President Bola Tinubu on Sunday vowed to expose the rot in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), describing the apex bank under his predecessor, former president Muhammadu Buhari, as a den of corruption. 

Mr Tinubu’s party man, Mr Buhari, was president between May 28, 2015 to May 29, 2023, with Godwin Emefiele serving as his CBN governor. 

“I pledged a thorough housecleaning of the den of malfeasance the CBN had become. That housecleaning is well underway,” Mr Tinubu said. 

In his Independence Day speech, Mr Tinubu said new leadership of the apex bank was constituted and he would make public finding on the rot in the CBN.

“A new leadership for the Central Bank has been constituted. Also, my special investigator will soon present his findings on past lapses and how to prevent similar reoccurrences,” Mr Tinubu said.

The president’s statement comes months after he fired Mr Emefiele in June, ordering a probe into the ousted CBN governor’s leadership.

A few days after President Tinubu assumed office, he fired Mr Emefiele on June 9, ordering for a probe into his tenure as CBN governor.

Mr Emefiele spent over two months in detention. He was, however, granted bail as Mr Tinubu’s government came under criticisms for detaining him illegally without charging him to court. 

Speaking in a meeting with Nigerians in Diaspora, days after he fired Mr Emefiele, Mr Tinubu said the ousted CBN governor oversaw a “rotten financial system” in which a few persons made “bags of money.” 

He said, “The financial system was rotten. Few people making bags of our money and then you yourself, you stopped sending money home to our poor parents. Several windows. But that is gone now, is gone.” 

He added that “The man [Emefiele] is in the hands of authorities, something is being done about that, they will sort themselves out.” 

Laolu Akande, a member of Mr Buhari’s regime and media aide to former vice president Yemi Osinbajo, confessed that Mr Emefiele championed reckless looting of Nigeria’s resources through dual exchange rate.

“His shenanigans the colossal damages he perpetrated at the CBN was to the utter detriment of the Nigerian people. This is not even about cashless policy, but apparent corruption especially in the dual exchange rate policy which never made sense. What a sigh of relief,” Mr Akande said.