Former President Muhammadu Buhari has provided insights into his decision not to remove Godwin Emefiele from his position as the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in the face of various allegations.
Buhari, in a memoir titled “Working with Buhari: Reflections of a Special Adviser, Media and Publicity (2015 – 2023),” written by his former presidential spokesperson, Femi Adesina, emphasized the lack of evidence against Emefiele.
The former President said the Naira redesign policy initiated by Emefiele helped the country achieve a clean general election in 2023.
Buhari noted that those who had a problem with the policy were individuals “who had too much money”.
In chapter 12 of the book, Buhari said: “The scarcity of money was not deliberately done to punish Nigerians.
He continued: “Democracy allows people to express their will, and we did not attempt to control them. People understood the implications of their choices, and we did not force them.
“My state, Katsina, showed the beauty of the whole system. In the Presidential poll, APC lost, but they came back to win the governorship. Maybe they took things for granted earlier because it was my state, and they thought they would win easily. People do not like being taken for granted.
“I met Emefiele in office when I came, and unless there was firm evidence against him, it would be unfair and an act of injustice to remove him, acting on hearsay.
“If you punish a man unjustly, it could dog his footsteps throughout life, so if you would punish, you must have evidence and you should know that yourself wouldn’t be there forever. You would leave one day.
“I’m very conscious about the morale of people who serve with me. I also expect whoever succeeds me to be fair to me. I have family, friends, who will feel it. I’m very conscious of fairness.
“When he was linked with campaign for 2023 presidency, I did not ask him, because he told nobody he was getting involved. Otherwise, I would have removed him and told the nation why.
“There is no denying that the naira redesign policy gave us cleaner elections. It was people who had too much money that had problems with it.”
The book revealed that a certain bank chairman was found with over N260 million at the time when the new notes were scarce.
“Did I take on the Supreme Court on the issue? No, I could not have,” he said in the book.
Buhari, who further stated that his conscience was clear, added that he does not judge people by his own standard.