Honourable Minister of Finance and Leader of Nigerian Delegation to the 2018 IMF-World Bank Spring Meeting, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun and the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele; had with the Managing Director of International Monetary Fund, Ms. Christine Lagarde on Sunday, April 22, 2018
BY NKECHI NAECHE ((WASHINGTON DC)—--The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, yesterday gave reasons why they were not present at a U.S.-Nigeria Investment Summit in Washington D.C.
Explaining their reason in a briefing in Washington D.C., Adeosun and Emefiele said the summit was not part of their schedule in the U.S. capital and they were only informed about the summit when they arrived the U.S.
According to Adeosun, she was attending a meeting of the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC), which is the fund’s highest decision-making body of the IMF.
She explained that she’s s representative of 23 African countries on the IMFC, noting that there was no way she could have left the statutory meeting for US-Nigeria summit.
She said : one of my responsibilities at the IMFC is to issue a statement on behalf of these 23 countries, which include the Anglophone countries – South Africa and Mozambique, among others.
“There has been some controversy over scheduling. I wasn’t due at any other event. My schedule is what I must adhere to. I think maybe there were some scheduling challenges,” she said.
While Emefiele said : “I think it is important for me to say this. When I arrived in Washington, the officials of the (Nigerian) Embassy spoke with me that there was going to be a U.S.-Nigeria Summit and I said I will check my schedule because I wasn’t consulted when this summit was being organised.
“What one would have expected is that they (organisers of the summit) would have checked my schedule and that of the finance minister if they thought that our presence at the summit was very necessary.
“They could have checked our schedules to see that there was no conflict. I sit here to say the US-Nigeria summit was meant to hold between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m., whereas the World Bank committee plenary session, which is an assembly of ministers and governors of central banks was to hold between 2.45 p.m. and 5 p.m.
“There was no way the finance minister and myself could have been there. But I think it is important to say it is unfair for people to begin to cast aspersions without understanding our schedules.
“The main reason we are here is because of the statutory meetings of the IMF and World Bank. I felt I should explain this. We are not irresponsible people.”
He however apologised to the investors that attended the summit but did not meet top government officials who were in Washington.
He, however, pointed out that the Nigerian delegation met with some investors on the sidelines of the IMF/World Bank meetings.
Sanusi had on Saturday criticised Adeosun, Emefiele, the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, and the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, for not being at the event despite their presence in Washington D.C. for the IMF/World Bank meetings.
He had said he arrived the venue of the summit only to discover that top government officials had not arrived and had to wait in the ambassador’s reception and yet they never turned up.
