President Bola Tinubu has described the country’s financial system under the suspended Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, as “rotten.”
The President’s comments was coming two weeks after Emefiele was suspended from office to give room for the ongoing investigation of his office.
Consequently, Emefiele was arrested and is currently detained by the Department of State Services (DSS) as operatives combed his Lagos residence, where they reportedly recovered some vital documents and bags of money.
Speaking on Friday while addressing Nigerians residents in Paris, France, Tinubu decried the difficulty in the flow of forex in and out of the country, saying it enriched a few people while impoverishing the vast majority of Nigerians.
Tinubu said his administration would implement further financial reforms in the coming weeks.
His words: “The financial system was rotten. Few people were making away with our money…that is gone now; the man (Emefiele) is in the hands of the authorities,” Tinubu said at his first Diaspora engagement with Nigerians living in France.
“Then, the financial system was rotten. Few people were making away with our money and then you yourselves, stopped sending money home to our poor parents.
“That is gone now. The man (Emefiele) is in the hands of authorities; something is being done about that; they will sort themselves out.
“We have security challenges in the country. Maybe that is how they are fuelling insecurity; we have to look at everything. We will change the financial system; it will work for you.”
The President said he and his Special Adviser on Monetary Policy, Mr Wale Edun, turned the fortunes of Lagos State around between 1999 and 2003 moving the internally generated revenue from N600m annually to N50 billon monthly.
“Now, Lagos is on autopilot. Anybody intelligent enough can navigate it,” he added.