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The executive branch of government holds a monopoly on public policy.

The executive branch of government holds a monopoly on public policy.

And, if policymaking is not shielded from fraught political interferences, no meaningful results will be achieved because most political interests are anti-people and at the same time pro-corrupt politicians. 

Had Prof Soludo and Mr Sanusi (former heads of the central bank of Nigeria) been allowed at the helm of the institution for two consecutive terms of five years (a total of 20 years of them running the apex bank), regardless of who was holding the keys to the Aso Rock (Nigeria's equivalent of US White House or the UK’s 10 Downing Street), the Nigerian economy might not have slipped into the current steepest downturn. I have three brief points.

My reasons--the duo have a couple of things in common: 👇

(1) In my opinion, they are skilled at central banking than all their predecessors as both of them hold degrees in econ.

(2) They are highly ambitious! And would go to any length to protect their names-- to avoid it being on the record that the building collapsed with them in it simply because they were in charge. They know what they want, how to get it and not only know their limits in their attempts to get what they want but also how to transcend above their capacities. For instance, when appointed to head the central bank, Prof Soludo shopped for his deputy abroad. Same with Mr Sanusi. Beyond that, they're brave and could therefore persuasively stand up to a leader higher than they -- to convince the leader to endorse and implement good policies and to reject bad ones. 


(3) Finally, the advantage of continuity. The abrupt termination of the tenure of a governor is not healthy for the effective functioning of the top financial sector regulator. For a central bank to thrive in this regard, two conditions are to be made: continuity and autonomy.

Renewing the tenure of a performing central bank governor is good but not sufficient for robust performance. The institution must be independent of the executive branch. For instance, Mr Emefile’s tenure was renewed as he has been governing the apex bank since 2014. Then, the naira was still relatively stable until there was a switch in who was in charge of the presidency. Manifestly, he was not given ample bandwidth to freely operate.

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