Removal
of former CBN Governor, Mallam Lamido Sanusi, by President Goodluck
Jonathan brings to mind the banker’s peculiar ways of handling
official issues, AKEEM LASISI writes
President Goodluck Jonathan is likely to
have experienced the most embarrassing moment of his tenure recently
when Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi reportedly refused to resign as
directed by him. In a political system where the President’s power is
not just overwhelming but also overbearing, Sanusi was said to have told
Jonathan point-blank that it was the National Assembly, not the
President, that could sack him.
Many analysts believe that the clash,
which reportedly came in the form of a telephone conversation between
the two, meant that Sanusi’s days in office were numbered – no matter
how hard he tried to fight. The perception was that, especially in
Nigeria’s kind of democracy, which, many fear, is still largely crude,
no top political office holder can tolerate that kind of ‘assault’.
When Sanusi was eventually removed or
‘susupended’ from office on Thursday, about four months before his
tenure would have ended, many people could conveniently say, ‘We saw it
coming.’ This became more
predictable as the Kano prince had continued
to raise issues that obviously made the Federal Government
uncomfortable. The fact is that based on his expose, in 2011, of the
jumbo earnings of the federal legislators, his statements on the Boko
Haram saga, and his harsh stance on the corruption-laden oil politics in
Nigeria, Sanusi remained the most controversial of all the CBN
governors the country has ever had.
Until he was appointed as the governor
of the apex bank, it was largely seen as a kind of pantheon to be
headed only by conservative priests. Even if such a person was
privileged to hear and see all, based on the strategic position the CBN
occupies in the country’s economic equation, he was hardly expected to
say anything. He could see all evils, but he was expected to say no evil
– especially if it would hurt the Presidency. As far as Sanusi was
concerned, however, saying all was part of the game, no matter whose ox
is gored – even if he was not yet sure of his facts.
That he would be very controversial had
been foretold by the way he handled the sanitation exercise the CBN
carried out in his early days in office. The former managing director
of First Bank never minced words in painting some of his former
colleagues – MDs of other banks, including the then Intercontinental
Bank and Oceanic – as very corrupt people. Not only did the CBN take
over the ownerships of the banks, the saga also led to the jailing of
Cecilia Ibru, while Erastus Akingbola remains on trial. Some people
claimed that one or two banks might have been selfishly protected in the
course of the storm that raged through the sector, but Sanusi’s stance
then indicated that his regime at the CBN was going to be more than
unique.
In 2011, he took on the National
Assembly when he claimed that the legislators were consuming about 25
per cent of the national budget. Even when the Senate summoned him for
questioning, he did not eat his words. He told the Senator Iyiola
Omisore-led committee, “By my upbringing, if I’m wrong, I don’t need to
be told to come and say I’m wrong and I would apologise. By my nature,
if I am not convinced that I’m wrong, I do not apologise and this is
really where the point is.”
The typical CBN governor would also be
very diplomatic in handling issues and policies relating to religion.
This is key, particularly in a country such as Nigeria, where many are
very sensitive to religious matters – not minding the fact that
hypocrisy has been elevated to the level of faith in the country. But
for Sanusi, his being the country’s No 1 Banker was no hindrance when he
handled matters that related to his religion, Islam. The man that
obtained a degree in Saharia from the International University of
Africa, Sudan exhibited this on his utterances on the Boko Haram
insurgency. While he did not outright justify any act of violence, his
approach to religious and ethnic issues made tongues to wag on a number
of occasions.
CBN’s introduction of Islamic banking
system also raised some dust in 2011. Many observers, especially
Christians, felt uncomfortable with the thought that the CBN was being
partial to Islam. Not long afterwards, Sanusi gave his ethno-religious
stance a new colour when he went to office in full Islamic, regalia. The
picture of a turbanned CBN governor again sparked a debate. Yet, Sanusi
was again in the centre of another controversy when the CBN, as if
coming from the moon, donated N100m to victims of the Boko Haram attack
in Kano – after having remained unconcerned when the insurgents earlier
wreaked havocs in some other towns and villages. Anyway, it later
donated N25m to victims of the bomb blast at the St. Theresa Catholic
Church in Abuja.
On some occasions, it was not very easy
to know where Sanusi stood on certain national issues. Or, put
differently, he, at times too quickly moved from one position to the
other. An example that many Nigerian will still remember was his
position during the fuel subsidy crisis of 2012. On the eve of
Jonathan’s removal of the subsidy, Sanusi was initially reported to have
condemned the move. Days after, during a TV debate on it, he lined
behind government officials who said that the country would practically
collapse if the subsidy was not removed. But many Nigerians became wiser
when enquiries by the House of Representatives revealed that it was
widespread corruption in the subsidy regime that was – and is – actually
killing the country.
And one other positive element of his
tenure is that he is the first CBN governor to have regularly engaged
the press. His predecessors were bureaucrats who hardly spoke in the
public.
But the role that Sanusi played in the
past few weeks was that of an activist in the CBN governor’s costume.
Forget the fact that the alarm he first raised, about the Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation holding N$49.5bn oil money, was proved to
be partly false, as a meeting held on it revealed that it was ‘only’
about $10bn the NNPC had yet to account for. But Sanusi got many
people’s attention and sympathy later, when he insisted that up to $20bn
was missing. While the Federal Government has said that it will invite
forensic experts to probe the NNPC, a lot of people have expressed the
opinion that the money allegedly missing could just be part of a ploy to
fund 2015 elections.
As the drama of Sanusi’s removal –
suspension, sack or whatever – unfolds, his exploits are bound to
continue to vibrate in the minds of many. Of course, pundits have noted
that his royal background – it has been said he is going to be the next
Emir of Kano – had contributed to his uncompromising, if not arrogant,
style. What is, however, also becoming clear is that even where
political power and royalty clashes, it is the latter that often bends
for the first. Perhaps Jonathan is poised to prove that ‘power’ pass
power’ – as the colloquial saying goes.
Culled from The Punch
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