Charles Soludo, a former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria has said former President Goodluck Jonathan ran the bank like Idi-Amin.
Idi-Amin Dada ruled Uganda with an iron fist between 1971 and 1979 and was described as one of the most corrupt African rulers.
Mr Soludo said, “Imagine a scenario where a president can order the CBN to create an intervention fund for national stability and CBN literally ‘prints’ say, N3 trillion, and doles it out cash to the Presidency to prosecute an election campaign or for just about anything he fancies”.
He said it was a dangerous path to thread which ruins economy, he added that he doesn’t know any other country where such was tolerated, except in a movie he watched about Idi Amin and his governor of central bank.
The former CBN governor described the bank as “the ATM of the Presidency,” under Jonathan.
He said it was regrettable that in spite of the bank’s statutory independence, it continues to be a victim of high-wire politics, often “electrocuting” the bank’s leadership.
Mr. Soludo said, recent allegations regarding the ‘arms-gate’ (short for the $2.1billion scandal involving former NSA Sambo Dasuki) and the apparent abuse of the CBN as ATM by the presidency should get reasonable people thinking.
