There was palpable anxiety at the Abuja headquarters of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) yesterday over a presidential directive that the apex bank’s governor, Mallam Lamido Sanusi, should tender his resignation over the leakage of his letter alleging non-remittance of $49.8 billion oil revenue to the Federation Account by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
When our correspondent visited the CBN yesterday many staffers were seen discussing the matter and its implication for the bank.
According to reports, President Goodluck Jonathan accused Sanusi of leaking the confidential letter to former President Olusegun Obasanjo. The leaked letter formed a major flank of Obasanjo’s recent open letter to the president entitled, “Before It Is Too Late.”
It was gathered that the President during a heated telephone conversation with the CBN governor accused him of disloyalty and asked Sanusi whose terminal leave begins in March, to tender his resignation before the close of business last Tuesday.
Sanusi, however, denied leaking the letter and was reported as saying it could have been leaked from the Presidential Villa where he directed it or at the Federal Ministry of Finance where copies were available. In addition, he reportedly told the president that since his job was a tenured one, he could only be removed by two-third of the Senate and not by the President.
Reacting to the development, Publicity Secretary of Afenifere, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, said Sanusi ought to have tendered his resignation as soon as he made his allegations and later recanted. Odumakin said the CBN governor’s refusal to heed the directive of the president “is a display of his born-to-rule mentality”, adding that “Sanusi is baring his Caliphate fangs against the president.”
On his part, former Governor of Kaduna State and Chairman of the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties [CNPP] Alhaji Balarabe Musa, said, “There is nothing wrong with someone asking the person he appointed into office to resign.
“If the president says Alhaji Sanusi should go, let him go. There is nothing to comment on it but I do not think the president has the powers to remove the CBN Governor without referring to the National Assembly.”
Similarly, Chairman of Labour Party, Chief Dan Nwanyawu stated that the CBN Governor should have honourably resigned before now for giving a misleading figure on the NNPC’s funds.
He said: “I don’t believe that story is true. But if it is true, let me talk in general terms: Lamido is an appointee of government. What Senate did was to confirm his appointment by the president. The Senate has no power to determine whether an appointee of the president can be removed or not. An appointer can remove an appointee. CBN governor, like ministers, is an appointment. Have you not heard of the president removing a minister or dissolving the cabinet?
But in a statement issued last night, the All Progressives Congress (APC) advised President Jonathan to tread softly on his reported plan to force Sanusi, to resign because of the impact such will have on the nation’s economy.
In the signed by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said asking the CBN Governor to step down, on the basis of a mere allegation that he leaked the letter he wrote to the President, over the unremitted $49.8 billion oil revenue, does not bode well for an economy that is already on crutches.
However, the CBN yesterday denied knowledge of any confrontation between President Jonathan and its Governor, in which the president asked him to resign immediately ahead of his June 2 tenure expiration.
The bank’s Director, Corporate Communications, Mr. Ugochukwu Okoroafor, said if it was actually true, the governor would have hinted his management staff Wednesday night, when he had a “family meeting” with them.
“All what he reminded us of was that his tenure will be expiring on June 2, and he has decided to shelve any form of leave and be on seat till that date. He didn’t tell us any such thing as to being forced to resign before that date, on account of any leaked letter as you are saying.”
Asked why it wasn’t the Governor that addressed the press yesterday, on the introduction of the apex bank’s all-important two settlement systems, Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) and Scrip-less Securities Settlement System (SSSS), which was addressed by the outgoing Deputy Governor, Mr. Tunde Lemo, the CBN spokesman said there were nothing wrong with that.
According to him, Lemo was only chosen to do the presentation, being the bank’s head of operations who had championed all its settlement programmes.
At the CBN’s press briefing yesterday, Sanusi’s fate was being discussed in hushed tones by those present.
While some said it was wrong of the president to have asked Sanusi to resign, based on his leaked letter, others said Sanusi should have simply begged the president to forgive him, whether he was right or wrong, knowing full well that Jonathan still remains the Commander-in-Chief of the country.