YNaija Editorial: Sanusi made things messy, but his removal is not acceptable

by Our Editors

Sanusi-Lamido-Sanusi

The federal government based its decision to suspend the governor on the damning report by the little-known agency called the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria. While announcing the suspension, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Reuben Abati accused Mr Sanusi of “acts of financial recklessness and misconduct that are inconsistent with the vision of the apex bank”.

On the British Broadcasting Corporation’s iconic ‘tHard Talk’ late last year, the then governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria Sanusi Lamido Sanusi was asked pointedly by host Shaun Ley why he had waited till his last days in office to effect certain key decisions.

The normally loquacious banker could only mumble a response. Better late than never he said.

As he must have learnt in the past week, sometimes never is better than late.

His last days in office were as eventful as they were dramatic. Events that culminated in his sudden suspension last week while on official business in Niamey began from his conflicting figured on how much exactly the Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC) had failed to remit to his insistence on not proceeding on a terminal leave earlier. That is minus the myriad of interviews and public statements that call into question his capacity for adult introspection.

The federal government based its decision to suspend the governor on the damning report by the little-known agency called the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria. While announcing the suspension, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Reuben Abati accused Mr Sanusi of “acts of financial recklessness and misconduct that are inconsistent with the vision of the apex bank”.

While this board finds the report of that council damning and Mr Sanusi’s questions yet unsatisfactory with regard to the obscenity of budget items revealed, it does not obscure the larger odour of his removal.

As media both local and international have pointed out, it is impossible to divorce this from Mr. Sanusi’s militant advocacy on the matter of $20 billion yet unaccounted for by the nation’s oil company. It is impossible to divorce the chain of events from the discomfort that reportedly led the Nigerian president to request the suspended governor proceed on a terminal leave, and to believe that Mr. Sanusi’s direct confrontation with his boss’ administration and appointees did not lead to this now-infamous action will require the willing suspension of disbelief.

Yes, Mr. Sanusi had rightly earned the reputation of loose canon. Indeed, he had displayed an unseemly flambuoyance not suited to the globally conservative role of the nation’s monetary custodian, eschewing reserve and caution for loud displays of gumption and personality. Yes, he would not be our favourite choice for such an important role.

But he played another role, once envisaged, important and to and treasured by any democracy worth its name – and that is the role of the whistleblower.

To force him out in this way, for speaking truth to power, mere months to the end of his tenure and just when investigations into his accusations of financial impropriety by the NNPC to the tune of $20billion appear set to begin, reeks of dishonesty by a government the New York Times has already descried as ‘casual towards corruption’.

It beggars belief that the same government that has shielded, forgiven, even venerated the notorious minister of petroleum, Diezani Alison-Madueke would find it quick to sack a man whose only apparent sin was to speak out of turn. To sack the only high ranking government official publicly demanding that the government be held accountable, one that has distinguished himself by a consistent willingness to take risk on behalf of accountability proves that this is no government for honest men.
Of course Mr Sanusi had his flaws, not just the fact that spoke too soon and appears unwilling to measure twice before cutting. In the course of carrying out his assignment, he needlessly butted heads with agencies he might have been served better to build relationships with. He also failed to stabilise the exchange rate as the Naira is currently exchanges at a record high to the US Dollar and his financial donations in the name of CSR at times verged on the irresponsible, not to forget the irritating sex scandal that dogged that office towards the end of the last year.

But the man did well, it must also be remembered. Apart from the controversial and flawed reform in the banking industry, it is important to recall that he reviewed downwards the troubling inflation rate and kept it at a single digit. His cashless banking reforms have breathed new life into the economy and his eagle eyed management has saved the nation billions of Naira through the Fiscal Responsibility Act of the CBN.

He carried himself with a dignity and self-assuredness that should certainly be a beacon for a new generation of public officers.

Such distinguished service did not deserve to end in such a way. And if this government thinks Nigerians will be distracted from the core issues that were raised simply because one man was fired, then it is engaging in extended exercise of self-delusion.

The question remains  now, and no one will stop asking: Where is Nigeria’s $20 billion, Mr. President?

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