This is very strange: the Nigerian stock exchange is not reacting to the drama between the governor of Nigeria’s central bank and the law enforcement agencies. This clearly shows that Nigeria is not run on data, and investment in our public market is not based on near-real time market information. Do you know that by now, the stock exchange would have collapsed in the US if the Fed Chairman (America’s central bank governor) is under a high-voltage searchlight of law enforcements, accusing him of financing terrorism, corruption, etc.
But here in Nigeria, markets did not blink, parrying everything as political hacks against the high priest of Nigeria’s economy. The problem is that when people do not care about the high priest, it means the temple has lost relevance.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) should be concerned that people do not even care that the governor has joined a tales-by-moonlight game: catch the governor if you can as he runs around the circles in US, Nigeria and beyond. This is not how to run a country!
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President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday met with the embattled governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, as the interest of concerned parties in the banking sector heightens over the fate of the nation’s topmost banker.
The duo met at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, in what is believed to be their first meeting this year, according to the News Agency of Nigeria.
Mr Emefiele arrived the villa at about 14:30 GMT and had a closed-door meeting for about 25 minutes with Mr Buhari. However, reports said the apex bank governor declined questions and comments from state house correspondents after the meeting.
Mr Emefiele joined a delegation of the Arab Bank for Economic Development led by its Director General, Sidi Tah, to the state house. The apex bank chief was reportedly received by Mr Buhari, who welcomed him back to the country.
“The Central Bank Governor, you are welcome back. I am grateful you are well received,” Punch newspaper quoted Mr Buhari as saying.
In recent weeks, Mr Emefiele has been in the eye of the storm amid moves by Nigeria’s secret police to arrest him over several allegations of professional misconducts.
Comment on Feed
Comment 1: “He that is down needs fear no fall”.
The stock market has largely underperformed in the last 8 years of the current leadership. Only a few individual stocks have done well. I think the market has factored so many negatives into the current price ranges already. Also, last I checked many FDIs had left the market… Current players are majorly local investors. So, in my opinion, only a major shock (like COVID) could cause the kind of collapse you expected.
Comment 2: Oh so powerful…. “When the people do not care about the high priest, it means the temple has lost relevance”. Oh how we need good leadership now more than ever before.
Comment 3: Good commentary. The dynamics of stock market is not as easy as you postulate. It is better you study what stock market is. And it is better to tell ourselves that the economy in Africa is not economy in American. Understanding of these things will moderate our criticisms and assumptions.
Emefiele has done extremely well.
Comment 4: “Do you know that by now, the stock exchange would have collapsed in the US if the Fed Chairman (America’s central bank governor) is under a high-voltage searchlight of law enforcements….” I’m not sure about that. Perhaps trading would be temporarily halted on the various exchanges pending investigations. The system is much bigger than any one person.
My Response: “Perhaps trading would be temporarily halted on the various exchanges pending investigations. ” – you arrived at the same conclusion as I did. If you announce that the FBI is looking to arrest the Fed Chair, the US bond, TB, stocks, etc market will be rattled and exchanges will suspend trading to avoid a collapse. Where you decide NOT to suspend, the selloff will accelerate because the reason you “suspend” is to avoid panic selling. Contrast Nigeria, there was no need to “suspend” because no one even noticed! Read it again, I think your conclusion is the same as mine.
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Buhari has washed his hands off Nigeria’s problems, so those who want to tear themselves apart are free to do so. Who even listens to anyone here? The CBN has been sending instructions and warnings to the commercial banks, but it appears that the latter don’t care about the CBN anymore. Just eleven days to the deadline on the old naira notes, yet the ATMs are still vomiting old naira notes with impunity; what is wrong with Nigeria is never fully understood.
So, expecting the stock market to react to the drama between Emefiele and security guys would be out of place, nothing is really coordinated here; you just wake up and go about doing your own thing. We are running parallel processing without brakes or control systems.
February 25 cannot come fast enough.