Sanusi: The stormy end of a mandate (II)
The donations made by Sanusi to Bayero University Kano (N4b), Usmanu Danfodio University Sokoto (N10b), University of Benin (N500m), Kano city (N100m)and St. Theresa Catholic Church, Madalla (N25m) are now deemed by the presidency to be unethical, lopsided and in favour of locations controlled by those opposed to the federal government. Recall that these matters […]
The donations made by Sanusi to Bayero University Kano (N4b), Usmanu Danfodio University Sokoto (N10b), University of Benin (N500m), Kano city (N100m)and St. Theresa Catholic Church, Madalla (N25m) are now deemed by the presidency to be unethical, lopsided and in favour of locations controlled by those opposed to the federal government. Recall that these matters have been debated before and reopening them soon after Sanusi’s rejection of Jonathan’s directive that he resigns means that far from the two making up, the president is still looking up for a way to indict the CBN governor.
From the corner of the CBN governor himself, there is no let up. The other day, in an 18-minutes lecture he delivered to a group of youths under the banner of TEDeX in Maitama, Sanusi came down hard on what he called “vested interests”. He described the “Nigerian state” as one which since the discovery of oil has “existed, not to serve the people but as a site for rent extraction by a small minority that controls political power”. Soon after his investigations, Sanusi said he “discovered that the Nigerian banking system was infested with the same corruption of the rent system in the country”. He said when he became the CBN governor in 2009; he had thought that Nigeria’s troubled banks could be fixed “by simply addressing the normal risk management issues in banks”.
But not so, he added, as he told the youths how his attempt to do his job was met with stark intimidation from vested interests: “And every time I said it was time for us to take action, people said to me you can’t touch those people, you’ll be sacked. Or you can’t these people will kill you”. But Sanusi stood his ground and in one instance disclosed how the CBN “recovered from one CEO 200 pieces of real estate in Dubai, real estate in Johannesburg, real estate in Potomac in Washington, apart from shares in over 100 companies – and all of those were purchased with depositors funds”.
In another instance, Sanusi described how vested interests sabotaged his strenuous attempt to recover public funds from one of the thieving bank executives: “The second CEO, we finished our case…….two weeks before the closing statements were made the judge was miraculously promoted to the Federal Court of Appeal. After the three years of trial, at the very end of trial!”
However, Sanusi took on these vested interests on his way to cleansing sick Nigerian banks. How did it happen? According to the CBN governor, “someone, a very popular religious leader with hundreds of thousands of supporters, carried him (the thieving bank CEO) to the political authorities and the system that was supposed to protect depositors and handle criminals was used and manipulated to promote a judge so that he would not convict a thief”. Thus, Sanusi said, was how N4.4trillion in bank deposits belonging to eight to ten million customers was saved from these crook CEOs.
Sanusi closed his lecture with an urgent clarion call on the Nigerian youths to overcome their fear and confront their oppressors, maintaining that there are people who immensely benefit from the country’s poverty and underdevelopment. He said since there were 65 million youths in the country, they could use their number to elect someone in their age bracket as Nigeria’s president. That way he said, they could change the country.
Nigerians agree that Sanusi is probably the most forthright CBN governor we’ve had. Everyone knows that prices have been stable and inflation has been in the single digit in this country on account of the CBN governor’s excellent job. Collapsing banks were swiftly and efficiently turned around and stabilised and those behind their ailment put on trial, with at least one of them jailed. The brouhaha against Sanusi’s introduction of non-interest banking has now died down and Nigerians have begun to enjoy those services. Sanusi has also enjoyed cordial working relationship with his colleagues.
He has continued to encourage women entrepreneurs. About N132b or 60% of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund (MSMEDF) has been set aside exclusively for loaning to women. This stems from Sanusi’s conviction that women have peculiar problems when it comes to accessing loans and so you need to liberalise the conditions under which they get funding. In addition, global trends indicate that women entrepreneurs have a better rate of loan repayment than men. More importantly, the CBN governor is of the opinion that when you empower women, you empower families. The MSMEDF therefore seeks to address above issues and bridge gender inequality in terms of the provision of financial services.
But the most surprising of all of all of his gifts to the country is Sanusi’s commitment to serve only one term which terminates on 1st June, 2014. This move is both exemplary and exceptional. For one, Sanusi thinks his job is largely done. Secondly, as he steps aside, he can reflect on his own contributions to banking in Nigeria and also give chance to others to serve. I don’t know of any other CBN governor or public official that will, on his own volition, agree to serve only one term.