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BREAKING: CBN finally throws its financial books open, first time since APC govt
For the first time since the All Progressives Congress (APC) came into power in 2015, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has thrown open its books to release its Consolidated Financial Statements for public scrutiny, a step it failed to take under the former government of President Muhammadu Buhari, despite its claim of integrity.
The documents, which include its financial dealings for 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 financial periods, is coming with the apex bank declaring a profit after tax of N103.8billion in 2022, up from N75.13billion reported a year earlier.
The statement, which said the bank owed JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs a combined sum of $7.5billion as of the financial year ended December 2022 and $6.3billion owed in foreign currency forwards as part of its liabilities, added that it also owed Goldman Sachs $500 million and JP Morgan $7 billion in what it classified as securities lending.
The 2022 financial statement read, “The Group entered into a securities lending agreement with Goldman Sachs and J. P. Morgan and as part of the agreement, the Group pledged its holdings on foreign securities in return for cash. The cash received from Goldman Sachs is N0.23tn ($500m), 2021: N0.22tn ($500m), and JP Morgan N3.23tn ($7bn), 2021: N3.05tn ($7bn) is recognised in other foreign securities.”
Securities lending forms part of the CBN’s total external reserves of about N14.3tn or $29bn using the official exchange rate of N494/$1 as of 2022.
However, the apex bank also owes another N3.15tn ($6.3bn) in foreign currency forward which are forex obligations it needs to make to foreign investors.
The financial statements uploaded on the CBN website is an indication that the apex bank, under the leadership of acting Governor Folashodun Shonubi, is ready to open its book to public scrutiny.
The suspended CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, had come under attack for not releasing the financial statements to the public.
The action of Emefiele is in gross violation of the CBN Act.
Since 2005 when it started publishing details of its annual report on its website, the CBN never failed to publish the report until 2016, when it stopped the publication of the crucial documents.
According to the CBN Act 2007, the apex bank is expected to publish its report within two months after the end of each financial year.
“The Bank shall, within two months after the close of each financial year, transmit to the National Assembly and the President a copy of its annual accounts certified by the Auditor.
“A report required to be submitted to the National Assembly and the President shall be published by the Bank in such a manner as the Governor may direct
“The Board shall ensure that accounts submitted pursuant to this section shall as soon as possible be published in the Gazette.
“The Bank shall as soon as may be practicable after the last day of each month makeup end publish a return of its assets and liabilities as at the close of business on that day, or if that day is a holiday, as at the close of business on the last preceding business day,” the Act reads.
Analysts are of the view that the failure of the CBN to publish the report could send wrong signals to investors and others interested in understanding the state of the economy.
President Bola Tinubu had appointed Jim Obazee as a Special Investigator to probe the activities of the CBN and other related entities.
In a letter dated July 28, Tinubu said the appointment of Obazee, relying on the fundamental objective set forth in Section 15(5) of the Nigerian constitution, was in furtherance of his administration’s anti-corruption fight.
The appointment is with immediate effect, and Obazee is to report directly to the President.
According to the letter signed by the President, the full terms of Obazee’s engagement as a special investigator will be communicated to him in due course.
The President had directed Obazee to investigate the CBN and related entities using a suitably experienced, competent and capable team and to work with relevant security and anti-corruption agencies to deliver on the assignment.
Chidi Odinkalu, Nigeria’s fiery lawyer, law teacher and former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), is emphatic that President Bola Tinubu is pushing to perpetuate himself in office, beginning with gaming the electoral process in 2027.
Odinkalu, Professor of Practice in International Human Rights Law at the Fletcher School, told his host Naija Unfiltered, a popular Nigerian podcast programme, that he was as sure as death that the President would not exit office in 2031, if he succeeded with his current gambit to remain in power beyond next year.
Hear him: “Yes. But as I said, let me repeat myself. There’ll be a third term. President Tinubu has not done all of this just for another four years. There will be a third term. And anybody who is doing, ‘it is not our portion,’ is not reading the evidence.”
To achieve this aim, the activist, who was also emphatic that the National Assembly, would play a role, added: “The current National Assembly is anything but national or an assembly. And if it’s an assembly, it’s not a parliamentary one. Many people have called it a rubber stamp, but I think that is actually abusive of rubber stamps. I think this National Assembly is a disgrace.
Citing how bizarre and completely compliant the national legislature had become to Tinubu, the ex-NHRC’s boss, stated: “If you can change your national anthem in less than 24 hours with no public hearing, no public consultation, no public involvement, it tells you you don’t have a country because a national anthem is fundamental to the construction of a national identity.”
