December 25, (THEWILL) – Just on the cusp of the Irish financial collapse in 2008, the Governor of the Central Bank, John Hurley, appeared live on national television to reassure his Celtic compatriots that all would be well and there was no need to panic. Millions tuned in to watch what was meant to be a message of hope, something close to saying, ‘Trust me, I am your banker.’
His televised appearance got the opposite reaction from his viewers. As New Yorker writer Lawrence Wright described it in a piece headlined “When Irish Eyes Are Crying,” Hurley’s listeners actually panicked when they saw their chief banker on television, “a man with an insecure little moustache.” It did not inspire any confidence at all.
Following the broadcast, many Irish citizens bee-lined it to the bank straightaway and got their money out faster than a farmer downing a pint of Guinness in a corner pub anywhere in the emerald isle. Thus did the Irish real estate/ financial crisis begin and it lasted for several months.
Of course, the wispy whiskers gracing the upper lip of Ireland’s number one banker at the time couldn’t have been the sole cause of the financial meltdown. There were contentious bail-out issues for one or two major financial institutions then. Also, it is just possible that the many stats the banker reeled off on screen would have befuddled his viewers, particularly those not in the banking sector. So, what next?
Look closely at the face to see whether he was fibbing or not because, as they say, faces inspire confidence and hope, or both, especially during critical situations like the Irish faced in those years of economic upheaval.
It is hard to imagine Nigerians reacting the same way as the Irish did if the current Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Ifeanyi Emefiele, were to appear before them live to address crucial national economic matters. In fact, he has done that several times and at different occasions for both local and international audiences. In many of them, Emefiele almost always came off with a standing ovation.
At a glance, Emefiele looks every inch a banker you can trust. His high-domed cranium suggests enormous brain power. As a Banking and Finance undergraduate at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, for instance, he made a Second Class Upper Division becoming, in the process, the best graduating student in 1986. He followed up with degrees from Harvard and Stanford, institutions known for moulding and shaping future leaders in international finance and business.
When Jim Ovia was head-hunting for someone to start up Zenith Bank with him in 1990, he set his sights on Emefiele. A trusted and professional banker that he is, Emefiele turned a fledgling financial institution into one of the most talked about success stories in the history of commercial banking in Nigeria. Becoming Group Managing Director of Zenith Bank in just 10 years says something about his sterling qualities and professionalism, a man who would play by the rules and not cut corners in a profession where such unethical business practices are not uncommon in Nigeria.
Emefiele, fondly called Meffi by his close friends, was born on August 4, 1961 in Lagos, but by parents from Agbor in Delta State who lived and worked in the littoral state. He would also begin his primary and secondary education in Lagos and then found himself in an out-of-state school for his degree programme at UNN, Nsukka in Enugu State.
His meeting with Ovia afterwards and eventual taking up appointment with Zenith Bank is the kind of success story heads of departments of B and F plump for and routinely recount to their wards in business schools. In other words, the success story of Zenith will never be complete without the prominent role Emefiele played in it. And, as anyone would imagine, success stories never hide, they are in plain sight to see.
Scouting for a replacement in 2014 for the outgoing governor of CBN, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, former President Goodluck Jonathan looked no further than Emefiele. Jonathan appointed him on June 4, 2014 to head the apex bank in Nigeria. The Senate confirmed his appointment immediately.
In his very first world press conference, which held the following day June 5, the new man at CBN laid out his by now famous 10-point agenda to rejig a wonky economy, to make it people-focused. His main objectives, Emefiele told Nigerians on that day and, by extension, the rest of the world, are “a Central Bank that is professional, apolitical and people-focused, which spends its energies on building a resilient financial system that can serve the growth and development needs of our beloved country.”
Never predict the future, economists like to say. And they are most often correct. No one, to cite an example, foresaw the 1929 world market crash. Likewise, despite his lofty plans for Nigeria as the chief pilot of the country’s financial matters, the plummeting crude oil prices all over the world was an unexpected blow to Nigerians in general and the CBN helmsman in particular.
