A former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor and Emir of Kano, Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi II, has said that former President Goodluck Jonathan remains his boss as the duo met publicly for the first time in 10 years after Sanusi’s suspension as CBN governor.
They were united a the public presentation of book, “Public Policy and Agent Interests: Perspectives from The Emerging World”, edited by Shamsuddeen Usman, former Finance Minister during Jonathan’s administration. Both were seen exchanging pleasantries at the well-attended event held on Thursday in Abuja.
Recall that in 2014, Sanusi was suspended by Jonathan after he raised alarm that $49.8 billion was missing under the former President.
The issue then had generated serious controversy with both of them falling apart. At the event on Thursday, Sanusi, however, acknowledged Jonathan as his boss and would not comment on the issue publicly out of respect for him.
Sanusi who also contributed to the book, in his chapter, made reference to the incident which led to his exit from the bank.
Jonathan who was the chairman of the book, denied that such humongous amount got missing under his watch. He took time to make some clarifications on the allegations.
The former President said: “I need to say why I did not quite agree with him. All that he wrote was on some of the issues, especially the one that is related to me.
“The one he raised was that he was sacked because he blew the whistle that the federal government lost $49.8 billion. It’s not quite correct. It was not that he was sacked. He was suspended,” he said.
He noted the Financial Reporting Council of CBN, which has the powers to ordain the CBN governor, needed to look at the allegations, but somehow, the time was short.
“So, before we finished, his tenure was already over, well, probably we would have called him back,” he said.
Earlier, in his speech, Sanusi who was the Special Guest of Honour addressed Jonathan as “My Boss that sacked me”, adding: “I know everyone is expecting me to respond, but I will not respond.”
“When I was told to make a speech, I told Shamsuddeen Usman that I will not speak about my intervention, out of respect for my boss, the President.”
“I feel most inappropriate for this to turn into a debate. It’s not about me or the President, it’s really about Dr. Shamsuddeen Usman today and his book. I always knew my chapter will be controversial when Dr. Usman asked me to write.
“I said, this topic is so similar to my book. You’re making me begin to reveal some of the things that are in my head. In other words, when I wrote that chapter, that was it for me.
“I’ll make a few remarks. First of all, I continue to respect my President, Jonathan. I do not have any grudges against anyone.”
While noting that the most important thing for him is not about personalities, he said, “I think what comes out of my chapter, like in the book, is something that we all know. Which is that for decades, the Nigerian state has been captive to elites class that sees the state as a site.
“This is a fact, and this is what has destroyed Nigeria. People get into office, and when they get into office, what they’re thinking of is how much they can make out of the state, rather than how they can use the state to serve the citizens. If we agree on that, we have no disagreements.
“Why is Nigeria where it is today? I mean, you referred to the Dangote Refinery. I don’t know what the details are. For a country feeding itself from imported petroleum products, instead of grabbing this opportunity, you know with open arms, we are frustrating it.
“Why would anyone stop us from having the capacity to produce our own refined petroleum products? Because there are vested interests who have profited from Nigeria continuing to import these products.
“They could be all marketers internationally. They could be people locally who have been profiting from these subsidy stamps. And this is the end, because every excuse disappears when you are not getting imported, and you are disembarking.”
Sanusi while commending the author for his contributions to the development of the nation, noted that the author was his lecturer and also worked with him in CBN.
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