Senate Summons CBN Gov Over Fall Of Naira

Worried by the continued weakening of the the naira against the dollar, the Senate yesterday summoned the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, to appear before it next week to give explanations on the. continuous weakening of naira against the dollar in the foreign exchange market.
The summons was an outcome of a Point of Order raised by the Leader of the Senate, Sen. Ali Ndume, on the ugly trend which is already causing panic in the economic sector.
Raising the point of order, Senator Ndume noted that it was expedient for the Senate to invite the CBN governor to brief it on why the naira has continued to slide under, and the actions taken to stem the tide.
His words: “As at today, naira is exchanged for N305 to one dollar. In view of this worrisome situation and the fact that we all know that this country depends so much on imported materials and even food, “there is a need for this Senate to as a matter of urgency call invite or summon the governor of CBN to explain this situation and to provide the necessary solution to this situation.’’
The Senate President, Bukola Saraki ruled in favor of Ndume’s prayer, and directed the Senate Leader to summon the CBN boss.
In a related development, the outbreak of Lassa fever in Nigeria which had in the last one week claimed 43 lives across 10 states, was yesterday described as a national embarrassment by the Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole.
The minister stated this while making submissions before the Senate Committee on Health on efforts being made by his ministry at curtailing the outbreak.
Adewole  noted that the disease began in a community in West Africa,  and is supposed to have been rendered impotent over the years.
His words, “Unlike Ebola, which took the nation by surprise last year, after being imported from Liberia by an infected person, Lassa fever which has over the years registered its presence in the country , supposed not to have taken us by surprise, if infected people had reported promptly”,
He disclosed that the current outbreak started in August last year in Foka village in Niger State, but snowballed into an outbreak now across nine other states of the federation due to failure of patients and relations to report the infection and death of victims to the appropriate authorities.
According to him, the Foka incident in Niger State last year killed not less than 17 villagers in succession without prompt report to the state government due to superstitious belief that their deaths were more of needed ritual for the new village market and not as a result of any strange ailment, which however proved to be so, when a child of the village school headmaster died in December.

Nneka Amaechi-Nnadi