Ezekwesili Slams FG Over Naira Swap Policy, Says It Target ‘Criminals It Knows’

A former Minister of Education, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, has expressed strong criticism of the naira swap policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

According to the economic policy expert, rather than focus on fiscal and monetary policy, the Federal Government is using the apex bank to target political “criminals it knows”.

Ezekwesili made her position known on Sunday during a live appearance on Channels Television’s The 2023 Verdict, a special election programme.

Dissecting the controversial CBN directive touted as addressing vote-buying and illicitly hoarded funds, she argued that it was crucial for the apex bank to be thoughtful about “what are we solving for?”

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If one is solving for less cash in “our society” as the medium of exchange, she says, the thing to do is plan properly for the transition.

“But there’s a second thing that we seem to be solving for which has now taken ascendancy over the monetary policy. We are using the central bank to solve the problem of criminality in our politics,” she stated.

“That’s objective, but is it an objective that the central bank should smack into? There’s something wrong with that because what has happened is, you have because of criminals that you know – the government knows the criminals, they are part of them.

“If it wanted to, in a transparent manner, get them, it would get them. But what it has done is it has basically discomfited the citizens, the poor women in the market, the people just barely eking out a living, and now struggling because of the criminality of our politics.”