Also referring to the current move by the President to introduce state police, Odinkalu, wondered how the Nigerian Senate would introduce the bill to that effect and proceed towards the first and second readings, as well as committee stage and passage in less than two hours, questioning how that was possible in normal clime.
Hear him: “Once we finish our elections, we’re going to amend our Constitution, introduce a single six-year presidential term. The current incumbent will be elected until 2031. In 2031, what will happen? The question will be, will he be entitled to run on the six-year term or will he not?
“You will then get the best Senior Advocates in Nigeria telling you the law is not retrospective. That is why the administration is supporting the litigation over President Jonathan’s tenure—not because the Constitution is not clear, but because they will say there is precedent. There will be a third term, and I’m prepared to bet on it.”
“If we continue to pay ransom, we are encouraging these criminals to kidnap more people. The cycle will only continue unless we stop rewarding criminality,” were the words of Dauda Lawal, Governor of Zamfara State, with which he blamed those in the habit of paying ransoms as the major factor fuelling the current wave of kidnapping incidents across the country.
Lawal, on Thursday at the ARISE News/THISDAY Town Hall Conference on State Police and National Security in Abuja, told his audience how he flatly refused to pay a ₦300 million ransom demanded by kidnappers who abducted his brothers in 2019.
Reiterating his opposition to negotiating with bandits and renewed his support for the establishment of state police, Lawal, while recounting the incident, said: “My own brothers were kidnapped in 2019, and the kidnappers demanded about ₦300 million. I told them I was not going to pay a dime. If they wanted to kill them, they could go ahead.”
Stating that his brothers were eventually released without any ransom being paid, he argued that paying ransom usually emboldened criminal groups by providing financial incentives for further kidnappings.
He added: “My position on ransom payments remains unchanged. I will not negotiate, and I will not pay ransom to any criminal, no matter what happens.”
Endorsing the move for the establishment of state police, to enable governors have greater operational authority over security within their states, he regretted that the current constitutional arrangement left governors with responsibility for security without corresponding powers to direct security agencies.
His words: “In as much as I am called the chief security officer of the state, I do not have the command-and-control authority to direct the operations of the security agencies. I’m prepared to support the funding of state police if the proposed policing structure is established. I’m confident that decentralised policing will improve intelligence gathering, response time and the overall fight against insecurity.”
Exactly seven years, two months and four days after he forced Walter Onnoghen, the 16th Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) out of office, Danladi Umar, former Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), on Thursday, found himself in Kuje prison.
Justice Peter Kekemeke, of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), sitting in Maitama, handed the ex-CCT boss the unwelcome package on Thursday, following his arraignment by the Federal Government on a four-count corruption charge.
Umar’s ordeal began after an investigations revealed that he abused his official position by conferring an undue advantage on himself while serving as head of the tribunal, having in 2021, reportedly using his wife’s bank account to collect the sum of N5.5 million from a contractor engaged to paint the headquarters of the CCT in Abuja.
He was also accuse of using the same account to collect another N6million on January 25, 2024, from a contractor who handled the digitisation of the CCT’s records and yet another N2.43 million a contractor paid as tuition fee of his daughter at Baze University, Abuja.
After pleading not guilty to offences, said to be punishable under section 19 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000, Christopher Mshelia, lawyer to the FG, prosecuting the matter, applied for his remand in a correctional facility, while urging the court to set a date for the commencement of trial.
His pleas to be freed on bail pending the determination of the case, was opposed by the prosecution, which drew the court’s attention to the fact that it had just been served with the bail application, saying it needed time to respond to it, forcing Kekemeke to adjourn the case till July 15 for hearing while the former CCT boss remained behind bars.
Umar, had as CCT Chairman, on January 23, 2019, issued a controversial ex parte order that led to the removal of a serving Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen.
Following the ex parte order, the late President Muhammadu Buhari, on January 25, swore in the next most senior jurist of the Supreme Court, Justice Tanko Muhammad, to take over the leadership of the judiciary as Acting CJN.
Even though Onnoghen later voluntarily resigned his position as CJN on April 4, Umar went ahead and convicted him on April 18, 2019, on the federal government’s allegation that he had failed to properly declare his assets as required by law.
He gave the federal government the go-ahead to confiscate all monies in five accounts belonging to the former CJN, and also removed him as Chairman of both the NJC and the Federal Judiciary Service Commission (FJSC).
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