President Bola Tinubu has reacted to a report alleging that he has ordered the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Yemi Cardoso to resign.
A report by Insidebusiness had revealed that President Tinubu asked Cardoso to resign as the governor of CBN over his failure to revive the economy and shore up the value of the naira after one year in the saddle at the apex bank.
According to the publication, the president gave the marching order to Cardoso before he left Nigeria for China, rebuffing the pleas and pressure from the acclaimed Yoruba Elders who had risen to Cardoso’s support to save his job.
Cardoso, who reportedly secured the nomination for the plum job through the Yoruba Elders, allegedly lacks the knack to turn around the troubled institution and the poor economy he inherited.
Cardoso’s undoing, according to the publication is his inability to live up to the promise he made to President Tinubu in January to salvage the Naira and return it to between N700 and N900 to $1 before May 29, 2024, and also, save the economy from the ruins it currently lays.
The naira began a historic fall against the dollar, dropping from the N950/$1 rate observed at the close of the week that Cardoso was appointed to N960/$1 by Monday of the week following his appointment as Nigeria’s upcoming central bank governor. It slipped further to N970/$1 in the early hours of Tuesday, the following day.
This decline, which started immediately after his nomination, has seen the local currency dip, plummeting by 117.41 per cent to N1645.626/$1 as of September 12, 2024, nearly one year after he took over from Folashodun Shonubi.
The continuous crash of the Naira and the poor economy prevented the usual celebration of the return to democratic rule on May 29.
However, President Tinubu who spoke through its Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga said there has been no such request.
Bayo wrote: “It’s all lies. President Tinubu has not asked Yemi Cardoso to resign.”
