The Senate Committee on Finance has rescheduled its planned meeting with the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele to Wednesday, November 6, 2019.
The committee, headed by Olamilekan Adeola (APC Lagos West) refused to allow the CBN Deputy Governor (Operations), Folashodun Sonubi, to make presentation on behalf of his principal over the disparity in the foreign exchange used by the bank for dedicated dollar denominated federal government projects.
Sonubi had while explaining the absence of Emefiele told the committee that, “unfortunately, the Governor of CBN is not here as he is out of Abuja and he has asked me to represent him before this committee after speaking with me on phone this morning”.
The committee chairman, however, interjected and said the committee would not honour representation by proxy, adding that “when we invited him for MTEF he didn’t come, this is the second time he will be failing to honour our invitation”.
Senator Adeola thereafter turned to five other committee members present for their contributions to the CBN deputy governor’s request.
Four senators; Uche Ekwunife, Teslim Folarin, Jubrin Isah and Kashim Shettima, supported the idea that Emefiele must appear before the committee on another date while Adamu Aliero asked his colleagues to allow Sonubi to represent the CBN governor.
Aliero, in his dissenting voice said, “the CBN governor is a busy man but he has spent a senior person. I will plead with my colleagues with due respect to allow his deputy to represent him.”
He was, however, overruled by Senator Adeola who explained that from the submission of CBN deputy governor, he received a phone call indicating that he hasn’t been given a proper briefing.
The committee chairman further stressed that “this is the Senate of the country, there is no formal letter from the CBN governor. We are going to reschedule for another date with the team of Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) to answer questions bordering on the future of Sovereign Wealth Fund and give us further clarification on the activities of the CBN as it affects the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PDIF).
He, therefore, extended another invitation to CBN governor to appear before the committee on Wednesday
The CBN governor was invited to clear grey areas in last week’s submission of the managing director of NSIA, Mr. Uche Orji, who claimed the contracts for the projects were denominated in naira at CBN exchange rate of N325 to a dollar instead of the official rate of N305 to a dollar.
