The All Progressives Youth Forum (APYF) has condemned the suspension of
the Central Bank Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi describing it as a mark of
the insensitivity the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan to the
plight of Nigerians.
The group in a statement released on Thursday by its Director of
Communications, Abubakar Sidiq Usman said that the Jonathan administration
has, by this action once again, proved beyond reasonable doubt that the
pocket of few individuals opportune to hold public offices only to turn
them to money making ventures is more important than the wellbeing of
millions of other Nigerians whose survival depends largely on the funds
being looted day in day out.
The group wondered why the government of President Goodluck Jonathan has
chosen to vilify a man who chooses to stand on the part of honour,
exposing the monumental corruption in the oil industry when he should be
praised, rewarded and given higher responsibilities that will change the
fortunes of the country.
It said it is even more worrisome that aside acting promptly on the report
of the ‘Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria and other investigating
bodies’ which it said found the CBN governor guilty of financial
recklessness and misconduct even when reports of investigations into high
level corruption within its government is gathering dust wherever it is,
the president in his serial rape of the country’s laws, suspended the CBN
governor without recourse to Section 11 (f) of the CBN Act which empowers
the President to remove the CBN Governor if he has the support of
two-thirds majority of the Senate.
“We have not forgotten that the House Committee report on fuel subsidy,
the Nuhu Ribadu report of corruption in the oil industry, the KPMG report
on NNPC and a couple of others exposing monumental fraud and indicting a
good number of individuals have never seen the light off the day since
they were submitted to the president, whereas, the report of the
‘Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria and other investigating bodies’
which no one has an idea of how it came about the indictment of Sanusi
Lamido is hurriedly being implemented. Something must definitely be fishy
somewhere.”
“While we are not against the govt taking punitive measures against Sanusi
or any other govt official found to have abused the privilege of office,
APYF notes that the suspension of the CBN governor at a time a can of
worms is been opened in the NNPC, particularly the revelations exposing
the alleged missing 20 billion dollars in the NNPC accounts is a strong
indication that President Jonathan does not only silence whistle blowers,
but abhors corruption for the purpose of political expediency,” the
statement said.
The APYF said Sanusi’s suspension nonetheless; it remains concerned about
the missing $20 billion oil money, vowing that no amount of intimidation
in any form would change the story so long as the government does not come
clean about what exactly has happened to the missing fund.
While expressing the readiness of the group to support the CBN Governor in
the challenge of the illegal suspension placed on him by our corruption
hugging president, the group reminded President Goodluck Jonathan that
Nigerians will continue to hold him responsible for the consequences the
missing $20 billion oil money would have averted in the life of ordinary
Nigerians.