MID-WEEK ESSAY: On the Matter of the Suspension of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi - and other matters
by
Mobolaji E. Aluko, PhD
February 27, 2014
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My People:
On the Suspension of SLS
I have always held that part of the Nigerian problem is the existence of a Constitution in which we the Nigerian people do not have a consensus or trust, and hence we are always looking for ways around it.
On this matter of whether the suspension of CBN Governor SLS is legal or not for example - or the removal of the Appeals Court President Salami before it was legal or not - my own take is simple: blame it on the Nigerian Constitution - or some of our laws - which is too riddled with ambiguities like "notwithstanding.....",
For example, there are many reasonable people, like the President himself - and bright legal minds - who believe that SLS's suspension - or Salami's before him - is proper. There are also equally reasonable and bright legal minds who believe otherwise. However, in certain situations and positions such as the Central Bank Governor, it is IMPORTANT that going forward, all AMBIGUITIES about the tenure of their position should be removed.
Mind you, I take the firm position that NO position in the public or civil service should be so immune that NO one in it can be suspended or dismissed by some person or some designated institution....that would invite impunity of the highest order. So the Appeal Court President, or the CBN Governor should be suspend-able or dismiss-able. But who can do the dismissal or suspension should not be subject to such whims and caprices as we too periodically witness - and subject to such capricious interpretations that the high, low and might of Nigerians both at home and abroad are currently doing.
I can assure you that if the President of the USA announces the suspension or dismissal of the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Bank Prof. Janet Yellen today, yelling will break loose in obodo America....he won't do it. That is because the laws are very clear on that. Ours are not - and so reasonable people disagree.
Our President Jonathan who believes that he has the right to suspend SLS as CBN Governor is right. Those who say that he has no such right are right.
That should not be; that ambiguity should be removed in the future once and for all.
On CBN and NNPC Transactions.
It is not today that CBN and NNPC have both been "independent" financial "countries" within the Federal Republic of Nigeria! As Chairman of NEIC - and even before - my late father always complained that you cannot have two institutions be such financial behemoths OUTSIDE of the budgetting process in Nigeria. Yes, by law, they are BOTH required to pay certain sums into the Consolidated Revenue Account, but it is they - and ONLY THEY - who determine how much they spend on themselves and on their operations, and hence how much is left to be paid into the commonwealth. In fact, it was under Abacha that NEIC for the first time scrutinized the spendings of the CBN and the NNPC, and brought them somewhat into the budgetting process.
And spend those two institutions do on themselves - and on others. If CBN decides to give N20 billion to institution A and N10 billion to institution B - out of a Corporate Social Responsibility for example - that is actually money (or a portion) of the money that would have been paid INTO the Consolidated Revenue Account IF the CBN had not spent that money. If the CBN decides to buy five houses for its officials in London - or keep 5 rooms in hotel rooms around the world for the use of the CBN Governor (not that it does that) - that is money that should have come to the CRA if the CBN had not spent it - money that would have been appropriated for you and I to spend.
I think that you get the point. This is NOT about SLS, but about the system itself which permits such CBN or NNPC freedom to spend. When we talk about the AUTONOMY of the CBN, it should NOT be its independence to spend.
Let us move to the NNPC, but still start with the CBN...
Let us forget about the name SLS for the moment, and think of him ONLY as the Governor of the Central Bank. Today, the CBN Governor says missing are N49.8 billion from the NNPC; the following day it is $12 billion, and most recently it is $20 billion.
In short, the NNPC accounts are so confusing to him that he is not exactly sure the shortfall of payments to the coffers of the government. If he is confused, how won't you or I - or even the President - be confused?
Even the Finance Minister is confused, and is now asking for an independent forensic audit.
Let us forget about the name Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala for a moment, and think of her as the Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of the Economy in Nigeria. Oil is the life-blood of Nigeria, and NNPC its conduit - and a JP Morgan account its custodian. But she is sure that NNPC has a foreign account - or foreign accounts - since it trades abroad, but NOT sure whether it is JP Morgan or not, nor has she EVER seen such a statement.
Granted that the Finance Minister is not the Auditor-General, but for crying out loud, this is where the GREATEST single amount of money that is paid into the Consolidated Revenue account is paid from. I would be curious to see that account statement - either directly from NNPC or indirectly from the Auditor General's Office or even from JP Morgan itself - and episodically see/ask why out of the X trillion Naira in there, only Y trillion Naira was paid last month - or the month before.
In short, in all of this, NNPC should be infinitely more transparent, and the Finance Minister more curious. The Minister should have the right to know, just as the President has that right to know certain financial information.
Muddling Issues in Nigeria about Personalities
Part of the Nigerian problem is the close identification of the personalities in a given situation with the issue, and an immediate loss of perspective and objectivity. Ethnicity, regionalism, gender defensiveness, partisan politics, prior animosities, etcheram, ad nauseum immediately set in, obscuring the central issues. When it comes to corruption or moral conflicts of public officials in the US, once the defence is made that "Ah, it is because I am a woman, (a Jew, a Black man, a Mormon, etc.), that is why I am being investigated" that case is almost lost, and the backlash can be virulent.
I am of the firm belief that once public officials in Nigeria KNOW that they cannot hide under these primordial covers, they will sit up and be less prone to nefarious behavior, and will be more fearful of the courts, rather than dare people to "Go to court.".
And there you have it.
Bolaji Aluko
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