Soludo Carpets Jonathan, Says Ex-President Ran CBN Like Idi-Amin

A former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, during the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, Professor Charles Soludo, has accused former President Goodluck Jonathan of running the bank in a similar way a movie he watched, depicted late Ugandan dictator, Field Marshal Idi Amin.

Idi-Amin was Uganda’s ruler between 1971 and 1979 and was reputed for running one of the continent’s most brutal and corrupt dictatorships.

Drawing parallel between the Idi Amin regime of the 70’s and former President Jonathan, who was in the saddle from 2010 to 2015, Soludo said, “Imagine a scenario where a president can order the CBN to create an intervention fund for national stability and CBN literally ‘prints’ say, N3 trillion, and doles it out cash to the Presidency to prosecute an election campaign or for just about anything he fancies. It is a scary thought.

“We are going down a dangerous path that ruins the economy. I don’t know any other country where such is tolerated, except perhaps what I watched in a movie about Idi Amin and his governor of central bank”.

Professor Soludo, who made these views known in an interview in the current Business Edition of The Interview, described the bank as “the ATM of the Presidency”, under Jonathan.‎

He said it was regrettable that in spite of the apex bank’s statutory independence, it continues to be a victim of high-wire politics, often “electrocuting” the bank’s leadership.

Mr. Soludo said, “Recent revelations regarding the ‘arms-gate’ (short for the $2.1billion scandal involving former NSA Sambo Dasuki) and the apparent abuse of the CBN as ATM by the presidency should get reasonable people thinking”.