News Introduction:

There is one incontestable fact in all hee-haws, which have continued to accompany the suspension of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN. — By Dapo Olaosebikan

There is one incontestable fact in all hee-haws, which have continued to accompany the suspension of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN. He would go down in history as the most controversial of all the eminent Nigerians who have superintended over the Nigeria’s apex bank since its creation in 1958.

Sanusi, according to the presidential spokesman, Reuben Abati, was suspended for “various acts of financial recklessness and misconduct and “far-reaching irregularities” on February 20, 2014. And, he was instantaneously replaced by his deputy, Sarah Alade, as acting governor. Also Chief Executive Officer of Zenith Bank Plc, Godwin Emefiele, has been nominated to succeed him when his term as CBN governor expires in June this year.

In what has been termed as an unsure reign in some quarters, Sanusi came on board as Nigeria’s chief financial officer in a blaze of glory as an iconoclast, traversed the nation’s financial landscape with much gusto that initially won him blanket ovation nationally and internationally.

There is hardly any contestation about Sanusi’s competence and capability to deal with unsavoury situation with the financial and banking system in Nigeria when he was appointed in 2009. Sanusi, 51, appointed CBN Governor on June 3, 2009, is regarded as a smart economist and award-winning banker with a background in risk management. He holds a graduate degree in economics from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and a diploma in Sharia and Islamic Studies from the African International University in Khartoum, Sudan. He is commonly regarded as an important voice in Islamic jurisprudence.

A UK-based financial magazine honoured him in 2010 as global Central Bank Governor of the Year as well as African Central Bank Governor of the Year. In 2011, the TIME magazine listed Mr. Sanusi in its annual publication of 100 most influential people. At the African Banker Awards gala dinner held in Morocco earlier in the year, Sanusi also emerged the “2013 Africa Central Bank Governor of the Year.”

In his maiden address as the governor of the country’s apex regulatory institution for the banking sector, Sanusi said he would work with all stakeholders to restore discipline in the largely abused system and ensure banks fulfilled their statutory roles of effective financial interventions in Nigerian economy. In the unprecedented reform gale in the banking sector that heralded his taking charge as the CBN governor, five high-ranking bank chief executive officers of premiums banks were the casualties.

His first major policy reform shot was the restructuring of the deposit money banks, DMBs, as a strategic step towards strengthening the banking system. He came out with new recapitalisation requirements that led to the pruning of the banks from about 25 to 24, triggering radical changes in the contextual and regulatory frameworks of the sector.

The CBN also reviewed the universal banking model; restructured margin lending; reviewed banks’ prudential guidelines and corporate bonds; enhanced the developmental role of CBN; announced credit guarantee intervention schemes in small and medium scale sector; and power/manufacturing intervention (N500 billion).

In order to clean up the banks’ balance sheets of toxic loans and provide financial lifeline to the affected banks, the CBN in collaboration with the relevant government authorities, especially the Ministry of Finance, established the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria, AMCON.

Sanusi in June 2011 also introduced the Islamic non-interest banking policy, which he described as a follow-up to the 2004 consolidation exercise and a component of the 2006 Financial System Stability 2020 strategic agenda unveiled by the apex bank. The policy was aimed at moving Nigeria to one of the top 20 economies of the world and African financial hub by year 2020.

Policy on adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standards, IFRS, by all banks: the decision to align banks’ financial reports to the IFRS was also discussed by the Presidential Committee on the Global Financial Crisis, with the CBN asked to facilitate its adoption by banks, was taken some years ago with all the banks now using the globally accepted standards for the preparation of their Annual Accounts. To ensure the success of the IFRS with the Financial Reporting Council, FRC serving as its enforcement authority, a legal instrument in form of an enabling act was put in place.

In response to the growing uncertainties about the exchange rate volatility and stability of the US dollar as an international currency for exchange in view of Americaand other develop economies’ financial crises in 2012-2013 period, the CBN also came up with a new policy to invest between five to10 per cent of the country’s foreign exchange reserves in China’s currency, the Renminbi, RMB or Yuan. The policy step, which was announced on September 6, 2011 was a major foreign reserves management policy departure from what used to be the practice for several decades, prior to that, the Nigerian government had kept its reserves in US dollars, the Pound Sterling and Euro.

