Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State has requested that President Muhammadu Buhari not authorize any study leave or other type of leave for any officer essential to the forthcoming administration of Bola Tinubu.
The governor notably cited the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, who he claimed had requested leave and urged the President to reject the CBN governor such a request.
Matawalle praised the President and his wife for their efforts to guarantee a smooth transition and transfer to President-elect Bola Tinubu, but regretted the behavior of some other government officials.
Focusing on Emefiele, the Zamfara governor accused the incumbent CBN governor of supervising the country’s financial mismanagement.
as well as monetary systems. He insisted that the CBN governor stay in order to answer to the next administration for all that occurred during his tenure.
“He is the one who initiated and implemented the recent disastrous Naira swap policy, the Naira confiscation program, which caused untold misery and trauma for Nigerians and set our economy back.”
“Two of my brother-governors and I took the Federal Government to court over this ill-advised policy and fought tenaciously until we got Emefiele and company to back down.”
“This same Emefiele now wants to go on study leave when he still has about ten months left on his contract, ostensibly to avoid rendering accounts.” This is intolerable. This should not be tolerated by President Buhari.
“Emefiele must remain at his post in order to provide the incoming government with detailed accounts of everything that occurred while he was in charge. “He must answer all questions that the new regime may have for him, especially since he still has a few months left in his tenure,” Matawalle added.
He further urged the President not to allow foreign postings or grant international travel for any officer at any level of the leaving government who could be vital or strategic to the smooth transition of the next government.
The governor claimed that some government officials are acting as though they intended to sabotage the incoming regime’s plans.
“I am aware that some officers in the outgoing government are planning to flee the country covertly.”
They are required to answer certain questions at this vital time, albeit I will not name them.
“President Buhari should disregard their irrational and unpatriotic plan.” These plans are perilous and terrible. They plainly demonstrate that these policemen have something to hide. This must be stopped right away. Any strategy to avoid accounting is neither in the interest of accountability, openness, and anti-corruption, which President Buhari has championed in office, nor in the interest of the incoming administration taking off unhindered.
“It is also not in the national interest, which the president has always promoted and championed.” This is my appeal, and this is why, as a patriotic Nigerian and concerned governor, I have decided to speak out,” he concluded.
