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Former President Goodluck Jonathan and Emir of Kano, Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi II, were, on Thursday, September 26, seen together publicly for the first time in 10 years.
Jonathan suspended Sanusi, a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in 2014 after he raised the alarm that $49.8 billion was missing under the Jonathan administration.
Despite the controversy it generated, at the launch of a book edited by former Finance Minister Shamsuddeen Usman, Jonathan and Sanusi exchanged pleasantries.
In his chapter in the book, Sanusi made reference to the incident which led to his exit from the bank.
Goodluck Jonathan, who chaired the event, took yet another opportunity to deny that such a humongous amount went missing under his watch.
“I need to say why I did not quite agree with him. All that he wrote was on some of the issues, especially the one that is related to me. The one he raised was that he was sacked because he blew the whistle that the federal government lost $49.8 billion. It’s not quite correct. It was not that he was sacked. He was suspended,” Jonathan said.
He said the Financial Reporting Council of CBN, which has the powers to ordain the CBN governor, needed to look at the allegations, but somehow, the time was short.
“So, before we finished, his tenure was already over, well, probably we would have called him back,” he said.
In his speech, Sanusi who was the Special Guest of Honour addressed Jonathan as “My Boss that sacked me,” adding: “I know everyone is expecting me to respond, but I will not respond.”
“When I was told to make a speech, I told Shamsuddeen Usman that I will not speak about my intervention, out of respect for my boss, the President.”
“I feel most inappropriate for this to turn into a debate. It’s not about me or the President, it’s really about Dr. Shamsuddeen Usman today and his book. I always knew my chapter will be controversial when Dr. Usman asked me to write.
“I said, this topic is so similar to my book. You’re making me begin to reveal some of the things that are in my head. In other words, when I wrote that chapter, that’s it for me.
“I’ll make a few remarks. First of all, I continue to respect my President, Jonathan. I do not have any grudges against anyone.”
While noting that the most important thing for him is not about personalities, he said, “I think what comes out of my chapter, like in the book, is something that we all know. Which is that for decades, the Nigerian state has been captive to elites class that sees the state as a site.
“This is a fact, and this is what has destroyed Nigeria. People get into office, and when they get into office, what they’re thinking of is how much they can make out of the state, rather than how they can use the state to serve the citizens. If we agree on that, we have no disagreements.
“Why is Nigeria where it is today? I mean, you referred to the Dangote Refinery. I don’t know what the details are. For a country feeding itself from imported petroleum products, instead of grabbing this opportunity, you know with open arms, we are frustrating it.
“Why would anyone stop us from having the capacity to produce our own refined petroleum products? Because there are vested interests who have profited from Nigeria continuing to import these products.
“They could be all marketers internationally. They could be people locally who have been profiting from these subsidy stamps. And this is the end, because every excuse disappears when you are not getting imported, and you are disembarking.”
