Penultimate Thursday, the
unthinkable happened. The cerebral governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi was suspended by President Goodluck Jonathan.
Sanusi who learnt of his suspension  in Niamey, Niger Republic while attending a conference of the West African Currency Zone with other governors of the Central Banks in West Africa received the news of his suspension with a rude shock, just like many other Nigerians. He immediately returned to Lagos only to have his international passport seized by the officials of the Directorate of State Security Service (SSS). He has however, challenged his suspension in the court “to establish once and for all if the president has the powers to do what he had done.”
Sanusi told the cable news network, CNBN in Niamey that,“It has never been my desire to hold on to a job. However, I believe if the CBN governor cannot be removed from office, then he cannot be suspended. He can be qurried, but the exercise of the arbitrary decision to remove him must be challenged.
“If it is not challenged, then from now, the next CBN governor cannot be independent. He can be suspended for any reason, and the independence of the CBN would be totally undermined. It is important to establish the point legally whether this can happen. I do plan to ask the court to confirm if indeed, that authority exists. I will challenge it”.
The apex bank boss, according to the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr Reuben Abati, was suspended because of his alleged financial infractions and recklessness as well as multiple cases of fraudulent practices. The CBN under Sanusi’s watch, was also accused of not maintaining proper book of accounts as prescribed by the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). All these charges were based on the 2012 audit report prepared by the Financial  Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN), whose existence is becoming known to millions of Nigerians for the first time.
The FRC’s report, which came to the public domain two days after Sanusi’s suspension, further recommended the sack of the CBN governor and his deputies to the President.
Although, the President was careful not to cite any constitutional provision in suspending Sanusi, perhaps knowing fully well that no such provision existed either in the constitution or the CBN Act to back his action, he nonetheless gave indications that his action did not infringe the law.
“There is absolute power by the president to suspend the CBN governor,” he said during a  presidential chat last week.
Section 11(7) of the CBN Act, 2007 gives the president powers to remove the CBN Governor, but with a proviso that such removal must enjoy two-third majority approval of the Senate. The Act does not however, contemplate suspension.
Although the President has denied the allegations of political witch-hunt against the CBN governor, the suspension, coming at a time when Sanusi’s weighty allegations against the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) are still being investigated may likely  taint whatever reasons the President adduced for his action.
Sanusi had written to the President accusing the NNPC of not remitting $49.8billion (about three times the nation’s annual budget) to the Federation Account. He, however, later told the Senate Committee investigating the allegations that the unremitted amount was actually $20billion and not $49.8billion earlier mentioned, blaming the CBN’s Reserve Department for misleading him.
Sanusi’s whistle-blowing and his sustained public attacks on the NNPC, widely seen as a conduit pipe and the epicenter of corruption in Africa’s top oil producer, has earned him powerful enemies within government circle.
The unprecedented nature of the CBN governor’s suspension, in the history of Nigeria and perhaps that of most countries of the world, has however, divided the nation along its main fault lines-political, ethnic and religious lines, with the former (politics) appears to be playing a dominating factor.
While government apologists, made up of mostly members of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) supported Sanusi’s suspension and argued that only few government would have tolerated Sanusi’s arrogant personality and the ‘defiance’ he applied to his brief as CBN governor; critics of Jonathan’s administration, especially the main opposition party- the All Progressives Congress (APC) dismissed the suspension as a political malice, saying it was sheer disrespect to the rule of law and a show of impunity and ingratitude that a person who has brought about sweeping revolution in the banking industry and who should have been commended for exposing the rot in the oil industry could be so vilified.
The House of Representatives fired the first salvo and perhaps set a stage for what has become a political mudslinging   among the nation’s major political players.
Shortly after the news of Sanusi’s suspension hit the air waves, the House of Representatives rejected the suspension. Apparently embittered by what the legislators perceived as selective implementation or non-compliance with its resolution against some public officers over corrupt practices, the House mandated its committees on Justice, and Legislative Compliances to compile all resolutions that have indicted any public officer for which President Jonathan had refused to act on, and therefore requested the President to act on them with immediate effect.