Sanusi also introduced the cashless policy, which stipulates a cash handling charge on daily cash withdrawals or cash deposits that exceed N500, 000 for individuals and N3 million for corporate bodies. The new policy on cash-based transactions (withdrawals and deposits) in banks, is aimed at reducing but not totally stopping the volume of cash-based transactions in the economy and promoting the increasingly preferred electronic-based transactions on payments for goods, services, fund transfers, amongst other benefits.

In spite of his accomplishments, especially as Nigeria’s chief financial re-engineer, it is rather befuddling to think that the suspended CBN governor seemed to portray himself as unknowledgeable in the axiomatic fact that governance is a collective responsibility, particularly in his carriage and utterances since the middle of last year.

Indeed, despite his far-reaching measures and zeal to transform the financial system, one of the alleged major undoing of Mallam Sanusi was his failure to lead by example in the implementation of the IFRS, amongst other flaws identified in the apex bank’s operations under leadership. As is also alleged, an audited report on the apex bank’s operations by its auditor Ernst and Young, an international audit firm, indicated that the bank was not following due process in many areas.

According to the audit firm, the apex bank’s account failed to comply with the provisions of its enabling CBN Act in such areas as investment of a huge amount of money in an Islamic bank in Malaysia where such would not generate income. Others allege that areas of infraction detected by the auditors include write-off of about N3.5 billion CBN staff housing loan and the donation of about N1 billion to a political party to open up offices across the country. Also, the refusal of the apex bank to consolidate in its account, the trillion debt of the Asset Management Company of Nigeria, AMCON as well as the non-disclosure of the total liabilities through the bond floated by the company.

These various infractions detected in the apex bank’s 2012 account were said to be the reasons why President Goodluck Jonathan queried Sanusi and by implication, provided the platform for his suspension from office. The query, which covered 22 issues bordering on massive frauds at the apex bank, was sent to the governor on May 6 last year and the response, though expected back on May 8, was said to have been submitted to the President several weeks after the deadline.

As aptly reflected by Dr. Audu Obanta, a US-based Nigerian lawyer in Edgeware Court, Bowie City, Maryland, USA, long before the brewing $49.8 billion cum $10.8 billion/$ 12.8 billion and later $20 billion unremitted revenue somersaults, the Kano prince had earned a reputation in voodoo presentation of figures and avoidable flip-flops.

According to him, Sanusi began his journey of manipulating Nigerians with controversial figures in 2012 with his allegation that the National Assembly gulps 25 per cent of the national budget. Both the House of Representatives and the Senate naturally took umbrage at Sanusi’s statistics describing it as a ploy to incite the Nigerian public against the legislative arm of government.

When he was called by the Senate to explain his claims and where he got them, he said he stood by his figures, which he said were sourced from the budget office. Upon further interrogation on how the National Assembly budget of N136.25 billion for the year translated to 25 per cent of the N3.9 trillion national budget, he recanted explaining that what he meant was that the National Assembly budget was 25 per cent of total federal government overheads and that he was misquoted by journalists. At the end of the inquiry, it became clear that the figures Sanusi relied on for his allegation were not entirely correct as they did not take into consideration service wide votes.

Having been proved wrong, Sanusi resorted to blackmail. Instead of apologising for his gaffe, he resorted to threatening the Senate with resignation, saying that he was willing to tender his resignation as CBN governor and that he was not born with the office. The senators let him off the hook having established the fact that the CBN boss’ figures were not completely correct. Left off the hook without any sanction by the National Assembly, Sanusi was emboldened to rev up his ride with controversial figures, with an allegation of unremitted $49.8 billion oil revenue against the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, in September 2013. The US-based lawyer interjected, “How a banker and the chief economist of the nation could think and believe that such a huge amount of money could just disappear and the country would not be in a huge financial and economic mess beats the imagination.”

He continued, “But Nigerians believed him. The reasoning was that as CBN governor, he should know. When the inter-agency team charged with the responsibility of reconciling the figures to verify the truth behind Sanusi’s allegation came up with its interim report indicating that $39 billion was actually remitted into the federation account as against Sanusi’s $49.8 billion, it became clear that the trust Nigerians placed in him as someone who should know was actually misplaced. “The CBN boss actually knew no better! He later confessed that the crude oil export documents he relied on for his allegation did not indicate that NNPC lifted some of the crude oil on behalf of other government agencies. A point NNPC alluded to when it explained that the CBN boss’s allegation was borne out of his ignorance of the workings of the oil and gas industry.

