NIGERIA (Abuja)-The Nigerian Senate yesterday confirmed Mr. Godwin Emefiele as the new Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Emefiele, who is the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Zenith Bank, will assume duty on June 3, when the five-year tenure of the suspended Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi expires.

At the plenary yesterday, there was mild drama before Emefiele wqas allowed into the Chamber following an order raised by Senator Kabiru Gaya that Sanusi was still in court and it would be unwise to screen a successor.

“Sanusi went to court, now in the event the court rules he should return, what will happen? Why don’t we wait until the case is over?”, he said.

Senate President, David Mark therefore ruled Gaya out of order, saying the Senate would take responsibility for the action.

“Distinguished senator, you have done your best and you have been seen to have done your best.

“Unfortunately, your best is not going to carry the day here. So let me and all of us, including you, take responsibility for what we are going to do.

“Unfortunately, the matter before the court has nothing to do with what we are going to do now. So I rule you out of order.”

While responding to questions from the Senators, Emefiele lamented the penchant by Nigerians to spend dollars instead of the naira, saying it could ruin the economy, if not checked.

He added that he would probe the expenditure components of the CBN to know how the alleged N262 billion deficit became inevitable.

Said he: “I will look into the budget expenditure components in the CBN, but I am aware we have what is called the operational expenditure profile as well as administrative expenditure profile.

“I think and I imagine, I suspect more of the deficit would have come from areas pertaining to operational expenditure and if it is about operational expenditure, it means we cannot do anything about it.

“This is because those were expenditures incurred in the course of open market operation, which is needed to ensure that we maintain a strong currency and have a good country.

“We are also expected to ensure we have a strong financial system.

“On the back of this mandate, we will work hard to ensure we achieve macro-economic stability where inflation rate shall be seen to continue to come down and where we will continue to maintain a strong exchange rate for the country and build a strong foreign reserve.

“We will ensure that if approved, whatever monetary policy decision taken would be those to improve the level of employment.

“Because we know employment is important. We know today we have an employment emergency.

“We must ensure whatever decisions we take at the CBN in the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) would be those leading to improvement in the level of employment.

“We would ensure we work with the manufacturing companies to ensure we improve on their level of production and by extension ensure we improve and achieve economic growth.” He said.

Furthermore, Emefiele said: “The Central Bank is the monitoring authority, whereas the Ministry of Finance is the fiscal authority. It is important that in their relationship they must work in one direction.

“They must push in one direction. If we push in opposite directions, what you will find is that we are not going to achieve economic growth and development we are talking about.

“It is important that both the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank move in one direction.

“If the decision is that we should pursue a conventional policy, both the Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance should be seen to move in one direction.

“So, we expect that there should be a collaborative relationship where they will work together for the good of Nigerians.”

He said he would ensure the naira is respected.

“I think one of the core mandates of the Central Bank is to ensure we maintain a legal tender and they respect it and ensure whatever is done our naira has to be used as a legal tender.

“I will take it as a primary responsibility to ensure the attempt to dollarize the Nigerian economy is discouraged. We should not allow it because it will create problem for the economy.”