The decision which was taken after adopting a motion moved by the Minority Whip, Samson Osagie, was however, preceded by sharp division between APC and PDP members in the House. While the PDP members were in support of the suspension, their counterparts in the APC described the suspension as unconstitutional and antithetical to the nation’s economy more so at a time when the CBN governor raised some concerns about missing funds.
Similar scenario played out at the Senate with the PDP members which constituted the majority voting in support of the suspension and the APC members rejecting the measure.
Acting on an already set stage by their members, the two leading parties in the country toed the party lines in their separate responses to the suspension.
The APC accused the presidency of campaigning to malign Sanusi, using the report of “obscure” Financial Reporting Council (FRC). It also accused President Jonathan of seeking to use the suspension to divert attention and thereby sweeping the alleged $20billion NNPC missing funds under the carpet and punishing Sanusi for daring to expose the alleged fraud.
In a statement issued by the APC Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Muhammed, the party said, “Irrespective of the tepid and unconvincing denial by the presidency, it is clear that the main reason the presidency moved against Sanusi is because he blew the lid on the $20 billion funds, which the NNPC allegedly failed t o remit to the Federation Account.
“Fortunately, discerning Nigerians are not hoodwinked by the presidency’s choreographed mudslinging against a whistle blower, and the sponsored campaign that amounts to shooting the messenger just because his message is not palatable”.
The PDP in its own reactions, described Sanusi’s suspension as long overdue. It justified both the suspension and the President’s powers to do so, saying he who hires has the power to fire.
The same political mudslinging dominated the reactions of the two factions of the Nigeria’s Governor Forum. While the faction led by the Rivers State governor, Chibuike Amaechi and made up of mostly APC governors, condemned the suspension and called for the forensic audit of NNPC’s account as a way of confirming or refuting Sanusi’s allegations, the Jonah Jang’s faction comprising mainly of PDP governors and Jonathan’s loyalists, lent its support to Sanusi’s suspension, and accused Amaechi’s NGF of playing out APC’s script.
Meanwhile, the Kano Emirate Council, in a statement signed by the Galadima Kano, Alhaji Tijani Hahim, believed Sanusi’s suspension was a deliberate attempt to witch hunt a whistle blower who exposed a monumental fraud in the NNPC.
“As the President has suspended the governor without the recourse to the rule of law, we believed it was a deliberate attempt to witch-hunt him. It is a desperation and impunity at the highest level by the Federal Government,” the council said.
On its own, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) at the end of its emergency meeting last week, cautioned  the Jonathan’s government against any harm befalling Sanusi.
Although the presidency wears Sanusi’s sack the gown of a suspension, everything surrounding the suspension indicates the dismissive tone of a sack. In a similar guise of suspension, Justice Ayo Salami (retired) was removed as the President of the Appeal Court by President Jonathan and was not reinstated despite the reinstatement order by the National Judicial Council (NJC).
As  a newspaper columnist, Idowu Akinlotan noted recently, “not only was the former CBN boss removed, his temporary and permanent replacements were hastily named with temerity that reeked of political insensitivity and unconstitutionality, and with such absolute lack of grace and class that leaves one wondering how it was possible for Dr Jonathan to demean the Nigerian presidency to such level of pettiness.”
Many questions are however, begging for answers regarding Sanusi’s suspension. Notwithstanding that the presidency hanged the suspension on FRC’s report which indicted the CBN boss of financial misconduct, why did the presidency take this long to fire Sanusi, when the FRC’s report had been submitted to the President since June, last year, if truly the suspension was not connected with the president’s exasperation, arising from the disquieting concern Sanusi raised about financial improprietness in the NNPC? And why did the President spare the NNPC Group Managing Director, Andrew Yakubu and Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke whose agency and ministry are also under investigation? Why didn’t the President also suspend the CBN deputy governors who were also recommended for sack by the FRC? Why did the President not implement several other reports that called for the removal of certain officials of government that were indicted?
While it may take Sanusi more than  a mere judicial discharge and acquital to convince his traducers that his integrity is not sullied by any financial impropriety and brashness, it will also take President Jonathan more than a FRC’s report to justify that Sanusi’s suspension was not due to his poking a finger in the President’s eye in the course of allegations against NNPC.

President Jonathan and Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

Boye Salau