Former SGF Babachir Lawal say’s Tinubu Appointed Central Bank Governor with “Patch-Patch” CV for Nigeria

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr. Olayemi Cardoso, was appointed by President Bola Tinubu with a Curriculum Vitae (CV) that Babachir Lawal, the previous Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), called a “patch-patch.”

In an interview with Arise News Television on Wednesday, Lawal stated that the new CBN governor had a “patch-patch CV” because he was “merely” the Commissioner of Planning in Lagos State, which is, in the words of the former SGF, one of the nation’s 36 smaller states.

Despite Lagos’ potential reputation as a major economy, he pointed out that this does not prove the CBN governor is qualified for the role.

“As for his central bank governor, I mentioned that the president had a central bank governor with a ‘patch-patch’ CV in my response to the All Progressives Congress when they decided to take me on,” Lawal stated.

“I called him ‘patch-patch’ CV because he was the commissioner of planning for Lagos State, one of our 36 states, which is a very small state. Despite the size of the economy, you cannot claim that he has sufficient expertise to hold the role of governor of the central bank.

They continued by saying that he was the chairman of a bank that had thirteen branches, which did not provide him with enough exposure. As I previously stated, they are all based in the vicinity of Lagos, with two branches each in Warri, Benin City, and Lagos.

“In my opinion, the bank was going after oil money, and he is now the governor of the Central Bank.”

Lawal went on to say, “He didn’t disappoint my expectations because the first thing he did as the governor was to remove the import ban on 43 items, most of which were very critical to Nigeria’s food sufficiency,” adding that he had previously argued that Cardoso was unfit to serve as the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria.

“He lifted the restriction on rice imports. Nigeria was starting to approach 90% self-sufficiency in rice thanks to a fairly extensive programme on the subject for the Anchor Borrowers Programme.

“We farmers had started to believe that by the following year, we would be exporting the extra rice we had grown, but he says, ‘No, you can now import rice. He can provide you with the foreign exchange needed to import rice.'”

He applies the same technique to numerous other agricultural products. That confirms my belief that this individual is incapable of performing this task.