Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, on Thursday in Abuja blamed the nation’s woes on lack of faithful commitment to diversification of the economy, especially at the time the price of crude oil, the country’s major income earner, was $140 per barrel, its all-time peak.
Emefiele who was a panelist at the Annual Media Trust Dialogue in Abuja, noted that earnings of the government had risen to height of $3.2 billion, before diving to about $500 million per month recently.
He also recalled a time when the crude oil price stabilized at $105 per barrel over a period of five years.
“What did we do with the huge accretion to the reserves then?” he queried, following which he assured critics of the apex bank and government policies that “priority will be given to Nigerian masses by managing the limited resources to provide for industrial raw materials, plants and equipment and agricultural inputs in order to create employment and generate wealth.”
Emefiele was reacting to a concern raised by a member of the panel, who is founding chief executive, now chairman of Stanbic IBTC Holdings, Atedo Peterside, that the foreign exchange policies of the CBN are hurting business interests.
The CBN Governor responded by saying that policy makers don’t make policies in isolation, just as such policies are not designed to hurt the citizenry, but with the objectives to improve the life of all concerned and not just to serve the interest of just a few powerful and rich individuals.

He debunked the insinuations in some quarters that policies of the government were designed to enhance the wellbeing of a few privileged people in the society, rather than serving the best interest of the vast majority of Nigerians.
“Policies were put in place to help Nigeria pull through the hard time,” he stressed.