Activist Blasts Tinubu for Appointing Shonubi, a Mechanical Engineer, as Acting CBN Governor
President Bola Tinubu has faced backlash for appointing Folashodun Adebisi Shonubi as the acting Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), following the suspension of Godwin Emefiele.
Deji Adeyanju, a socio-political activist, said he was highly disappointed by Tinubu’s decision to appoint Shonubi, who is a mechanical engineer, as the head of the apex bank. He said Shonubi lacked the economic expertise and experience to run the CBN and might lead to Nigeria’s failure.
Adeyanju made his views known in a Facebook post on Friday, June 9, 2023. He compared Shonubi’s appointment to that of Kenya and Turkey, which recently appointed economists with PhDs as their CBN governors.
He also said the federal government should stop appointing bankers as CBN governors because they know nothing about fiscal policies or how to run an economy. He said Tinubu was trying to divert attention from his own corruption scandals by appointing a mechanical engineer as acting CBN governor.
He wrote: “While I commend President Bola Tinubu for suspending Emefiele, I am highly disappointed that he has appointed Shonubi, a mechanical engineer as Acting Governor of the Apex bank.
Kenya just appointed an Economist with PhD. as its CBN Gov. Turkey has also recently done the same.
While we are still saying the FG must stop appointing bankers as CBN Governor because they know nothing about fiscal policies or how to run an economy, the new president goes to appoint a mechanical engineer as Acting CBN Governor. This is why nations fail.”
Who is Adebisi Shonubi?
Shonubi was announced as the CBN acting governor on Friday, June 9, 2023, after Emefiele was suspended by President Tinubu based on an ongoing investigation. The office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) asked Emefiele to hand over to Shonubi with immediate effect.
Shonubi holds double Master’s degrees respectively in Business Administration and Mechanical Engineering from the University of Lagos. He has over 30 years of experience in the banking sector.
Before his appointment as acting head of CBN, Shonubi occupied the position of Deputy Governor in the Operations Directorate. He assumed the position in June 2018 after the approval of former president Muhammadu Buhari.
He was also the Managing Director/CEO of the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System PLC from 2012 – 2018. He played a key role in developing the Bank Verification Number (BVN) in his time at NIBSS.
He has also held roles as Executive Director of Information Technology and Operations at Union Bank of Nigeria Plc; Director of Information Technology and Corporate Services at Renaissance Securities Nigeria Limited; Vice President at First City Monument Bank Limited; Executive Director at Ecobank Nigeria Limited; and Head of Treasury Operations at Citibank Nigeria Limited.
He has served on several sub-committees of the Bankers’ Committee, including the Ethics and Professionalism sub-committee.
His recent voting on MPR Meetings
Shonubi has often chosen a hawkish monetary policy stand pushing for higher interest rates. For example, at the last MPR in November 2023 he voted for MPR tp be raised to 16.5% which was adopted.
At the January MPR, he voted for a 150 basis point hike in MPR from 16.5% to 18%. The members eventually voted for a 100 basis point increase to 17.5%.
At the March MPR, he also voted for a 50 basis point raise to 18% which was eventually adopted by the committee.
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