OF JONATHAN, SANUSI AND EMEFIELE

Abati’s statement revealed that President Jonathan suspended SLS for “various acts of financial recklessness and misconduct following reports of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria and other investigating bodies.” Financial recklessness indeed! Corruption does fight back: the Subsidy Scam has all but vanished into thin air; the Dollars-in-Cap-in-the-Middle-of-the-Night has also vamoosed; so any talk of […]

Abati’s statement revealed that President Jonathan suspended SLS for “various acts of financial recklessness and misconduct following reports of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria and other investigating bodies.” Financial recklessness indeed! Corruption does fight back: the Subsidy Scam has all but vanished into thin air; the Dollars-in-Cap-in-the-Middle-of-the-Night has also vamoosed; so any talk of some missing $20 billion, plus trillions of Naira in so-called kerosene subsidy, must also disappear – the suspension of SLS is intended to achieve just that!
One is so vexed, tired and exasperated by happenings in this country. One is so despondent that one does not anymore share that long-held adage of “We don’t have any other country but Nigeria; we should stay here and salvage it together.” Salvage it with whom? With the present crop of Nigerian leaders, this country is all but sunk, kaput, done!
Nigerians have been following, as usual, the series of events since SLS blew the whistle on the presidency and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) – Federal Government’s ATM according to Tinubu – over the missing billions of US dollars allegedly unremitted to the Federation Account through the regulatory bank. SLS’s audacious exposition of the nation’s cash cow and the profligacy of the officials entrusted with its management on behalf of the citizens of this great nation, in short, reporting ‘financial recklessness’ in our oil industry, has now turned around full circle to claim him: those who cry foul have been fouled.
A certain Teddy, who claims to be a Southerner, wrote Friday in cyberspace: “For those who know me in person, I have always said since the days of IBB that we Southerners are the problem of Nigeria. Looking back at all the protests that have taken place in Nigeria, from SAP, IBB MUST GO, JUNE 12, ABACHA MUST NOT SUCCEED HIMSELF, SICK YAR ADUA MUST RESIGN, etc., it’s obvious that we only protest or hit the streets when we have a Northern leader. With the misrule of Jonathan, where are the protesters? With the now famous NNPC missing money, where are the irritants that shouted during the $12b Gulf War missing money? Now we have a CBN governor that has been crying out loud, yet the streets have become too narrow for the protesters to come out and ask Jonathan and his cronies the whereabouts of our $20B. Where are those that are so proud to have chased away military governments?”
The presidential statement by Abati had concluded by reassuring all stakeholders in Nigeria’s financial and monetary system that Sanusi’s sack has been taken in absolute good faith, in the overall interest of the Nigerian economy and in accordance with our laws and due processes.” The international financial community, for whom that sentence was intended, did exactly the opposite of what they were expected to do – they unanimously said Sanusi’s sack is the most ‘reckless’ act of the financial year yet. In agreement with them, our weak currency the Naira plummeted again, recklessly.
President Jonathan has since forwarded the name of the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Zenith Bank, Mr. Godwin Emefiele to the Senate for confirmation as the CBN Governor. The urgency with which Emefiele’s name was sent to the Senate makes one wonders whether he was been groomed ab initio, considering the propensity to insensitivity of this Administration. Lately, the government’s appointments have centred on inequity, injustice and nepotism. Though this column is usually not given to primordial sentiments, knowing what Nigeria is, when there is reckless abandonment of civility, one must comment at least to protect one’s immediate territory.
Why the hurry, Mr. President? Nigeria desires a new Chief Financial regulator who is honed at home, for such a person can have easy grasp and appreciate the feelings of the suffering masses who crave policies that would create jobs and put meals on the table; someone with commercial banking bias who understands the dynamism of Nigeria’s banking system and can fashion out a fiscal and monetary future for it; someone who can call the bluff of the Bretton Wood institutions; someone who would know how to motivate the commercial banks to key into any far reaching policy that might be introduced to rev up the economy; someone who would add value to, and consolidate on the gains of the predecessors, especially the last two, Dr. Charles Soludo and Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi.
Of the six geo-political regions, three apiece in the North and the South of the country, the ones in the North seem to be systematically marginalised since President Jonathan assumed power. If this Emefiele is confirmed by the Senate, just as that of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) which is also ceded to the region with Jonathan’s nomination of Mrs. Mfon Akpan which is still pending; then the South South would have assumed total control of the nation’s economic resources with the President himself who is also from the region superintending. Also from Mr. President’s region are the Petroleum Minster, Diezani who in spite of several accusations of misconduct and profligacy has remained unshakeable in her oily office. There is also Ngozi, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy on top of the economy. You wonder if Jonathan is really interested in any Second Term.
It is also interesting to note that the newly-appointed Chief of Staff to the President, as replacement for the sacked Chief Mike Oghiadomhe, retired Brigadier General Jones Arogbofa is an Ijaw from Ondo State (though coming from the South West, he is the President’s tribesman), ignoring the cries of the Yoruba Council of Elders (YCE) that took their complaints of marginalization to the Aso Rock lord who has preferred to ‘disregard’ the elders’ plea by searching for his brother from within their midst. A brilliant coup. Now the Yorubas cannot claim they are marginalised: they are represented by an Ijaw-Yoruba in the Villa.
Yet another commentator wrote: “Nigerians! Open your eyes! For God’s sake why are some of us excusing Sanusi’s sack/suspension when we all know that this is geared towards killing the inquisition into the missing billions. Do we really want change? Must we see every issue from ethnic/clannish prisms? Must religion blind us against truth? Why?”
How financially reckless could the CBN Governor be that is enough for the President or anyone else among the top echelon of government to cast the first stone? Why has no committee been instituted to investigate the oil industry despite the public outcry over its financial recklessness? A dog has been given a bad name. A dog has been hung. But the dog does not only bark; it does bite as well. We hear it is headed for the courts. Reckless spectacles await!