by Ayokunle Odekunle

THERE ARE GRAVE allegations of corruption against this man and he has to clear his name. Let him clear his name and let the $20 billion fraud or whatever it is be investigated.

I watched from afar as the Sanusi-Jonathan fiasco played out. From my view at the top of the Stallion Building, Marina, I saw many reactions to his suspension. I was miffed and shocked at the way people displayed their ignorance with a tinge of pride and arrogance. I was ‘flabberwhelmed’ at how people who have no facts misled the gullible.

One thing I have learnt from my Principal is to do away with emotional arguments. He has taught me to address facts only and not argue like those people who would sit over two bowls of ‘burukutu’ at Mama Sikira’s joint downtown Iyana Mortuary in Abeokuta and talk like they have an inkling of what they are on about.

Back to Sanusi’s issue, I refrained from writing on it and instead opted to watch from afar. I was serenaded with so many heart-wrenching and stomach-turning articles. The opinions of Twitter Overlords were even worse. The emergency ‘rantivists’ (and hactivists) had a field day misinforming the misinformed by default. Many people derailed from the main issues and went on a wild goose chase talking about $20 Billion dollars and what not. I even saw some so called educated people saying ‘Sanusi was REMOVED’. These poor souls surely do not know the difference between a suspension and a removal.

The focal point of this article is not to discuss whether any $20 billion has developed wings or whether $49 billion is missing. I am focusing on events leading to Sanusi’s suspension. Is Sanusi the saint the Opposition want us to believe he is? Is Sanusi being victimized as he would make the International Media believe? Is Sanusi unblemished? Does he have a case or cases to answer? Were there events leading to the suspension or was it knee-jerk as some would make up believe?

THE BEGINNING

On February 26, 2013, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi wrote a letter to the President with Ref No: FND/DIR/SEC/AAC/04/001 titled “Submission of the CBN Audited Accounts for the year ended December 31, 2012”. In the said letter, Mr Sanusi forwarded the CBN Audited Accounts to Jonathan and made a little adumbration.

It is pertinent to note that the said CBN Audited Account was audited by the firms of Price WaterHouse Coopers and Ernst & Young. Rather curiously, the said report lacks something important – the auditors FAILED/REFUSED to vouch for the fairness of the said statement. All they wrote was:

“In our opinion, the financial statements of the Bank on pages 3 to 29 for the year ended 31 December 2012 has been properly prepared in accordance with the accounting policies …”

In my experience with such documents, ALL annual audited reports have this statement by the auditors:

            “This statement reflects a true and fair view of the state of affairs of  …”

After perusing through the report, the President through his Senior Special Assistant, Mr. Matt Aikhionbare on Wednesday April 12, 2013 sent a letter with Ref No PRES/188/T&I/89 to the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria. The FRCN’s mandate was to thoroughly peruse through the CBN Audited Statement for 2012 and send recommendations back to the Presidency.

Not done, on May 4, 2014 President Jonathan sent a terse query to Sanusi which he signed personally. In the letter, he sought explanations and clarifications on 22 grey areas arising from the Annual Audited Report of the CBN.  In the opening paragraph, he said

“…To this end, I request that you avail me of detailed explications with respect to the underlisted issues-providing where available, relevant confirmatory letters and/or Board Approvals.

He ended the letter by saying:

“your expeditious response on the issues enumerated above will be helpful in providing a proper appreciation on the nation’s economic outlook.”

To put it succinctly, the President asked for explanations as to why there were suspicious loans, donations and why several contracts were awarded without due process. All in all, we are talking about almost N200 billion here.

Sixteen days after Mr. President’s letter to him, May 20, 2013 precisely, Sanusi responded. In his response, he more or less referred the President BACK to the Annual Financial statement. He also attached some documents termed “Appendix to the Explanation” which is 12 pages long.

It appears that at this stage Sanusi realised he was in trouble and had to take unconventional measures.

THE INDICTMENT

On June 7, 2013, the Financial Reporting Council via a briefing note to Mr. President with Ref No: Pres/188/T&I/89 submitted their report. In their  report which appeared to me as thorough, the Council came in hard on the Auditors of the CBN Audited Accounts for the year ended 2012. In one of the pages, they stated as follows:

“The Joint external auditors DID NOT certify that the accounts give a TRUE AND FAIR view of the financial position of the Bank as at December 31, 2012. Their opinion was carefully crafted, capable of deceiving the uninformed and not in accordance with the International Standards in auditing and the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria Act No. 6 of 2011. A thorough investigation shall reveal whatever led them to compromise their professionalism”.

