Sanusi: End of an era

Until Thursday, 20th February, 2014 when he was sacked from the post of Nigeria’s Central Bank Governor, Sanusi Lamido Aminu Sanusi, CON, Dan Majen Kano, was considered untouchable. In 50 years of central banking and 100 years of the history of Nigeria, there has probably been no public official that did his work confidently and […]

Until Thursday, 20th February, 2014 when he was sacked from the post of Nigeria’s Central Bank Governor, Sanusi Lamido Aminu Sanusi, CON, Dan Majen Kano, was considered untouchable. In 50 years of central banking and 100 years of the history of Nigeria, there has probably been no public official that did his work confidently and spoke his mind about any issue, whether it related to his primary assignment or not, like Sanusi.
President Goodluck Jonathan removed Sanusi while he was in Niger Republic performing official functions alongside other Central Bank Governors of West African countries. The President accused Sanusi of “financial recklessness and misconduct” while governing the central bank, but analysts believe that Sanusi was sacked to divert attention from the “missing” $20b which. They reason that as a government that claims to be democratically elected, the President ought to have been civil by tarrying a while till Sanusi returned before firing him.
Be that as it may, the preponderant legal opinion is that the president lacks the powers to remove Sanusi in the manner he did. It is therefore important that the suspended CBN Governor has filed a suit at the Federal High Court challenging his removal. The question remains: how do you get rid of a serving CBN Governor, more so, one that has only three months left in office? The CBN Act 2007 hasn’t provided for the suspension of the governor. To the extent that what the president did (suspending Sanusi from office) is unknown to the law, his action could therefore be regarded as illegal, say some lawyers. It is immaterial whether you like Sanusi or not, the Act provided for the removal of Sanusi where this is supported by two third of the members of the Senate. As long as this is not adhered to, there is a huge question mark on the legality of the president’s action.
Coming to the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN) itself, one needs to ask who its members are. Information has it that the FRCN was only constituted and inaugurated in 2013 with one Mrs Ladi Ibrahim as chairman and one Mr Jim Obaze as Executive Secretary (Sole Administrator, actually). The audited financial accounts of the CBN for 2012 were submitted to the Presidency on 23rd February, 2013 and forwarded to Mr Obaze. The said Mr Obaze, through the Presidency, raised questions regarding the accounts and these were answered on 20th May, 2013. By 7th June 2013, Mr Obaze, most probably sitting all by himself, without the other members, had written his final report indicting the entire CBN management, consisting of the governor and his deputies, as unfit to continue to hold office. Haba! There has never been such a report in Nigeria that has indicted and demanded the removal of an internationally acclaimed leadership of a Nigerian institution. Are you sure the people behind this are not a card-carrying members of the Peoples Democratic Party trying hard to square up with a CBN governor suspected of belonging to the opposition while spilling the beans? The president continues to fight corruption by muzzling those who expose it. Even though he bypassed the EFCC and ICPC in his investigation of the infractions of his erstwhile aviation minister, Ms Stella Oduah, by handpicking a three-man committee led by National Security Adviser Col Sambo Dasuki (rtd), the president still failed to make the findings public. In the case of Sanusi, he not only sacked him but promptly went to town with the revelations of the recommendations of a Financial Reporting Council.
Sanusi has defied the convention in central banking. They wanted him to be and remain conservative; unfortunately, the man that appointed Sanusi as CBN Governor and the one that inherited him had a different world view. It is doubtful if Sanusi would have behaved differently were Umar Yar’adua still the president. Sanusi is outspoken no doubt, but this has never distracted him from his primary assignment. As he told President Jonathan, he had delivered on his targets 100% and none of his ministers has such a record; I dare say not even the President has chalked up such percentage in terms of achievements. Since it is impossible to challenge Sanusi’s record of achievements, they spring up the cheapest, commonplace tag on him: “financial recklessness and misconduct”!
Sanusi didn’t break any law by speaking his mind; he only disregarded the tradition of taciturn central bank governors. But what can you say of a President who had three months to act on a letter alleging that $49b was missing but refused to do so? What can you say of a President whose Minister of Petroleum disregarded a Presidential directive forbidding the continued subsidy of kerosene, a product that is still unavailable? What can you say of a President who fired his banker but not those who failed to remit huge amount of money into his account?
Wherever he is, Sanusi had be surprised to discover that rather than demanding that the money be found, Nigerians have continued to reduce this matter to Sanusi versus Jonathan, while relegating this earthshaking revelation of “missing” $20b. Sanusi is flabbergasted that Nigerians are slowly putting up with this economic terrorism!