Translated from French by Liana Cramer – Is it permissible to criticize the pegging of the CFA franc to the euro? For having done so, Kako Nubukpo, the Togolese Minister of Forecasting and Evaluation of public policies, has become the target of certain BCEAO leaders, who have put a price on his head.
A letter, of which Financial Afrik has a copy, calls for the dismissal of the young and restless minister, whose crime was speaking out in public to denounce this form of “voluntary servitude.” Signed by Kossi Tenou, the National Director of the BCEAO in Lome, the letter addressed to the governor of the Central Bank of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (l’UEMOA), Meliyet Koné, was forwarded to President Faure Gnassingbé.
The author of the letter calls for the execution of the minister, apparently he is a follower of the old school, and openly attacks Mr. Nubukpo whose remarks, “resemble stubbornness more than an intellectual contribution.”
To recall, the minister had spoken on the subject of the CFA franc during the Best Practices Forum organized in Lomé on 26 and 27 February and at the conference of the Togolese National Economic Policy Committee (CNPE) March 5 – 6.
Each time, the minister’s statements, which were accurate and backed by economic theory, hit the nail on the head. His remarks on the pegging of the CFA franc to the euro were more technical than polemic. Another target of his remarks was the weak contribution of the region’s banks to the financing of the economy.
It is surprising that for having “dared” to give its opinion on the monetary policy of the country, a minister finds himself under attack in messages that would appear to be written by the police force, or at best, the special branch – which often writes very bluntly, more than an intellectual synthesis from the ranks of the BCEAO in Lome in regards to his superior. The new ideas of the Togolese Minister of Forecasting have apparently bothered Africa’s boy, the one that believes that the CFA franc is arising taboos.
