Why I’m blowing the whistle, by Sanusi
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)
Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi has justified blowing the whistle on the
purported missing cash from the Federation Account.
According to Sanusi, if courting controversy will lead to improved governance and transparency, he’s okay by it.
Speaking in Lagos on Monday night hours after he spilled the beans before Senators in Abuja, he said: “I love controversy”
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) yesterday accused him of raising false alarm.
Sanusi told the Senate committee on
Finance that “it is established that of the $67billion crude shipped by
the NNPC between January 2012 and July 2013, $47billion was remitted to
the Federation Account.
“There is no dispute that $20billion has not been paid into any account into the CBN.”
Speaking of the Standard West African
Investors’ conference in Lagos, he said the noise around him and the oil
sector is good for the country because it has positive implications for
the country and its citizens.
Sanusi got the backing yesterday of the
President of the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers (CIS), Mr. Ariyo
Olushekun, who said: “It’s a huge amount of money, whether $10 billion
or $20 billion or any amount, this runs into trillions of naira. Such
figures should not be missing; every government agency should be able to
account for the incomes through them.
“There should be continuous and regular reconciliation of accounts between the CBN and the NNPC as well as other agencies too.
“A situation where a certain amount, no matter the size, is missing, is not healthy for the economy and the citizenry.”
“A lot of good things are happening in
some areas. Let’s not get carried away by all the bad news. Even what
looks like bad news, is good. A lot of the noise that is happening in
the country today around me, and the oil sector is good for the country.
Because if at the end of the day, this leads to improved governance and
oil revenues; if it leads to improved transparency; if it leads to
people being called to explain what they have done with money, that is
good for the system. People must not see controversy and noise as
unnecessarily bad. I love controversy,” he said.
The Governor added: “Because if you
think there has to be a change, and if you think a system needs to be
improved, if you get too comfortable with the system, you should ask
yourself, what has happened to you?.”
Sanusi explained that the problem with
government revenues bothered on leakages. “If you look at government
spending in 2013, it wasn’t much higher than what we had in 2012. And
the fiscal policy is not in itself loose on the basis of government
spending. The real challenge is that there are things we can do to block
some of the revenue shortfalls in solving these problems like checking
oil theft and bunkering, among others.”
Sanusi said people should learn to take bold and courageous steps in the course of doing their jobs.
“You need to step on a few toes. Annoy a few people. Allow people step on your toes and be annoyed once in a while,” he said.
Sanusi described Nigerians as resilient and hardworking.
“And I tell you, we have in this
country, tens of millions of ambitious and dynamic hardworking people.
What we need is to be able to cross that hurdle of translating the
vision into reality. Look beyond the short term, and see the potentials
of this country in terms of the demographics, the population, the
improving governance, and you will come to realise that this is one of
the best investment destinations in Africa,” he told the investors.
He said the banking sector reforms were
not targeted at any individual, but meant to see an improved and
sustainable financial sector. He said debtors whose names were published
in newspapers would definitely come after him, after leaving office.
“We published all the names all the people that borrowed huge amounts
from Nigerian banks and had not paid back. It was a list of who-is-who
in Nigeria. I still have that list and I know they are still going to
come back to me after I leave office. But whenever they hit me I will
say, at least I got them,” he said.
He said banks don’t fail, but are
destroyed. Reviewing the CBN under his leadership, Sanusi said he had
been able to build confidence in the sector by guaranteeing depositors’
funds. “Before now, if a bank fails, it is the fault of the people who
put their money in the bank. If a bank fails, shareholders lose their
money and customers lose money and the management walks away. In this
country, people just set up banks, fleece the depositors and walk away.
They became multi-millionaires, captains of industries, set up new banks
or moved into new industries,” he said.
The Governor said most of the big
debtors did not know the difference between debt and equity. This class
of debtors, he said, borrowed money from banks, without any intension of
paying back. They knew that the worst that would happen is that the
banks would be handed over to the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation
(NDIC).
“Today, if there is one thing that has
changed, it is that everybody now understands that the depositors will
be protected. That as much as possible, we will make sure that the
depositors are protected. People told me you cannot do that. What you
are saying is that people can mismanage banks and you will stand behind
the banks. And I said, you know what, immediately you give a banking
licence, you have assumed a moral hazard. You have the primary moral
responsibility to protect the depositors,” he said.
The CBN Governor said the hike in Cash
Reserve Ratio (CRR) was meant to bring stability to the financial system
and protect shareholders’ funds.
“To protect the shareholders, you have
to ensure that you take the risks that ensure that what you give them
year-on-year is sustained. We want to get away with this boom and bust
scenario where people give very high returns in one or two years, and
the next year, the bank will collapse,” he said.
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