Former President Muhammadu Buhari stated on Tuesday, January 16, that he didn’t sack Godwin Emefiele, the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) when there were speculations about Emefiele’s presidential ambition, emphasizing that Emefiele never discussed it with him.
This revelation and others were made public in a memoir titled “Working with Buhari: Reflections of a Special Adviser on Media and Publicity (2015–2023),” written by former Special Adviser to President Buhari on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, and presented in Abuja on Tuesday.
The book also put up the former president’s defense of his administration’s Naira redesign policy, implemented by Emefiele, saying it helped the country achieve a clean general election in 2023.
The former president maintained that those who had a problem with the policy were individuals who had too much money.
Under the book’s 12th chapter, the former President said: “The scarcity of money was not deliberately done to punish Nigerians. Democracy allows people to express their will, and we did not attempt to control them. People understood the implications of their choices, and we did not force them.
“My state, Katsina, showed the beauty of the whole system. In the presidential poll, APC lost, but they came back to win the governorship. Maybe they took things for granted earlier because it was my state, and they thought they would win easily. People do not like being taken for granted.
“I met Enefiele in office when I came, and unless there was firm evidence against him, it would be unfair and an act of injustice to remove him, acting on hearsay.
“If you punish a man unjustly, it could dog his footsteps throughout life, so if you punish, you must have evidence, and you should know that you won’t be there forever. You would leave one day.
“I’m very conscious of the morale of the people who serve with me. I also expect whoever succeeds me to be fair to me. I have family and friends who will feel it. I’m very conscious of fairness.
“When he was linked with the campaign for the 2023 presidency, I did not ask him because he told nobody he was getting involved. Otherwise, I would have removed him and told the nation why.
“There is no denying that the naira redesign policy gave us cleaner elections. It was people who had too much money who had problems with it.
“When it was said that the new notes were not available, over N260 million was found with one bank chairman. Did I take on the Supreme Court on the issue? No, I could not have.
“Some APC governors went to court. I refused to judge people by my own standard, I am not materialistic, but it will be too much to expect all Nigerians to be the same way. It is not fair to condemn anybody, but it is up to them and their conscience. I want to continue to conduct myself with clear conscience, so that when I go to bed, I sleep off immediately”, the book read.