How Not To Be A CBN Governor- By Sehinde Omoniyi From Abuja.

Former CBN Gov. Sanusi

THE news of the suspension of the outgoing Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria did not come as a surprise to many, including this writer but what would surprise many Nigerians is that Mallam Sanusi could not call the President’s bluff on this order. Then the question arises: if the articulate, intelligent and highly cerebral Mallam Sanusi knew that there is any clause in his appointment that makes him answerable to someone and that, that individual is capable of replacing him, why did he carry on the way he did? Impunity is the word. The suspended CBN Governor whose tenure elapses in June of this year, is just like any other arrogant, brash and reckless public office holder who would love to eat his cake and have it at the expense of the taxpayers. 

According to the statement suspending the CBN Governor, there have been reports from the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria and other investigating bodies, which have pointed out the same impunity in running the CBN by Mallam Sanusi. In his capacity as the chief accounting officer of the Nigerian state, the President has acted the only way expected of his office, thus: “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” When did he (Sanusi), an employee of the state through the goodwill of the President, become more powerful than his boss, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and assumed the responsibility of the auditor of the federation? Talent without discipline is a disaster waiting to happen and that is what Nigerians have witnessed in the case of Mallam Sanusi Lamido.

 He got so carried away by his seeming successes through the banking reforms, a programme which he only inherited from his predecessor, Professor Charles Soludo, and instead of sustaining the work at hand, he obviously got swollen-headed and dared to bite the fingers that fed him. Let it be known to Nigerians that whether any public office holder, especially those who occupy offices as sacred as that of the CBN Governor, likes it or not, he or she is holding such office in trust for Nigerians through the President. And if at any time such an office holder becomes disenchanted with the system or sharply disagrees with the policy drift of the government to which he or she belongs, the principle of collective responsibility, which is the eternal bedrock of any cabinet, demands that such officer resigns honourably. But to sit in a respectable and revered office as that of a CBN Governor and throw tantrums at your fellow cabinet members and making mockery of the system to which you belong is an aberration and cannot be condoned anywhere in the world. Sanusi’s suspension, which took so long in coming, is only a testimony to the fact that President Goodluck Jonathan may not be the gregarious, no nonsense leaders which Nigerians have known over the years, as a scion of the late President Yar’Adua’s servant leader discipline, he is only adding a human face to the country’s democracy. 

That a Central Bank Governor would openly display insolence and gross insubordination to the office of the President, telling whosoever cared to listen that he is not accountable to anyone, only spells of disrespect for the office of the President of Nigeria. So, from where did this unbridled arrogance come from? It is a product of a society which for so long has lost trust and confidence in its political class hence, even a fifth columnist among this class finds him or herself an instant hero when he or she chooses to shout eureka, even if he has hardly found the answer to a missing puzzle. For students of political history, it would be obvious that from the onset, Mallam Sanusi was only engaged in a Russian game of roulette which is a game of self-annihilation.

 At every point when a man pitches himself against the state, let it be known that the authority vested in the occupant of the nation’s highest office, in this case the President, is what this affront is against and the full weight of that office is brought to bare on the object of the affront. Just the way the office of the President of any nation wields the prerogative of mercy on offending citizens, the opposite is what those who become recalcitrant and disobedient to the common good receive. No leader, no matter how humane or docile, would tolerate an employee of the state to run rough shod over the system whatever is his known or assumed grievances against his other cabinet members. 
•Omoniyi, a media practitioner, writes from Abuja