CBN debunks “Wailing Wailers” allegations

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said that the Civil Society Group called Wailing Wailer is a bunch of blackmailers fighting for the interest of those who want to destroy the Nigerian economy.

The group which goes by the tag OccupyCBN has threatened to protest on Friday about alleged corruption of the CBN especially on the management of foreign exchange.

In a statement by the CBN’s Acting Director, Corporate Communications, Mr. Isaac Okorafor, described them as paid agent of some selfish interest groups and enemies of the Nigerian economy.

Okorafor said: “the allegations are totally false and fabricated”. According to him, there is no iota of truth to these allegations.

He said that the CBN did not allocate or sell any $12 million to anybody. He challenged the group to show proof, stating that such a thing is not possible under the new forex system.

“These paid agents of selfish interests and the enemies of the Nigerian economy will fail in their bid to distract the CBN and the federal government from their focus on the diversification of the Nigerian economy away from import and crude oil dependency”.

According to Okorafor, “some powerful interests want the CBN and government to reverse the policy on conservation of forex and sabotage, especially the list of 41 items that are ineligible for access to forex through the interbank forex market, and to truncate the ongoing efforts to wean Nigerians from senseless importation”. He accused the group of working to create markets for importers to the overall detriment of the Nigerian economy.

He, however, stated that no amount of blackmail would “make the CBN allow a practice where by our farmers and industrialists who have invested heavily and employed our youths in the production of Nigerian made rice, fish, industrial starch, palm produce, wheat, tooth pick, wines, etc, would be made to close their farms and factories again”.

He noted that what these charlatans and hirelings want is basically twofold. “First, they want the CBN to give out the nation’s scarce foreign exchange to their sponsors to import all manner of foreign goods and dump them on our markets thereby frustrating the good work our own farmers and manufacturers have begun.

“Second, they want the CBN to fold its arms and allow currency speculators to drive the naira down to a level at which it will be easy for their paymasters to buy up and take control of the Nigerian economy. They have even gone to the extent of making false allegations that some banks are having trouble just to trigger panic in the financial system. These will not happen, he stated emphatically”.

“It will be economically suicidal for the CBN to allocate our scarce forex to those who will engage in another escapade in senseless importation which will again discourage our local producers who have borrowed money to engage in agriculture and local manufacturing”, Okorafor said.

He said it would be dangerous to the poor people in the rural areas and indeed to masses of Nigerian workers who are on fixed incomes for the CBN to allow speculators to drive the value of the naira to any level just for the selfish gains of the sponsors of these arrange protests. “We will not succumb to blackmail” he said.

On the issue of the CBN funding the Federal Government budget, Okorafor said that this has been long addressed, with clear figures which have been widely publicized. He reiterated that the role of the CBN as banker to the Federal Government is to do exactly what we have done and within the limits specified by law.

He queried if the so-called group would want the CBN to withhold advances so that the government will collapse?