by ‘Jola Sotubo

According to reports, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi might leave the apex bank before his official tenure expires.

Mr. Sanusi was appointed as head of the bank in June 2009 by late former President, Umaru Yar’Adua and is due to leave June 2014.

The governor’s tenure has been riddled with controversy, ranging from attacks on him for advocating Islamic banking to the more recent attempt to introduce a N5,000 note into the economy.

Nigerian Eye reports:

Sources told our correspondent on Thursday night that the governor might proceed on terminal leave by early next year.

The source who preferred not to be named owing to the sensitive nature of the matter said the terminal leave had nothing to do with the recent scandal in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.

According to the source, the need for the terminal leave became imperative as Sanusi had not been observing his vacation as and when due.

The source said, “The governor has said it so many times that he would not be staying longer than his tenure.

“You will recall that he granted an interview where he spoke extensively that he won’t want his tenure to be renewed.

“I think left to the governor, he would even prefer to go now but there are feelers that he would even go before his tenure expired in June since he has some outstanding leave that he hasn’t taken.

“So based on that, he might take his leave early next year and this might lead him into retirement as the CBN governor.”

Efforts to get the comment of the Director, Corporate Communication of the bank, Mr Ugochukwu Okoroafor proved abortive as he neither picked calls nor replied text message sent to him on the issue.

Besides his policies as the CBN governor, Sanusi’s views on national issues have attracted both criticisms and commendations.

The CBN governor had in recent times being under attacks, the recent being his letter to President Goodluck Jonathan that the sum of $49.8bn was not remitted to the federation account by the NNPC.

But following the controversy which the letter generated, a committee was set up to reconcile the account.

But the committee failed to produce a concrete explanation for the unremitted oil revenue.

For instance, while the Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala stated that the sum of $10.8bn is the amount unaccounted for, Sanusi recanted and said the unremitted fund was $12bn.

Prior to this controversy, the governor had in 2011, incurred the wrath of the National Assembly when at the 7th convocation lecture of the Igbinedion University, Okada, Edo State, he said that 25 per cent of the country’s overheads were being spent on the federal legislators.

The National Assembly members were embarrassed by the scrutiny Sanusi’s lecture attracted to them.

The Senate invited the CBN governor to appear before its Committee on Appropriation to defend himself.

Few months later, the CBN governor stirred up another controversy. It was in June 2011 when he unfolded the bank’s agenda on Islamic banking.

Unlike the jumbo pay controversy, where he received the support of Nigerians, Sanusi’s insistence on Islamic banking divided the country along religious lines.

While the Christian Association of Nigeria opposed his plan, Muslims groups gave him their backing.

When the fuel subsidy removal debate began, Sanusi was not left out of it. Amid protests against the removal, he said on January 5, 2012, “The limited resources of government should be allocated to support production, especially if we are running a budget deficit.

“We cannot keep borrowing to support conspicuous consumption. We cannot even begin to do this if 30 per cent of government expenditure is on fuel subsidy, if out of the balance, 70 per cent is recurrent spending, 10 per cent is for debt service, 10 per cent goes to the Niger Delta and only 10 per cent is capital expenditure.”

While Nigerians were still battling with the fuel subsidy problem, the CBN governor ignited another ‘fire’ when on January 27, 2012, the Kano prince linked the activities of the militant Islamic sect, Boko Haram, with the 13 per cent derivation fund being given to oil-producing states.

Sanusi also stirred up another controversy when he revealed plans to introduce the N5,000 note, following its approval by President Goodluck Jonathan

The decision was widely condemned by Nigerians, including former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who argued that it would stimulate inflation.