Posted by By Samod Biobaku on
The presidency may have decided to ignore what appears to be a campaign against the Governor of the Cantral Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Professor Charles Soludo.
The presidency may have decided to ignore what appears to be a campaign against the Governor of the Cantral Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Professor Charles Soludo.
Presidency sources Sunday Sun last Friday has been angered by what he sees as part of a grand smear campaign not only on his family but also to pull down the arrow heads of his reform programme.
The campaign, Aso Rock believes, is being orchestrated by the "mafia" in the banking industry unhappy with the reforms currently being carried by the CBN.
In what seems a veiled reference, President Olusegun Obasanjo had Tuesday in Abuja said it was the intention of those opposed to his anti-corruption crusade to cast mud at people close to him in order to create a distraction.
"Soludo is only one of the targets, those people that make Obasanjo tick including Nuhu Ribadu and some members of the economic team may are the targets," the source alerted.
The source continued that the President understands the intents and motives of sponsors of the campaign and has vowed to not only forge ahead with the banking reforms, but to teach the campaigners a lesson.
There have been media publications recently alleging that a grant by the CBN to committees of the National Assembly were intended to bribe the legislative body. The pattern and timing of the publications are said to have given them out as the work of mischief-makers.
Critics of the campaign say however that those behind it merely tried to ride on the back of the recent Osuji scandal to mudsling the Governor. They insist that the CBN could not have tried to bribe the Assembly since it does not approve any budget for the apex bank. Again, the amendment of the banking laws which involved the specification of new capital bases for banks was passed by the Senate against the intentions of the CBN.
A banker in Lagos also told our reporter that Soludo had drawn the ire of many powerful forces with his new capital base for banks, and that the next few months would be decisive.
Whispers in Abuja have it that even within the CBN the campaigners have highly placed collaborators who are apparent losers in the ongoing restructuring of both the CBN and the Mint.
The President was also reported to be prepared to do battle with Soludo's detractors, whom he believe are bent on destroying the economic reforms which he regards as the most significant legacy he would bequeath to Nigerians.
"His regard for Soludo is very high and he will do everything to protect the man from this smear because he knows this is the work of his enemies," he added.