The Sanusi Affair

The night before Sanusi Lamido Sanusi was fired, I received calls from highly-placed persons enquiring if there was any credence to information that Zenith Bank CEO, Godwin Emefiele was about to be named CBN Governor. The next morning as I headed to my Lagos Island office, I got a thunderbolt from a finance commissioner asking if I had heard breaking news of SLS’s suspension. Minutes later I got a call from CNBC Africa confirming Sanusi’s suspension (and designation of erstwhile Deputy Governor in charge of monetary policy, Dr Sarah Alade as interim Governor) and inviting me to their studios for a 12noon interview on the issue. And then all “hell” almost literally broke loose-a call from a conglomerate CEO and a quick mini-strategy session on developments; numerous calls and texts from domestic media and business leaders seeking perspectives; emails and a phone interview with BBC journalists; calls from ordinary Nigerians requesting insight and analysis-as I said on the CNBC interview which was to include Bismarck Rewane and a Citibank economist on phone from Johannesburg, the news was a bombshell! My basic take on the events surrounding Sanusi’s suspension have not changed from the summary I presented on CNBC Africa and on STV later same night and next morning-I had been aware for several weeks of the possibility of the suspension, but I hoped that both sides would find the maturity to allow the controversial departing governor’s tenure elapse given the short time left and the risks involved in a precipitate removal; indeed I was aware of queries to Sanusi over the CBN’s 2012 accounts over nine months earlier in May 2013 and hints from informed sources back then of his imminent sack, but I felt that since President Jonathan had so delayed action until Sanusi’s tenure was virtually exhausted, it no longer made much sense to take action on the matter; this was especially so as the presidency appeared to have allowed itself to be out-maneuvered by SLS and his strategists since any attempt to remove him would now be interpreted in public consciousness (locally and internationally) as a reaction to Sanusi’s “whistle-blowing” over the missing $50bn, $12bn, $10.8bn or $20bn that he alleged was missing at the NNPC! In the event, Sanusi probably gave the president no alternative but to remove him from office irrespective of costs and risks-the loss of presidential authority that may have resulted from a CBN governor in effect becoming an alternative government and totally disrespecting the office of president would have been a terrible precedent. The timelines confirm without doubt that weighty queries on the finances and management of the Central Bank were raised long before Sanusi’s “counter” allegations of fraud at the NNPC; it is probable, indeed likely that Sanusi having secured a breather leveraging Kano and Sokoto Fulani Emirate influence over a president desperate to secure important political IOUs towards 2015, then deployed his own ploy to immunize himself from the president’s inclinations. But as I have always insisted, whatever Sanusi’s motives in beaming the searchlight on NNPC finances, there is a reason he chose that organization-it has historically been the slush fund of Nigeria’s presidency and there is no reason to think that the Jonathan/Diezani Allison-Maduekwe management has departed from history-some suggestions indeed are that things may be much worse! My view therefore is that this is a case in which the grasses i.e. the Nigerian people have to focus, not on taking sides but on benefitting from this fight between the two elephants-the presidency and the suspended CBN governor! In my view the allegations against both sides are weighty and tangible and the Nigerian people must insist on both set of allegations being investigated, illuminated and clarified in a definitive manner and our objective must be to secure better transparency and accountability at both the CBN and NNPC thereby. We have always been aware of the opacity and excessive presidential and ministerial discretion in relation to the management of the oil sector, and I have personally being troubled by the absolute absence of restraints on the powers of the CBN governor especially under Sanusi. As I have said in media interviews on the matter, I do not support an unaccountable CBN Governor who refuses to be guided by the nation’s laws (such as the Banking and Other Financial Institutions Act and National Procurement Commission Act) and who is free to spend and donate billions of Naira for whatever purposes he deems fit based only on the approval of a board of which he is Chairman and Chief Executive!!! It would be interesting to see who some of the beneficiaries of the contracts and expenditure at the CBN (such as on business promotion) are!!! Our other goal must be to preserve the independence and autonomy of the CBN, irrespective of Sanusi’s fate. That autonomy can only be sustained if we appoint the right personalities to the CBN and if subsequent governors avoid politicizing their office and acting in a manner inconsistent with the traditions of the very sensitive office in the countries from which we copied CBN autonomy. In the circumstances in which Sanusi left the CBN it was important to re-assure the markets, as Sarah Alade’s appointment did, that the CBN would henceforth be managed in a professional manner and that monetary policy management would not change drastically or be subsumed to presidential decision-making. I believe the Senate confirmation process is designed to test nominees against the criteria of autonomy, independency and professional management of monetary policy. Opeyemi Agbaje