Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) have identified selfish politicians as the brains behind the call for the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele to resign over public pressure to run in 2023 presidential election.
The groups noted that some persons have granted interview, calling on the CBN Governor to resign for associating with campaign materials across the country.
The director of the CSOs Coordinating Centre, Mallam Abubakar Mohammed, in a statement in Abuja, has, however explained that it has been established that voluntary organizations are behind the campaign materials bearing the face of the CBN Governor as they are committed to asking him to join the 2023 presidential race.
“These groups have come out openly to accept their roles in the campaign for Dr. Emefiele, while the CBN Governor is yet to accept their request to join the race but has restated his commitment to his job,” he said.
Lambasting the group of persons calling for Emefiele’s resignation, Mohammed said, “we see this call by the said persons purportedly representing CSOs as one of the sponsored smear attacks against the person of Dr. Emefiele by greedy politicians and their supporters, who have vowed to discredit the CBN Governor even before he agrees to join the race. And as CSOs, we will not associate ourselves with these kinds of smear campaigns.
“We cannot understand why anyone claiming to be speaking for CSOs will embark on such an attack based on a movement openly adopted by voluntary groups calling for the CBN Governor to run in the next general elections.
“As leading members of CSOs, we hereby reject such calls and outrightly state that we are confident with our CBN Governor, who has, despite the calls for him to join the Presidential race, continued to show commitment to his work at the Apex Bank.
“We, therefore, ask Dr. Emefiele, to please disregard such outrageous statements from the said individuals and their cronies under the guise of CSOs as they do not speak for CSOs but their pockets.
“We are confident in the CBN Governor and will continue to watch the political space for developments that may come up due to these attacks.”