In the report, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi was indicted on a wide range of allegations to wit: incompetence, nonchalance, fraudulent activities, wastefulness, abuse of due process and deliberate effort to misrepresent facts.

The Financial Reporting Council at the end of its reports made some useful recommendations some of which were not carried out by Mr. President. For example, in paragraph 5.1 of the report, the President was advised to brief the Senate of the matter and also to immediately suspend the CBN Governor and his deputies.

In conclusion, the Council made some very interesting suggestions to the President. For example, he was advised to:

“…take quick and immediate action so that the opposition to the Federal Government does not take advantage of the information and use it to attack the government that Your Excellency was aware of the lax in the CBN and allowed it to stay for political reasons”.

The Council further stated that :

“ It is also important that the CBN Governor and/or the Deputy Governors do not decide earlier than your Excellency as they may resign their appointment to foreclose the action of the federal government and whatever action taken thereafter shall be regarded as politically motivated”.

 

MATTERS ARISING

I would not delve into whether his suspension is legal or not since the matter is already in Court. What I am on about in this piece is to decipher whether Sanusi is a saint as many would make us believe.

From the chronology of events above, this issue did not start when Sanusi started singing like a canary bird about ‘missing billions’. This issue started when he was still ‘buddies’ with the President. For those that would argue about due process not being followed, I refer them to the series above. As can be seen, he was queried, responded to the query and the President forwarded the Audited Account to the FRCN.

Be that as it may, the issues raised in the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria are rather disturbing. I refuse to believe that the FRCN made up all those allegations against him. If you have read the FRCN report, you would agree with me that the report is detailed and was very thorough. It was not a rushed work or hatchet job as some people would gleefully opine.

It is not coincidental that Sanusi started singing around September-October last year when he already knew he was in trouble and he just had to make noise so as to be seen as a whistle blower who is being ‘persecuted’ by the famed ‘cabal’. Knowing that Nigerians are emotional and utterly biased who would rather reason upside down just to hit at the President, he had to pass off as an anti-corruption crusader before the court of public opinion.

He is like the chichidodo bird in Ayi Kwei Armah’s book ‘The Beautyful ones are not yet born.’ The chichidodo is a bird that hates excreta and yet eats maggots (which is bred from excreta).

I believe the president erred by dithering and foot dragging on Sanusi’s suspension against the FRCN’s advice. He got the timing totally wrong and by so doing made this look like he was witch-hunting the hero of the people, the Jack Bauer who is on a mission to rid NNPC of its rot.

Linking Sanusi’s suspension to the ‘missing’ $20 billion to me is wrong, stone-age and retrogressive thinking at its very best. People should not lose sight of the fact that THERE ARE GRAVE allegations of corruption against this man and he has to clear his name. Let him do so and let the $20 billion fraud or whatever it is be investigated.

It is an insult to refer to Sanusi in the same sentence with Nuhu Ribadu. Nuhu Ribadu fought corruption from inside and succeeded because he was and is still very clean. Unlike Sanusi, there were/are no allegations of corruption linked to Nuhu. Here is a man who was allegedly bribed with $10 million cash by Ibori and turned it down.

I hope after this, I do not see mal-informed and misinformed emergency writers writing poorly researched articles about their hero being haunted for being a whistle-blower. A whistle-blower should have a clean mouth and a clean whistle. He who wants to fight corruption from either inside or outside should be unencumbered from any allegations of corruption. He who comes to equity must not only do equity but must come with clean and unblemished hands.

In all of these though, I blame the President and his handlers. First of all, Jonathan has a knack for either taking the right decisions at the wrong time or take wrong decisions at the right time. He has a way of muddling things up and making heroes out of villains. Choosing to suspend Sanusi when he had already managed to make himself a hero over his whistle-blowing activities shows Mr. President’s lack of tact. A more tactical person would have waited for the euphoria surrounding $20 billion to die down before pushing Sanusi off the cliff. But well…

My point is made. People should stop making Sanusi look like a saint who is being punished for doing nothing. There are grave allegations against him which bother on corruption. Let him answer them. Till then, he is not an angel, hero or saint.

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Ayokunle Odekunle tweets from @Oddy4real

 

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.