Godwin Emefiele, new governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has been advised to show skill in the management of the apex bank rather than sticking to accepted views or conventions.
The advice was given in Lagos by Kalu Idika Kalu, a former finance minister in the Military era, at an exclusive interview with BDSUNDAY.
Kalu, who was reacting to a question on his expectations from Emefiele and the pitfalls to avoid, said it would be dangerous for the new CBN boss to think that doing it the normal way would yield result, but that he must bring innovations borne out of skills to bear on the job.
“I have heard people say, ‘Oh, we are import-dependent’ and all that. No country comes on board being an export-led or forever import-dependent; it is a function of the exchange rate, interest rate and monetary policy. So, it should really be very adroit management not orthodoxy,” Kalu said.
The former minister also urged Emefiele to ensure that the policies of the CBN tally with what other financial institutions have.
“The policies –the fiscal and monetary policies must be in tandem. He must ensure that all the credit facilities that they want to provide like the agricultural credit and others are all synchronized with what other institutions can provide. So, synchronization of policy, having fiscal and monetary policies in tandem, those are the things that will give him a special recognition,” he said.
Kalu also blamed the recurring back and forth argument between the executive and legislature over annual budgets on the “boisterousness of democracy, too many leakages in the system, and more needs in society arising from population explosion.”
Comparing what transpired in the military era and what obtains nowadays, he said: “I think, let’s face it, ours was a command economy, it was a military era. But I don’t think that should be fair to the military. They actually gave civilians leeway; I must say in retrospect that I tend to blame the civilians who handled certain things that time. They were not commanded to do things in certain ways, but some were too eager to please the ‘Ogas’ at the top. Much of what we see today is the boisterousness of democracy; again more population, more needs and the leakages are far more now than before, they are just horrendous, and it is reaching an absolute term. That’s why there’s so much struggle, and the actors are not as organised as they ought to be.”
(Full interview next edition)
Zebulon Agomuo
