Jonathan suspends Lamido Sanusi as CBN gov

President Jonathan has announced the suspension of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi.
This was made known in a statement signed Thursday by Reuben Abati Special Adviser to the President (Media & Publicity.

The statement further Directed that the most Senior Deputy Governor of the CBN, “Dr Sarah Alade who will serve as Acting Governor until the conclusion of on-going investigations into breaches of enabling laws, due process and mandate of the CBN”.

The statement reads thus
Having taken special notice of reports of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria and other investigating bodies, which indicate clearly that Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi’s tenure has been characterized by various acts of financial recklessness and misconduct which 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;

Being also deeply concerned about far-reaching irregularities under Mallam Sanusi’s watch which have distracted the Central Bank away from the pursuit and achievement of its statutory mandate; and

Being determined to urgently re-position the Central Bank of Nigeria for greater efficiency, respect for due process and accountability, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has ordered the immediate suspension of Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi from the Office of Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria.

President Jonathan has further ordered that Mallam Sanusi should hand over to the most senior Deputy Governor of the CBN, Dr Sarah Alade who will serve as Acting Governor until the conclusion of on-going investigations into breaches of enabling laws, due process and mandate of the CBN.

The President expects that as Acting Governor of the Central Bank, Dr. Alade will focus on the core mandate of the Bank and conduct its affairs with greater professionalism, prudence and propriety to restore domestic and international confidence in the country’s apex bank.

The Federal Government of Nigeria reassures all stakeholders in Nigeria’s financial and monetary system that this decision has been taken in absolute good faith, in the overall interest of the Nigerian economy and in accordance with our laws and due process.

NNPC will account for missing $10.8bn- Okonjo-Iweala

The Minister for Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has said that the ministry will make sure that the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, accounts for the missing $10.8 billion oil revenue.

She spoke, Sunday, in Lagos at a session with the South South Professionals, adding that it was her job to ensure that every money belonging to the Federal Government goes into the Federation Account. The Minister said that the ministry played the right role in the case of the missing oil money raised by the Central Bank Governor, Mallam Lamido Sanusi, by helping to reconcile the revenue shortfall, to the outstanding balance of $10.8 billion.

”We have the Federation Allocation Accounts Committee, FAAC, which is chaired by the Minister of State for Finance, with state commissioners for finance, NNPC, and FIRS as members. “Whenever there is a case of revenue questions we turn to the FIRS and NNPC for explanations, and we don’t need to make noise about it on the pages of newspapers.

“And that is what we did in in the case of the missing oil revenue. We have reconciled the accounts and we are still reconciling, and the outstanding is $10.8 billion. The NNPC said that the money was used for operational expenses, but we have asked them to account for how the money was spent and what it was spent for, so as to ascertain that there is no case of unauthorised spendings. ”

So we played our role, and the ministry should be credited. We are for professionalism and transparency. Our job is to ensure every money belonging to the federation comes in, so we will ask NNPC to account for the $10.8 billion. ”On budget implementation, the Minister noted that there were challenges in the nation’s budgeting process, which must be resolved. “Sometimes you get budget that is not easy to implement because of the way things have been solved around.’’