The former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi II, in this recollection for NdaniTV in its August series African Dream of his tenure as CBN governor talked about his relationship with former President Goodluck Jonathan, the alleged missing $20 billion, family life and much more.
- It’s totally immaterial to think that I was not scared. I could have been shot or lost my life, locked up, arrested and held by the DSS on trumped-up charges
It was reported that had been your life long wish to become the Emir of Kano? Anf when you were made the Emir, how did you feel?
It’s something I really wanted. I had grown up before now grown up because I grew up in this palace. I never really wanted to be anything that my family wasn’t. But it’s not something that you spend your time and be obsessed by something that you work for. You have your education, career, you have opportunities which you take and you are not going to spend your time on something that is going to happened to one person but if it turns out to be you, good.
You hold degrees in economics and Islamic Studies and was crowned the 14th Emir of Kano in 2014. By virtue of this, this makes you the most influential monarch in Nigeria. What then do you think is the role of emirs?
The emirs are no longer the political authority (constitutionally) as they are elected governance. We take care of the mosques, settle marital issues, couples being forced into marriage, farm disputes, issues between neighbours. If you come from Monday to Thursday, you see people who come with these issues. Our roles are to address these concerns. About 70 per cent of the issues that happen between people and issues are not taken to courts because they are too expensive. They do recognise these systems and respect them. When we adjudicate on these issues, they abide by the adjudication.
On Boko Haram’s attacks on worshippers at worship centres in Kano…
We go through difficult times and difficult period in our nation’s history. It’s a combination of many things. There is the obviously fact that you have a murderous group that kills people; that claims to be a Muslim and obvious has killed more Muslims than any other group you can think of. We are not just dealing with a security problem that hopeful can be addressed militarily in the short but you are dealing with an entire way of life that has disappeared. Think of a town like Chibok. If those girls come back, how are they going to feel and how are we going to address the issues.
We have got to deal with those issues-deal with an economy, fashion out agricultures, have industrialisation. Frankly, some of the serious governance issues we have had and very bad economic choices that we had made in the past, have contributed to the problems we have had.
Having said that, we have to leave with them. We have to tell people to have courage, the worst you can do to yourselves is to be scared by terrorists and run away and change your life. You’ve got to understand that this is not religion and they do not need support and they should not be feared. We have to remain truthful to our values, cultures and principles. Hopefully with the right political will on the part of us, we will defeat them.
On the new administration’s determination to fight corruption…
First of all, if you have tried something for 16 years and it didn’t work, it’s worthwhile to try something else. I think it’s a whole issue of expectations that needs to be managed. When I was governor of CBN, one of the issues I raised was that 80 per cent of Federal Government revenue was spent on personal cost. So in a country of 167 million people, spending 80 per cent on of its revenue maintaining one million public officers and the remaining 20 per cent for 167 million people. And that is the same money that would be used to build schools, power, roads, schools. It’s not going to work that way.
Are you inclined to the new administration’s Change mantra…
I am personally not supposed to be in any kind of partisan politics but I am a Nigerian. I think it’s good for Nigeria. First, we now know that an incumbent president does not have an automatic second term ticket as this is going to improve the president’s behaviour. This is the first time votes were truly counted. If we can continue with that, people will know that if you must win an election, you must serve the people. And that is how the rest of the world have moved on.
On his relationship with former President Goodluck Jonathan…
No I have not spoken with him since he lost. I have always had a formal relationship with him. I met him in Abuja when I was made the governor of CBN and he was the vice-president. I worked with him in official capacity. It’s not as if we are personal friends. I mean, if you have a job, you do your job.
I was the governor of CBN, my job was that of stability. I know that there are some people who make their bosses happy. And I say that if bosses want to be happy, they go to their wives. My job was to keep inflation down, have a stable exchange rate, make sure the banks were safe, work on the payment system that includes financial inclusion. And that was my job. In doing my job, people might be happy or not. I cannot do the job the way my conscience does not say I should do it. There is no problem about that. If I see him (Jonathan), I will speak with him.
On the alleged missing $20 billion which led to his suspension as CBN governor…
But that was my choice. If you don’t want to get into trouble, you don’t ask uncomfortable questions. If you did the kind of things I did, you would be prepared for consequences. If I were President Jonathan too, I would also fire me as well. Other people would see and keep quiet and when you are not keeping quiet, you would face consequences.
Now we had the PriceWaterCooper report which said it was not $20 billion but $18.5 billion. But as far as I am concerned based on the PWC report, it means that $12.5 billion had been diverted and as governor, it meant that money belonging to the federation was not coming and if we do not bring that money if oil price was high and if crashes, we were going to have a major problems with exchange rate, economic growth, interest rate, inflation and so on. And since my job was stability, if I felt those leakages were potential source of instability, I had the responsibility to shout. So I did my job. I am only responsible for my actions. Heard the president felt he did what he had to do.
…His claim that $20 billion was missing from NNPC accounts…
I was warned before I got to the Senate that there would be consequences. It’s totally immaterial to think that I was not scared. I could have been shot or lost my life, locked up, arrested and held up by the DSS or accused of trumped up charges.
