A development economist and former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr. Obadiah Mailafia, has criticized the presidential directive to the CBN on food importation, stating that the affairs of the central bank are being interfered with, rather than operating as an independent institution.
Mailafia, who appeared as a guest on Nigeria’s Channels Television’s breakfast show, Sunrise Daily on Thursday said: “There has been a capture of CBN politically; it has no autonomy anymore,”
“It (CBN) has no independence anymore. It is just an appendage of some people, who are using it for whatever purpose that they want.
“It’s like we’ve gone back to the military days where the military will literally bring trailers to the mint and order printing of fresh mints, load them into trailers and drive off with them,” he said.
On Tuesday, President Muhammadu Buhari ordered the CBN to stop providing foreign exchange for importation of food into the country.
The President, who hosted the All Progressives Congress (APC) governors to Eid-el-Kabir lunch in Daura, had explained that the directive was important considering the “steady improvement” in agricultural production and attainment of “full food security” in Nigeria.
He stressed that the foreign reserve would be conserved and utilised strictly for diversification of the economy, and not for encouraging more dependence on foreign food import bills.
But the President’s directive to the apex bank had been criticised by economic experts and other Nigerians, including a former deputy governor of the CBN, Prof. Kingsley Moghalu
On his part, Mailafia aligned himself with the position of the critics of the presidential directive, saying he was disappointed.
He described the order as ‘thoughtless’, saying certain procedure must be followed before making critical decisions relating to a nation’s economy.
The former CBN deputy governor also insisted that the country has yet to attain the level of food sufficiency that could warrant such an order.
“We can never be more primitive in riding an economy. It is not only primitive, it is backward, completely backward thinking and we are not self-sufficient in food; that is very wrong,” he said.
Mailafia added, “I wish there was any thinking here; there’s been no thinking whatsoever.
“Its thoughtless thought; you don’t run policy on a web, you run policy based on a technical and scientific understanding of the situation at hand and then, you put together a technical paper working out the various scenarios for every alternative cause of action.”
GIK/APA