ABUJA, Nigeria — The Labour Party leadership has condemned President Bola Tinubu for suspending Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele.
The opposition party branded the President’s action as vindictive and unconstitutional.
Obiora Ifoh, the acting National Publicity Secretary of the party, voiced the party’s concerns in Abuja on Saturday, June 10, 2023.
He stated that the Labour Party found President Tinubu’s decision to suspend the Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele, troubling and punitive, particularly as the action was undertaken without seeking permission from the National Assembly.
Ifoh referred to a past comment by Femi Gbajabiamila, who served as the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives in 2014, during the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan.
He had questioned the powers of the president in sacking the Central Bank Governor following the dismissal of then CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi.
Gbajabiamila, currently Speaker of the House of Representatives and Chief of Staff to President Tinubu, had asserted that the president needed the approval of two-thirds of the Senate to remove the CBN Governor.
However, according to Ifoh, Gbajabiamila overlooked this precedent when Emefiele was dismissed in what the Labour Party perceives as a vindictive and unconstitutional manner.
Ifoh criticized this inconsistency and said it typified the political behavior in Nigeria where people “approbate and reprobate at the same time.”
He lamented the absence of rule of law, equity, justice, and fair play in the country, linking these failures to Nigeria’s present economic, political, and social challenges.
