An ad hoc committee of the house of representatives has advised Femi Gbajabiamila to issue an arrest warrant for Godwin Emefiele, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), for disobeying its summons.
On Thursday in Abuja, the majority leader of the house and chairman of the committee, Alhassan Doguwa, participated in a dialogue with managing directors of banks.
The lower legislative chamber’s speaker, Gbajabiamila, had earlier threatened to issue an arrest warrant for Emefiele if he failed to show up for the committee.
The legislator, who spoke during Thursday’s plenary, deemed the CBN governor’s disregard for the house’s summons “unacceptable.”
On Tuesday, the house requested that the CBN postpone until July the January 31 deadline for the removal of obsolete naira notes from circulation.
The lower legislative house also established a committee that would meet on Wednesday with Emefiele, senior CBN officials, and managing directors of banks.
The CBN governor, or one of his officials, did not attend before the committee on Wednesday, but he did inform them in writing that the invitation letter had been received late.
A letter from the CBN deputy governor, corporate services, informing the house that the CBN governor is part of President Muhammadu Buhari’s group traveling to Senegal was received by the house after the committee again wrote to Emefiele inviting him to appear on Thursday.
Gbajabiamila was not pleased with the apex bank’s response, so he urged Doguwa to call the meeting as planned and to tell the house if the CBN governor is not there.
On Thursday, neither Emefiele nor his representatives attended the meeting with the MDs of banks.
Speaking at the gathering, Doguwa claimed that the CBN chairman had humiliated the national assembly by avoiding the MPs.
The CBN lied to the house when he claimed that the tour was ended and the president was now in his hometown.
Regarding the letter stating that Emefiele was out of the country, he asserted, “The letter holds no water.”
According to Doguwa, the committee will advise the speaker to “start the legal process to compel the CBN governor to appear before the house.”
“The letter they previously delivered to us, in our opinion and, by extension, the attitude of the House of Representatives, is just a futile move. That letter bears absolutely no weight and has no bearing on the house, he continued.
“I want to rule that the institution of the legislature has been flagrantly disregarded and disrespected by the National Bank of Nigeria through its chief executive, who serves as the governor of the central bank. Finally, I want to emphasize that this committee will formally inform the house.
“Commercial banks are whining, their clients are whining, the economy is bleeding, and in this environment, we go to the elections,” I like to think that there is a dark horse behind the agenda, somehow, someway, and we won’t let that cause keep interfering with the success of our election process.
By taking this stance, the house of representatives is now required to suggest to the speaker that the requisite legal action be taken to compel the governor of the central bank to appear before this constitutional committee.
Speaking after the plenary on Thursday, Gbajabiamila stated he will issue an arrest warrant for Emefiele the following day, on Tuesday.
UNDER WHAT THE LAW
The 1999 constitution’s Section 89 (1c) grants the national assembly the authority to, “subject to all just exceptions, summon any person in Nigeria to give evidence at any place or produce any document or other thing in his possession or under his control, and examine him as a witness and require him to produce any document or other thing in his possession or under his control.”
According to section 89 (1d), when a summons is ignored, the house or the committee in question may “issue a warrant to compel the presence of any person who, after having been summoned to attend, fails, refuses, or neglects to do so and does not excuse such failure, refusal, or forget.”
