Godwin Emefiele, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has purchased the Nomination and Expression of Interest forms to contest for the Presidential ticket of the All Progressives Congress in 2023.
Sources at the APC Secretariat confirmed that Emefiele’s payment of N100 million for the nomination and expression of interest forms was confirmed by the Finance Department of the party after which the form was released to him this morning, Friday May 6, 2022.
Emefiele’s decision to run for the office of the president in 2023 follows months of speculations regarding political aspirations of the Agbor, Delta State-born former Managing Director of Zenith Bank.
Emefiele had, in response to the move to vie for Nigeria’s number one office, asked speculators not to draw him in, as he would rather focus on fixing Nigeria’s monetary policies and aligning them with Federal Government’s fiscal policies.
Emefiele is still the CBN governor and it is not certain yet whether he would resign before the APC presidential primary or not as other appointees of President Muhammadu Buhari who have declared interest in the presidency are still in the government.
The CBN governor has ended weeks of speculation on whether or not he would join the 2023 presidential race.
Appointed in 2014, Emefiele, who hails from Delta State, was reappointed in 2019 for the second term of five years by President Muhammadu Buhari. The second tenure of the Delta-born economist will lapse in 2024.
In February when a ‘group of his friends’, tagged ‘Friends of Godwin Emefiele’, visited him to discuss the controversy over his presidential ambition in 2023, Emefiele had said it was in the hands of God.
“Given that it’s God that anoints leaders, he will leave his faith (sic) firmly in the hands of God,” he was quoted to have said.
Emefiele is now up against Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo; Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu; Governors Yahaya Bello (Kogi), Dave Umahi (Ebonyi), Mohammed Badaru (Jigawa) and at least five ministers for the APC presidential ticket.
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