by Chi Ibe

The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi has condemned the accusations thrown at the Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, claiming she is pursuing an ethnic agenda.

At a media chat in Washington DC on Sunday by the Nigeria Economic Team, Sanusi reportedly said:

”I can’t understand these people, I was the one who came to Washington DC and got in touch with Mustapher Chike-Obi who was in New York to come and head AMCON. I took it upon myself to search for him because when we were at Kings College he was one of the most brilliant chaps that school has ever produced and while at Goldman Sachs, he excelled. He is world class, so I decided to bring him back to use his wealth of experience in Investment Banking to serve his fatherland. Ngozi has nothing to do with this.

“On Kingsley Muoghalu who is one of my Deputies at CBN. I also went to London to poach him, the guy is good, he knows his onions, and I don’t care which part of Nigeria he comes from. This was done even before Ngozi joined the government, so how can she be responsible for this.

“Nigeria is becoming such an interesting place that anything anyone does, must have an ethnic colouration or a hidden ethnic agenda. People do not understand what diversity means.”

According to reports, Okonjo-Iweala maintained that she had no say on who was appointed or who wasn’t. As a matter of fact only two of the appointments she is accused of influencing was approved during her tenure as Finance Minister and they were handled by the respective Permanent Secretaries on the order of the President not her.

She also said she had nothing to do with the sacking of the NEMA spokesperson who is at the center of all the accusations

‘You don’t work for government and at the same time using your position to attack the same government openly when there are available channels to address your misgivings,’ she is reported to have said.