By Babatunde Adisa
Revenge is a dish best served cold. But, by the estimation of those very close to him, President-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu does not subscribe to that maxim.
He is widely described as one who believes that a man is even with his enemy in taking revenge, but in passing it over, he is superior. A conqueror of many daunting political battles and enemies, Tinubu is also reported to have a large heart, forgives easily, and always willing to take back apostates within and outside his political family.
Otherwise, when he was declared winner of the 2023 presidential election, common sense would have told Godwin Emefiele, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to abscond from Nigeria. Supporters and stakeholders of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and loyalists of Tinubu opine that Emefiele should be railroaded into detention while ensuring he never sees sunlight again. That’s how grievous the Tinubu camp views Emefiele’s actions against the president-elect.
Emefiele reportedly did everything to stop Tinubu’s emergence as Nigeria’s President. You would recall that the CBN governor was rumoured to be interested in the presidency and even had a group buy the APC presidential form worth N100m for him. Though a serving CBN governor, Emefiele went to court to stop the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and the Attorney General of the Federation from disqualifying him from contesting for the presidential ticket of any political party of his choice ahead of the elections.
His lawyer, Mike Ozekhome, SAN, had argued then, “The plaintiff is legally competent to contest the primaries of any political parties while still serving as the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria in so far as he gives 30 days’ notice of his resignation, withdrawal from the services of the CBN as its governor in accordance with the provisions of section 167 and 318 of the constitution.” Justice Ahmed Mohammed of the Federal High Court had, on May 12, adjourned to Monday 23, 2022, for all parties to adopt their written addresses as their argument. However, when the matter came up on the appointed date, Ozekhome announced that his client had directed him to withdraw the suit.
Emefiele had allegedly sank billions into the presidential dream at the time, and because he was prevented from contesting, party stalwarts said that he bayed for blood. Tinubu went on to win the keenly-contested APC primary. Then, with the election proper a few months away, Emefiele bared his fangs with the introduction of the naira re-design policy, which he said, among other things, was to support the efforts of security agencies in combating banditry and ransom-taking in Nigeria and to avoid vote buying.
Informed commentators read between the lines as they insisted that the policy targeted Tinubu.
By then, the economy had gone into a tailspin as the new notes were unavailable while the old ones were being rejected across the country. Even after Emefiele announced a 10-day extension of the deadline, there was still an acute shortage of cash as the new notes were unavailable. Worse still, ATMs were not dispensing, and where they did, the queues, struggles, and fights to withdraw were numbing and perplexing.
It was amidst this crisis that Nigerians went to vote on February 25. Though Tinubu triumphed eventually, the effect of the policy widely perceived as an APC thing and which he wanted to perpetuate in power, almost cost him victory.Instructively, Tinubu was the only presidential candidate that appealed to the CBN and the presidency to extend the deadline to reduce the hardship being experienced by Nigerians. This did not, however, reduce the anger of Nigerians towards his party.
The intriguing thing about Emefiele’s stance was that despite glaring evidence that Nigerians were suffering, he insisted the policy had come to stay. Many were not surprised, however. Emefiele and Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State and the vice presidential candidate of the PDP are cousins. Perhaps the CBN governor felt safer with his cousin in power than with the APC, which retained him in office, hence, the alleged victimisation of Tinubu.
Well, it is about seven weeks before Tinubu is sworn in as President. There is palpable fear in Emefiele’s circle that he will face the full wrath of the law for plunging Nigeria into an economic crisis. Sources say he is ready to flee to the United States before May 29 to be with his family.
Some prominent Nigerians are, however, promising him that they would prevail on the new President to temper justice with mercy. Either way, even if President Tinubu does not look in his direction, will his men be that forgiving because revenge is a human impulse to release hatred and anger, which they have in truckloads for Emefiele?
