Emefiele’s CBN has lost focus 

SIR: For an effective and efficient monetary policy system that would revolutionise the economy of Nigeria, the new government in 2023, should consider seriously, the decentralisation and depoliticisation of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). If not exactly in the mold of the Federal Reserve Bank system of the USA, but at least to mirror it, with the domestic realities of Nigeria, especially, ensuring the autonomy of the CBN. In not too distant past, the CBN was relatively autonomous to a certain extent, until the current regime, when the CBN seems to have lost focus.

Appointments into the Board of Governors and the Non-Executive Governing Board of the CBN should be one of the most serious considerations, based entirely on merit, experience, exposure, integrity and competence. There is no gain saying that any country’s monetary and fiscal policies are the nucleus and the mitochondrion of the financial and economic well being of any country that wants to be taken seriously by the international financial institutions. 

History beckons on the new president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. 
• Sonny Iroche is senior academic fellow, African Studies Centre, University of Oxford.