Jonathan, Sanusi and poverty of leadership WITH his petulance, foul temperament and imprudent conduct, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi impoverished the sobriety and dignity of the office of Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria in ways that made his appointment seem like an error in the first place. However, in timing and manner, his suspension from office the other day by President Goodluck Jonathan is equally imprudent, almost puerile, in a way that advertises a certain pettiness at the highest level of Nigeria’s leadership. The result is that, once again, in place of lofty ideals or a contention of principles, only the poverty of ideas and absence of grace in the highest realms of governance are on display. For, after all is considered, neither the course of Nigeria’s economy nor that of graceful purposeful leadership has been served by both men, a tragedy that Nigeria can do without. Expectedly, Sanusi’s suspension has excited intense public debate and recriminations. The President rationalised his action on the point that Sanusi’s tenure has been characterised by “various acts of financial recklessness and misconduct that are inconsistent with the administration’s vision of a central bank propelled by the core values of focused economic management, prudence, transparency and financial discipline.” Legal analysts and politicians have equally faulted the action of the President, claiming it was illegal and a violation of the CBN Act. Others have interpreted the action as being in bad faith and self-serving on account of the weighty allegations of the CBN Governor against the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) for the non-remittance of billions of petrol dollars into the Federation Account. This perception also runs through the international media and has been the strongest point of those who define as impolitic the action of the President. The CBN Act empowers the President to appoint the Governor of the Central Bank with two-thirds approval of the Senate while the issue of suspension is dealt with in the Interpretation Act. So, even now, Sanusi remains the substantive Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and whether the action of the President is legal or not is a matter to be best resolved by a judicial review. However, what is currently at stake is power and its use or misuse, decorum and, of course, probity in the public sphere. Firstly, contrary to his mandate of being a frontline steward of the nation’s economy, achieving low inflation, stabilising the naira, and protecting the autonomy of the apex bank, the suspended Governor of the Central Bank spent more time playing politics and playing to the gallery. As the chief economic adviser to the President ex officio, he ought to have exercised restraint and made decorum the watch-word in his work-a-day activities. In his public outbursts and most recently, on the NNPC’s funds, he had approbated and simultaneously reprobated to the extent that the primacy of his concerns and revelations were obviated by his flippancy. With his style and actions, there was no doubt that there had to be infractions on the normal run of the apex bank. The independence of the governor is to ensure that it does not become an appendage of the Presidency, but on Sanusi’s watch, the CBN veered off the path of decorum into the quagmire of political grandstanding and extra-banking melee. In suspending Sanusi, however, the President might have been right but he did not act wisely. He misread the political climate, dithered too long and acted imprudently. He appeared too petty with the suspension and lost much deserved political capital with his characteristic tardiness. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) raised questions on the CBN books as far back as February 2013 and he could have acted promptly and fast-tracked the investigation over the issues raised. His inability to act speedily allows his last minute diffident act of suspension of a man whose tenure ends in weeks to generate an unusual uproar in ways that allow mischief makers to play up primordial sentiments. By far more worrisome, however, are the implications of Sanusi’s revelation of accounting impropriety in NNPC on one hand and the FRC’s indictment against him on the other. No doubt, undermining of the autonomy of the apex bank and draining of investors’ confidence in the financial market are the immediate consequences of Sanusi’s suspension. The alleged infractions in the CBN also implicitly inflicts a credibility crisis on the national economy in ways that may erode investors’ confidence in doing business in Nigeria. The situation also has grave implication for peace and stability of the country with the aforementioned dichotomy of view bothering on ethno-geopolitical fault lines which the President’s action has unnecessarily engendered. All these notwithstanding, Nigerians expect the President and the relevant agencies to move quickly to address the point at issue: accountability. The alleged missing funds from the national oil company, whatever the figure, must be subjected to forensic audit by independent external auditors. The amount in dispute is too large to be glossed over by any serious government and a people. Also, the CBN must provide convincing answers to the queries from the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) and be subjected to further audit. This government must not validate the growing perception that Sanusi’s suspension is to pave way for the covering up of tracks. It is important to note that Nigeria’s current condition is due to the weakness of appropriate government organs to live up to their responsibilities. If the offices of the Auditor-General of the Federation and the Public Accounts Committees of the National Assembly with their investigative remit had been up and doing, Nigeria would have been spared this mess. The ambiguity of the CBN Act must also be addressed. As it currently stands, the CBN governor is the chief executive of the apex bank and equally the chairman of the CBN Board of directors in ways that make it absolutely difficult for the CBN to properly superintend over the issue of financial impropriety that involves the leadership of the bank. Though the spirit behind such duality must have been the need to protect its autonomy but in Nigeria’s circumstance, there is need for caution and measures of horizontal accountability. The autonomy of the CBN must be balanced with mechanisms for accountability. Sanusi is on suspension or may be gone forever. But the issues of corruption and accountability he raised and the alleged mismanagement or misconduct which was further raised against him leading to his own suspension must be tackled to the eternal satisfaction of Nigerians. That would be one redeeming value from the poverty of sound leadership currently on parade in Nigeria. -The Guardian Editorial
Posted on: Wed, 05 Mar 2014 14:50:40 +0000
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