Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi would go down in history as the most controversial Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). From his actions and words these past five years since his appointment as the boss of the apex bank, he comes as someone who revels in controversy. No doubt his love for activism could be responsible for this.
There is really nothing wrong in one being controversial, especially if he is sure about his facts on any issue he wishes to engage in. But this appears not to be the case with Sanusi. He would go down as one banker whose figures the public cannot bank on.
Long before the brewing $49.8billion cum $10.8 billion/$12.8billion and later $20billion unremitted revenue somersaults, the Kano Prince had earned a reputation in voodoo presentation of figures and avoidable flip-flops.
Sanusi began his journey of manipulating Nigerians with controversial figures in 2012 with his allegation that the National Assembly gulps 25% of the national budget. He had told Nigerians during a convocation lecture at the Igbinedion University, Okada, Edo State, that the huge cost of running the government was inimical to national development and went ahead to cite the example of the National Assembly which, he claimed, gulped a whopping 25% on the national budget in 2010.
At the end of the inquiry, it became clear that the figures Sanusi relied on for his allegation that the National Assembly gulped 25% of federal overheads were not entirely correct as they did not take into consideration service wide votes.
Left off the hook without any sanction by the National Assembly, Sanusi was emboldened to rev up his ride with controversial figures with an allegation of unremitted $49.8bn oil revenue against the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in September 2013. In a letter to the President, Sanusi alleged that a whopping $49.8bn revenue from oil sales between July 2012 and June 2013 was missing.
How a banker and the chief economist of the nation could think and believe that such a huge amount of money could just disappear and the country would not bein a huge financial and economic mess beats the imagination!
But Nigerians believed him. The reasoning was that as CBN governor, he should know. When the inter-agency team charged with the responsibility of reconciling the figures to verify the truth behind Sanusi’s allegation came up with its interim report indicating that $39bn was actually remitted into the Federation Account as against Sanusi’s $49.8bn, it became clear that the trust Nigerians placed on him as someone who should know was actually misplaced. Barely two hours after the joint press conference where the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke; and the CBN governor all told the world that $39bn of the original $49.8bn alleged to be missing by Sanusi have been reconciled with the $10.8bn outstanding yet-to-be reconciled, Sanusi told the Senate Committee on Finance that what was outstanding was $12bn and not $10.8bn.
Okonjo-Iweala had to cut in to correct him that the outstanding amount was $10.8bn. The question that arises from this and which most Nigerians have refused to ask is: Where did Sanusi get the extra $1.2bn he added to the $10.8bn yet-to-be-reconciled revenue to arrive at the $12bn he came up with at the Senate Committee hearing barely two hours after agreeing that what was outstanding was $10.8bn?
Then NNPC explained that the $10.8bn was not missing but was used for some critical operations it carried out as part of its statutory duties. It also provided legal backing for the expenditure (Section 7 Sub-section A and B of the NNPC Act which provides that the corporation can engage in such expenses and deduct same from proceeds of crude oil sales). This effectively robbed Sanusi of the victory or justification he thought the so-called “missing” $10.8bn gave him.
Sanusi’s fresh allegation of $20bn unremitted oil revenue against NNPC could therefore be seen as a gambit to redeem his image which has been thoroughly pulverized by his misguided adventure with false figures. He appeared to have forgotten the vital lesson that figures could seem infallible when seen from a particular perspective that does not embrace the whole picture.
The last hearing of the Makarfi-led Senate Committee on Finance where the inter-agency committee chaired by Okonjo-Iweala presented its final report was very instructive. Relying on the certification given by the Petroleum ProductsPricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) which is statutorily empowered to verify petroleum products imports, the inter-agency team agreed that the outstanding$10.8bn has been accounted for by NNPC. Sanusi agreed that since the PPPRA has signed off on NNPC figures, he agrees with the figures. The new issue by the inter-agency team was that they lacked the expertise to thoroughly assess NNPC’s evidence and called for an independent forensic audit on the various claims to clear the air once and for all.
While Okonjo-Iweala owned up to the fact that the inter-agency team lacked the technical expertise to scrutinize NNPC’s evidence, Sanusi on his part stated that neither he nor CBN has the technical expertise to determine how much crude oil the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) produced and what should accrue to the Federation Account. But in another breadth, he said he stood by his $20bn claim. The question then is: How did he arrive at the fresh $20bn unremitted oil revenue after acknowledging lack of expertise in the rudiments of the business from which the revenue in question flows?
Going by his antecedents with figures, it would be remiss for Nigerians to bank on Sanusi’s fresh figures. He has taken Nigerians down this futile road before, it would be foolhardy for anyone to take this figures as the gospel truth. It is wiser to wait for the reports of the forensic auditors and the Attorney General as recommended by the Senate Committee on Finance than to allow the nation betaken on a ride by an unsure banker whose figures cannot be banked on.
Dr. Obanta, a US-based Nigerian lawyer, writes from Edgeware Court, Bowie City, Maryland USA; [email protected]
