in writing to the President of his intention to do so. By the implication of this statutory proviso, if the Governor is interested in politics he should resign by giving at least 3 months’ notice and not one month’s notice which applies to other public servants.

The Electoral act in the controversial section 84(12) provided that any political appointee who is interested in contesting for any elective post should resign three months before the election. This is the statutory provision that Mr. Emefiele through his lawyers went to court to challenge, arguing that this provision does not apply to him for the reason being that he is a public servant regulated by public service rules and not a political appointee.  Let us assume that the proposition of Mr. Emefiele in this regard is right to some extent that he is a public servant and not a political appointee and hence, the provision of s 84(12) cannot apply to his person, what about the provision of section 11(3) of the CBN Act which mandates the CBN Governor and the deputies to resign by giving three months notice. 

Truth be told that legally speaking there is no categorical express provision of the law that prohibits a person who occupies the position of the CBN Governor to not contest in an elective post but that person must abide by the rules of public service and the CBN act which mandates him to resign first before joining in active politics to avoid distractions and conflict of interest but to our utmost surprise, the CBN Governor has been swimming in the musky water of active politics since February 2021 as his ward chairman confirmed that this is when the governor officially registered to become a member of the APC 

The CBN Governor has breached every ethical rule of public service and such a person can not be said to be fit to become the president of over 200 million people. If he is very much interested in becoming the number citizen of the country as he has indicated he should not be too reluctant to resign or relinquish his current position which is the right thing to do as; it is the game of “go hard or go home”. 

Finally, Mr. Emefiele and his teaming supporters should also know that he is setting a bad precedent. We won’t be surprised if the INEC chairman decides tomorrow to join the presidential race without first stepping down from his position as the chairman of INEC; don’t you see how ridiculous the drift is, if care is not taken the country will finally end up in a state of comatose.