Sanusi’s blunders Emefiele must avoid

By Ochereome Nnanna

ZENITH Bank Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Godwin Emefiele will assume the seat of Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, early in June 2014 if his nomination by President Goodluck Jonathan is ratified by the Senate. It will be the beginning of a new era and the close of the most tempestuous five years in the Bank’s history under Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi.


Sanusi turned himself and the Bank into objects of political attention such that when he became the first CBN Governor to be suspended with a few months left of his tenure, it became a drawn battle line between the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and the main opposition All Progressives Congress, APC. That war is being fought across media platforms. This (politicisation of that office) is one thing we will not like to see again from any CBN Governor.
Emefiele

Emefiele

We have to admit that Sanusi was able to correct some of the weaknesses the Dr Chukwuma Soludo regime left behind in the financial system, which saw consolidated banks being looted unchecked by their founders and managers. He brought his risk management acumen to play, fired the offending executives, prosecuted many of them and created the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria, AMCON, to help prevent the collapse of the rescued banks.

Some will still say that Sanusi’s combustive approach cost the nation high in terms of scarce resources spent in the process, that if the Kano-born banker had reined in his impulses and excesses, he would still have ended up as one of the most successful CBN governors in Nigeria. Sadly enough, he ended up a complete disaster; an experience we would rather quickly put behind us as we wait for Dr Emefiele to bring his calm and independent professionalism to repair the damage caused by Hurricane Sanusi in the Bank and the financial system.

This thing called mindset often accounts for the difference between a job well done and another job ending in a catastrophe. The messy way in which Sanusi ended his call to serve at the CBN had to do with the delusional mindset he came with. For instance, that Sanusi is a prince is something he wears like a toga.

He is an openly interested contestant to the throne of Emir of Kano, even while the occupant, Alhaji Ado Bayero, is still alive, kicking and ready for a long distance run. Sanusi sometimes goes to work dressed like an Emir of Kano! I don’t know if he has advisers. If he does I don’t know if he listens to them. He should know that this unwholesome body language is irritating and that people are watching and may ensure he never gets to sit on that throne when the time comes (assuming he will be there when it does).

Sanusi also took the title:

“Governor” to mean he was entitled to spend the money of the Bank just as he pleased. Perhaps, he was inspired by the penchant of elected state governors to spend from the state coffers, forgetting that their actions are justified by the fact that the funds are appropriated by the State Houses of Assembly.

    I never knew that the CBN had the right to give away the money belonging to all Nigerians; proceeds of revenue from the resources of the Niger Delta to only schools, charities and political interests from Northern Nigeria alone

Apart from that, state governors are pavilioned with constitutional immunity from prosecution while their tenures run. The CBN Governor has no such cast-iron protections, their “independence” notwithstanding. The “independence” in question is even restricted to certain technical operations of the Bank which no sensible, well-meaning government will want to interfere with. Sanusi did not know where to draw the line and plant the posts.

The truth of the matter is that the “independence” notwithstanding, the CBN Governor, being an Adviser and Chief Accounts Officer of the President and Federal Government, is part of the Executive Branch of the Federal Government. He is answerable to the President and the National Assembly, both of whom have the power to appoint and terminate his appointment. When President Jonathan last year issued queries to Sanusi over the indicting report of the Financial Reporters Council, FRC, Sanusi nearly did not answer the query. He eventually replied when he liked, well after the deadline.

But even at that, he started what his supporters now call “whistleblowing”, making unsubstantiated allegations of “missing” funds and waffling from one figure to another. He came across as someone who did not know what he was talking about; a peddler of falsehood and confusion. That is a total betrayal of the job of a CBN Governor. Even if a CBN Governor decides to turn a whistleblower, he must be cocksure of his facts because an allegation that $49.8 billion (later adjusted to $12b and $20) was missing from the economy by a CBN Governor could ruin the entire economic system.

The “whistleblowing” parody obviously tickled the fancy of Western media operators, who started seeing Sanusi as an anti-corruption central bank chief being persecuted in corruption-riddled Nigeria, forgetting to look into the issues raised by the FRC portraying him as an alleged reckless spender of unappropriated resources of the Bank.

The most outrageous part of Sanusi’s misadventure in the CBN has to do with the alleged donation of the Bank’s funds to some schools, charities and politicians from the Northern part of the country. In fact, the reports have it that he actually gave hefty amounts of money to key opposition leaders and political adversaries of the President. Sanusi calls them “corporate social responsibility” gestures.

I never knew that the CBN also possesses the magnanimity to dispense favours with nepotism and favouritism to boot. I never knew that the CBN had the right to give away the money belonging to all Nigerians; proceeds of revenue from the resources of the Niger Delta to only schools, charities and political interests from Northern Nigeria alone.

When Emefiele takes over, we will hope to see an end to this ugly style of central banking. Meanwhile, we must proceed with gusto to probe Sanusi’s “missing” billions through the proposed forensic audit and lay the matter to rest once and for all. We must also make sure that if Sanusi contravened the law with regards to handling of the funds of the Bank, he and his cohorts must face the full weight of the law.