“Barely two hours after the joint press conference where the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. NgoziOkonjo-Iweala; Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke and Sanusi himself, told the world that $39 billion of the original $49.8 billion alleged to be missing, had been reconciled with the $10.8 billion outstanding yet-to be reconciled, Sanusi told the Senate Committee on Finance that what was outstanding was $12 billion and not $10.8 billion. Dr. Okonjo-Iweala had to cut in to correct him that the outstanding amount was $10.8 billion.

The question that arises from this and which most Nigerians have refused to ask is: Where did Sanusi get the extra $1.2 billion he added to the $10.8 billion yet-to-be reconciled revenue to arrive at the $12 billion he came up with at the Senate committee hearing barely two hours after agreeing that what was outstanding was $10.8 billion?

“Again, Sanusi was left unsanctioned for misleading the public and heating up the polity unnecessarily with his false figures. His supporters argued that the yet-to-be-reconciled $10.8 billion (which they chose to brand as “missing”) was enough justification for the false alarm the CBN boss raised. Then NNPC came up with the explanation that the $10.8 billion was not missing but was used for some critical operations it carried out as part of its statutory duties. It also provided legal backing for the expenditure (Section 7 Sub-section A and B of the NNPC Act which provides that the corporation can engage in such expenses and deduct same from proceeds of crude oil sales). This effectively robbed Sanusi of the victory or justification, he thought the so-called “missing” $10.8 billion, gave him.”

In Dr. Audu Obanta’s opinion, “Sanusi’s fresh allegation of $20 billion unremitted oil revenue against NNPC could therefore be seen as a gambit to redeem his image which has been thoroughly pulverised by his misguided adventure with false figures.” For the fresh figure of $20 billion unremitted oil revenue he has pushed into the public space, he has come up with series of documents to support his case just as he did in the previous two occasions.”

It is probably saying the obvious that Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi has realised that he was on the edge of history. Having taken his case to court last week, the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos granted an order restraining Attorney General of the Federation, AGF, Mohammed Adoke; Inspector General of Police, IGP, Mohammed Abubakar; the State Security Service, SSS and all agencies of the federal government from arresting and detaining Sanusi or subjecting him to any form of degrading treatment.

Justice Buba Ibrahim granted the order, pending the determination of a fundamental human rights suit in which Sanusi complained of Thursday’s unlawful arrest, detention, and seizure of his passport. Sanusi deemed the actions violation of his rights to personal liberty, freedom of movement, and dignity of human person, as guaranteed under sections 34, 35 and 41 of the 1999 Constitution. Former Attorney General of Lagos State, Professor Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), and Kola Awodein (SAN), represented him.

While the courts might have granted the embattled suspended CBN governor temporary respite, the same cannot be said of his alleged ‘sins’ in the social media. Actually, the final demystification of the erstwhile untouchable Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi could be through the ubiquitous sites in the social media and not through consequential events of his suspension.

* Donating N1billion to Bayero University, Kano but wrote he donated N4 billion.

* Donating N100 million to Kano State government.

* Doling a whooping N10 billion to Uthman Dan Fodio University, Sokoto.

* Threw N500 million to University of Benin.

* Gave his would-be brother in-law, el Rufai N5 billion contract to design a multibillion naira civic centre for CBN!

* Writing-off N40billion debt of a bank without documentation and authority.

*Invested billions of dollars in Malaysia Islamic Bank, with no return on investment to Nigeria.

* Awarded 63 contract valued over N1 billion each, without approval or going through government requisition process.

* Spend N1.257 billion for lunch for his police and private guards in a year.

* N1 billion donation to a political party to build offices nationwide.

* N4.5 billion to renovate his personal home without approval.

* N4 billion on a CBN Port Harcourt branch building that was already completed.

* N2 billion bogus payments to airlines (some not registered in Nigeria, while another does not operate local fights) to distribute currency.

* Claimed paying Nigerian Security Printing and Minting in 2011, N38.233 billion for the “printing of bank notes”. Company’s turnover in 2011 is N29.370billion from all customers including CBN.

* Associated Airline was paid N1.025 billion in 2011, while the company was dormant (no operation) in the same year.

True or false, allegations of this nature, including the ones unveiling what should have been private love life of the felled CBN governor in very embarrassing format, are uncontrollably catalysing his demystification as an icon of banking and financial emancipation in Nigeria via the social media.

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