Meffy’s ordeal

The Department of State Security (DSS) has announced that it has charged the suspended Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin…

The Department of State Security (DSS) has announced that it has charged the suspended Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, to court. DSS spokesperson Peter Afunanya said Mr Emefiele was charged in compliance with a court order. Premium Times reported how the Federal High Court in Abuja ordered the SSS to charge Mr Emefiele to court or release him from his detention which has lasted several weeks.

For the average Nigerian elite, the concept of precedents, especially arbitrary precedents, is alien until they are at the receiving end of such actions. Godwin Emefiele’s seven-year tenure at the Central Bank was spotted with destructive and impulsive behaviour, which, severally, was found to be arbitrary and dangerous to the economy, with his personal clash with the rate publishing agency AbokiFX highlighting an individual and institutional autocracy that can be rivalled only by Rome’s Emperor Nero. As Nero fiddled while Rome burnt, Emefiele’s abundant time to fiddle while the Nigerian economy careened off its rails allowed him to take on personal and organisational projects that often contradicted his mandate as the country’s chief central banker. Now he is at the receiving end of such behaviour. The DSS, like Emefiele before it, has crossed the borders of its responsibilities. The Nigerian Police has departments equipped explicitly for the investigation and prosecution of financial crimes, and it is telling that the DSS has abandoned its role in national security while violent terrorist groups run rampant in different Nigerian regions. The DSS serves as Nigeria’s principal domestic intelligence agency, charged with upholding Nigerian laws and protecting citizens’ rights. However, over the years, the DSS’ actions have shown that it has lost its sense of true purpose, and subsequent administrations have used it to chase down political adversaries. Last week, a court ruled that the DSS must charge or release the former CBN governor. Previously, ruling against Mr Emefiele’s family’s appeal for his release, the court referenced an order from an Abuja Chief Magistrate Court permitting the secret police to detain Emefiele for 14 days to conclude its investigations. With this, the judge held that Mr Emefiele could not prove that his arrest, detention and investigation was unlawful since it was based on a valid court order. Given its antecedents, it is unlikely that he would have been let go if he were not charged. During President Buhari’s first term, former spokesperson of the Peoples Democratic Party, Olisa Metuh, ex-national security adviser Col. Sambo Dasuki, and leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, Sheikh Ibrahim El Zakzakky, were held in DSS custody despite court orders mandating their release. Then, the DSS was renowned for ignoring court rulings. Among the many projects the DSS could pick from, it is head-scratching that the agency is charging Emefiele for illegally possessing a firearm. After all the DSS’ dramatics, it is disappointing that it could not charge Emefiele for any of Nigerians’ big-ticket issues against him. The DSS’ failure to prosecute him despite having him in custody for over a month continues the impunity with which the security agencies treat the writ of Habeas Corpus. However, the absurdity of the charge fuels speculation that the former Central Bank governor’s travail could be politically motivated, given the bad blood between him and the current president, Bola Tinubu, who once accused the Central Bank Governor of scuttling the APC’s chances at the polls with the naira redesign policy.