Also totally unexpected was COVID-19, which humbled much of humanity and almost brought their businesses and social relations to a standstill. A proactive leader no doubt, the CBN governor had workable intervention programmes in place such that analysts were simply bowled over by Emefiele’s radical measures taken to tackle this novel challenge.
One of them is Boniface Chizea, who used the occasion of Emefiele’s sixtieth birthday last August to commend him thusly: “If we are looking for one institution that has been accountable for the country’s quick exit from the pandemic to resume growth,” Chizea wrote in a birthday tribute published in Vanguard, “it must be the Central Bank under your watch…the President also admitted openly that it was one of his best decisions to have reappointed you as Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria for a second term.”
After his first term in office, anyone would have reasonably imagined Jonathan’s successor, PMB, to do away with Emefiele’s services. After all, successive governments are notoriously finicky about carry-overs from previous administrations. It was not so. PMB reappointed him in 2019 as the number one man in the nation’s banking affairs, a position he occupies to this day. (For the record, Emefiele remains the only indigenous governor of CBN to serve in two different, diametrically opposed governments – politically and economically – the Peoples’ Democratic Party and the ruling All Progressives Congress.)
Of course, there have been doubters, chronic skeptics of some of the economic policies of the CBN governor. But he has always confounded them with tangible results, results that are glaring for all to see.
Among them is prohibition/ banning of certain commodities and items that can be locally produced. Rice is top on the list. Sale of forex to Bureau de Change operators is another. Making funds available to thousands of youths in Nigeria through the Nigerian Youth Investment Fund has been hailed as a programme to tackle unemployment. The Anchor Borrowers Scheme Emefiele initiated as CBN governor has revolutionarised farming in Nigeria.
On November 21, 2019, for instance, CBN signed a Memorandum of Understanding with governors of cassava producing states and cassava growers Association. It was the brainchild of Emefiele.
“Cassava,” he began by telling the mixed audience of state chief executives and farmers, “represents one of the most important economic crops in the world…the world market for the commodity is one of the most dynamic with the volume of production and foreign trade growing steadily.”
Signing the MoU, according to the governor, was in line with the diversification programme of PMB’s administration, from over dependence on crude oil. Continuing, Emefiele told his audience that Nigeria is “particularly interested in the cassava value chain because it is in line with President Muhammadu Buhari’s economic diversification economic programme for Nigeria. This is because economic diversification is an essential tool for national development and we are leaving no stone unturned towards repositioning Nigeria on the map of the world not just as the leading cassava producer but a processor as well.”
Around this time every year, most editors of newspapers and magazines brainstorm for weeks to choose their Man or Woman of the Year – that is, the individual who has had the most positive or negative impact on peoples’ lives. It is a painstaking process of winnowing the chaff from the grain, of endless disagreements or support for subjects under consideration.
When it was suggested in one of our editorial meetings that Emefiele had emerged as the THEWILL’s MoY, there were two or so dissensions. But the Business Editor, Sam Diala, quickly shot them down, enumerating one by one the achievements of Meffi in his seven years as the CBN governor. That just about put paid to the opposing views. Of course, readers will come across many of these achievements by Diala in the article headlined “Emefiele: Passionate Banker in Turbulent Times.”
True, the real test of individuals in positions of authority anywhere in the world – whether presidents or prime ministers, heads of corporations or educational institutions – is not how much of a smooth ride they had while in office but in surmounting the rough patches along the way. Godwin Ifeanyi Emefiele has had more than his fair share of both natural and man-made problems as CBN governor in the last couple of years. Has he survived it? A resounding yes is the answer from THEWILL, which is why today, we give him a standing ovation by naming him our Person of the Year.
About the Author
Michael Jimoh is a Nigerian journalist with many years experience in print media. He is currently a Special Correspondent with THEWILL.
