Fashola, Sanusi, el-Rufai and the APC

By Sylvester Okoro
When Sanusi Lamido Sanusi lost his job,
and chose to head for Lagos rather than Abuja where he had a home, many
did not
read much meaning into it, until it emerged that he was received by All
Progressives Congress (APC) chieftains led by, none other than one like him,
Mallam Nasir el Rufai, in posh cars made available by prominent Lagosians.
That singular act confirmed stories
that had been going the rounds in exclusive circles that some of the
chieftains
of the party had met with the financial rabble rouser in one of the financial
capitals of the world, and perfected a grand plan to ruffle Abuja
feathers, as
a step to gain political capital and preparatory to his joining the party.
Either he neglected to tell them his alleged
financial misdemeanours or he told them and the plot was to get him out
there,
making so much noise about the always-tainted Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation (NNPC) so that any disciplinary measure against him would be seen
as persecution.
But he succeeded halfway as it has now
emerged he was rotten to the core and operated a house muddied by alleged
financial recklessness of the highest order. Â To think that President
Goodluck Jonathan had
this information since June, last year, and did nothing about it is, to
say the
least, either an evidence of his naivety or a large-heartedness that is
not for
a clime like ours.
It is much more confounding that with
all this information, Jonathan tried persuading the Emperor of Nigeria’s
financial institutions to resign but rebuffed him and perhaps told the
story of
his encounter with the president on phone to THISDAY newspapers that
carried it
weeks ago. It is therefore no wonder
that, now that the APC deep-throat in government has fallen from his high
horse, those presenting warped logic over his sack are apologists from the
APC.
Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola,
said: “You see, I don’t understand this kind of economic management.
If the man
is going in June, there must be a sense in which messaging about executive
tampering with the independence of the Central Bank has economic consequences
for investor positioning. This is not a
suspension; it’s a sack really because it’s only there’s no power to
sack him
and they have looked and looked and looked and they have said: we suspend.
It’s a sack really. The message you are
sending out is that it is better to keep quiet about corruption.
 That’s what it seems to me.â€
Is that so, suddenly-loquacious
Governor Fashola? Â Â Would you dare take
on Tinubu the way Sanusi took on Jonathan? Â We all know you would be
impeached within the
five working days of the wee; so, stop pontificating. Fashola said
further, “For me really, if
someone in my government tells me that some money is missing and without
concluding any investigation, they suspended the person who blew the whistle.
It is when the audit is concluded that they can now decide what to do to the
man. But now, before the completion of
the audit, they have sacked the man who alerted the head of the government
that
money is missing.â€
Interesting! Why not hire an audit firm
from Chicago to audit the tax system in Lagos State since you became governor
and see whether Lagosians, at least the true ones, will allow you to sit in
Alausa, and continue to report to that godfather of yours. Â And who,
except Sanusi, is saying that money
is missing? Â In the legal profession
where you came from, does the word of one inconsistent loud talking banker
confirm a misdeed, even if there was one?
“So what message is the presidency
sending out to Nigerians on corruption and others who may want to reveal any
atrocity committed in the country?†you asked sir, and you went ahead to
answer
the same question thus: “The message the presidency is sending out is that
Nigerians should keep quiet whenever they see any corruption perpetrated
in the
country. That is not a good sign for the economy.â€
Your Excellency, you are completely
wrong, and if your sense of history does not serve you well, I will remind
you
that no one in all our history has been able to cow us as has been done in
other climes, even western ones. Â You
want an example, Sir? I will give you only one: Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. Â He
has been running riot with his mouth for
the past three years like a political governor rather than a financial one
who
should not rock the boat of state; but remained there because the President,
for some inexplicable reason, trusted him and knew Nigerians wanted a breed
like him. Â But it got into his head, and
if you read the papers with their deluge of his alleged financial
recklessness,
it also got into his pocket.
Governor Fashola, please, remove your
APC toga for a few minutes and answer this question: should such a man have
been retained? Should the amiable
Lagos Governor not be aware, may be it would be necessary for him to be told
that the President had been told since the first week of June last year, a
clear eight months and three weeks ago, to fire the man and his deputies.
As a newspaper put it, “the decision
to suspend the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Sanusi Lamido was based on a
report of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria dated June 7, 2013. The
report was made after a review of Sanusi’s response to the query issued
to him
by the President over the apex bank’s financial statement of 2012. His
response
was dated May 20, 2013.
“According to a copy of the report
obtained by our correspondent on Thursday, the council indicates that the
explanation provided by the suspended CBN governor is ‘a clear display of
incompetence, nonchalance, fraud, wastefulness, and abuse of due process and
deliberate efforts to misrepresent facts on the part of the leadership of the
CBN.’ The council advised the President
to exercise the powers conferred on him by Section 11(2)(f) of the CBN Act
2007
or invoke Section 11(2)(c) of the said Act ‘and cause the governor and the
deputy governors to cease from holding office in the CBN’.â€
What more is there to say about this
prince of Kano who rattled about like a commoner; was un-princely to the
extent
that he was once alleged to have been involved in some social
peccadillo? Those things that have been propelling him to
engage in a macabre dance will fully unravel in the next few weeks or months,
no doubt. Â Â
* Â Okoro sent this piece from Lagos via sylvesterokoro2013@yahoo.com