Ifeanyi Nwabugu

When the extant Central Bank of Nigerian CBN Acts were being crafted with the motive of giving the revered institution relative autonomy from interference from all other arms of the government ,no body imagined that there would arise an emperor who would latch on it and deploy so much power even to the detriment of the institution he superintends . He is the most controversial governor of the central bank of Nigeria since inception and he admits and  relishes it.

Appointed in 2008 under  questionable circumstances ,the Kano born prince first started as a reformer ,a propagandist and then ended up as a whistle blower . He first incurred the wraths of investors who were asking for a soft landing after their shares were trapped in the liquidated  banks , Sanusi asked them to consider themselves as bad investors or go to hell . Last year Sanusi was summoned by the house of representative to defend its budget which he declined citing CBN enabling act, he was equally alleged to have in 2012 written off written off about 3.5 billion Central Bank of Nigeria staff loan .

In his interview last year last year with the financial Times of London, he justified his huge donation to the Boko Haram victims in Kano saying that the insurgents were driven by poverty occasioned by misrule of the Nigeria government and then went further to provide figures showing relative difference in revenues accruing to some oil producing states of the Niger delta and other states in the north. The body language of that statement seem to suggest that amount donated serves as equalization funds of what the oil producing states receives  .Sanusi  not only catches the image of a politician but also an actor , in many event across the country Sanusi is seen acting as the master of ceremony MC or presenting papers even outside his professional calling.

In 2012 ,Sanusi was one of the arrow head that canvassed for removal of subsidy on petroleum products against the wish of Nigeria people only to be singing a different tune today accusing the same government of insensitivity to the people. In recent times his donation has been legendry , couple of days ago the presidency has issued a query to  Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, demanding an explanation for some of the donations the CBN has made under his watch to some universities and organisations.

A top presidency official,  said that the federal government was forced to issue the query as a result of its concern over Sanusi’s activities, which have portrayed him as working to undermine the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan.

According to him, Sanusi has engaged in what he described as unprecedented politicisation of his office as well as serial infractions of regulations governing the operations of the central bank.

He said the presidency was worried by the way and manner Sanusi had been donating to communities and institutions in the name of the central bank without adherence to due process and regard for the multi-cultural diversities of the Nigerian nation.

The CBN governor was accused of donating about N150 billion to some institutions and interest groups in states controlled by opposition political parties in what appears to be a clever way of channelling state funds to some politicians who in turn use them to attack the president and his government.
The presidency source gave some of the questionable donations to include N4 billion to Bayero University, Kano; N10 billion to Uthman Dan Fodio University, Sokoto; N500 million to the University of Benin, Benin; and N100 million to the Kano State Government.

Many of the donations, he added, were considered ultra-vires as they were outside the powers and functions of the CBN.

In addition, the source said in the last one year, security reports had indicted Sanusi of holding nocturnal meetings with politicians, especially with the opposition parties, making reckless statements capable of undermining the integrity of the nation’s financial institutions and violating global principles of public decorum expected of holders of such offices.

According to the presidency official, “The CBN governor has become more of a politician than a banker. He delights in political circus shows in the company of opposition political figures; making statements unbecoming of his office.

“The president has actually been very tolerant of these infractions in line with his personal convictions of allowing institutions operate their own independent checks on officers, but it appears the CBN governor is becoming a law unto himself.”

The recent allegation, in a letter to the president, by the CBN governor that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) had not remitted $49.8 billion of crude oil proceeds to the Federation Account, has equally been seen as a deliberate ploy by the CBN governor to portray the federal government in a bad light.

This was seen as part of the larger plan by the opposition to discredit the government ahead of the 2015 general election.

This man Sanusi is simply playing a dangerous political game. He openly romances the opposition and attacks the integrity of his employers. Do an analysis of the CBN governor’s speeches at a birthday colloquium of a notable opposition political leader in the South-west last year as well as what he said at the book launch of the spokesman of the main opposition party in Abuja, and that will show you the mindset of a man who is supposed to be the chief economic adviser of the federal government.

You can contact the writer Ifeanyi Nwabugu on (eddy4real12@gmail.com)