Godwin Emefiele, the suspended Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, will undoubtedly remain etched in the minds of Nigerians, whether for negative or positive reasons.

From June 2014 until June 9, 2023, when he was suspended by Bola Ahmed Tinubu's administration, Emefiele supervised Nigeria's monetary policies and, by extension, the economy.

However, economic experts have given Emefiele a low rating for attaining the CBN's essential goals.

CBN's primary goal is to ensure economic and price stability; issue legal tender currency in Nigeria; maintain external reserves to protect the international value of the legal tender currency; promote a sound financial system in Nigeria; and act as Banker and provide economic and financial advice to the Federal Government.

Rising inflation

Under Emefiele's supervision, Nigeria's Consumer Price Index, also known as the inflation rate, rose by 241%, the highest increase compared to his predecessor Sarah Alabi, whose inflation rate was 3% during her brief tenure as CBN governor.

Since 1999, Emefiele's administration has had the worst inflation rate. During Joseph Sanusi's tenure from May 29th, 1999 to May 29th, 2004, inflation increased by 80%, while Charles Suludo's reign from May 29th, 2004 to May 29th, 2009 had an inflation rate of 68%. During the reign of Sanusi Muhammed Sanusi, from June 3, 2009, to June 3, 2014, the inflation rate increased by 62%.

Despite repeated increases in the Monetary Policy Rate to combat inflation, Nigeria's inflation continued to rise while Emefiele was in charge. May's inflation rate has not yet been disclosed, but April's inflation rate was 22.22 percent and interest rates are 18.50 percent.

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Naira depreciation

Multiple exchange rates were a significant setback for Emefiele's administration, according to DAILY POST. There was a dual exchange rate regime in Nigeria. Parallel markets are also known as the Official and illicit market rates. According to the parallel market rate, the Naira depreciated from N167.2 to N765 per US dollar in 2014.

Legal Tender Management

An analysis of Nigeria's legal tender administration during Emefiele's tenure as CBN governor revealed that Demand Deposits stood at N5,884,873 but rose to N20,498,1143; Credit to the Private sector rose from N16,927,987 to N44,100,132. In the interim, Currency in Circulation rose from N1,496,742 to N2,379,072.

Emefiele's naira redesign policy, which caused a currency shortage in the first half of 2023, has been severely criticized for inflicting suffering on Nigerians.

Capital Imported to Nigeria

From 2014 to 2016, Nigeria's imports of capital decreased from $21 billion to $5 billion. From 2017 to 2019, imports increased from $12 billion to $24 billion, but then declined from $10 billion to $5 billion in 2020 and 2022.

Emefiele’s political involvement

Emefiele will go down in history as the CBN governor with the most political involvement.

Recall that in the lead-up to the All Progressives Congress (APC) primary, Emefiele obtained a nomination form in order to run for president. After losing favor, Emefiele returned to the leading bank.

Nigerians have harshly criticized his decision to combine his political duties with those of the country's central bank.

Prof. Godwin Oyedotun, a professor of accounting and financial development at Lead City University Ibadan, told DAILY POST on Monday that Emefiele had failed in critical monetary policies.

He noted that Emefiele's approach to curbing inflation, foreign exchange administration, interest rate regime, and Naira redesign policy implementation could have been improved. According to him, Emefiele's involvement in politics is one of his greatest mistakes.

In addition to suspending Emefiele, he stated that the leaders of other agencies vital to the country's economic development should be reviewed.

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He said, “The truth is that Godwin Emefiele’s regime as CBN governor was a disaster. Nobody in the history of Nigeria had governed the apex bank the way he did. When you try some monetary policies that are not working, you drop them and listen to the people.

“However, Emefiele never did this. History has shown CBN’s measures to cut down inflation have failed. Nigeria’s economic problem has defiled all economic theories; hence, an unconventional approach is needed to end the challenges. When Prices go up in Nigeria, it hardly declines.

“I wonder why Bola Ahmed Tinubu will ask the immediate deputy to continue acting as CBN governor. All the deputies are supposed to be suspended together with Emefiele because it was their regime.

“It is high time we allowed people who are not biassed to any commercial bank to be CBN Governor. When a CBN governor is laced with political influence and godfatherism, the result is what we have seen under Emefiele.”

Also, the CEO of SD & D Capital Management, Mr. Idakolo Gbolade, stated that the suspension of Emefiele was long overdue due to his damaging management of Nigeria's economy.

He stated that Emefiele's policies were detrimental to the Nigerian economy and its citizens.

Gbolade asserts that Emefiele is the worst CBN governor in Nigeria's history.

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He added that Tinubu's government must get off to a quick start by implementing its trust-based economic policy immediately.

“The suspension of the former CBN governor is expected at this time if the new government wants to move swiftly with its policies which were necessitated by the dangerous handling of our economy by the former CBN Governor. Mr Emefiele’s policies benefited the rich and hurt our economy and the people of Nigeria.

“The former CBN Governor administered our economy without listening to reason, and the Economy bled under his watch. Despite all his efforts to tame inflation which failed, he still went ahead to engineer the Naira redesign policy, which was poorly implemented.

“The former CBN Governor was the worst CBN Governor and the most politicised in Nigeria’s history.

“Tinubu’s administration needs to start implementing his policy trust as announced in its inaugural speech by ensuring that after subsidy removal, far-reaching measures are taken to provide adequate palliative to the populace.

“The exchange rate policy should also be immediately implemented so that there would be exchange rate convergence to stop profiteering and the continuous weakening of the Naira.

“We have seen that the economy has started responding positively to the new administration’s policy direction, and if more proactive measures are taken, then Nigeria could be on the road to recovery”, he stated.