Ayodele Samuel, Akilani Abdullah & Zainab Yusuf, Lagos
Nigerians yesterday blasted President Goodluck Jonathan for suspending the Governor of Central Bank, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, while the issue of the missing $20 billion oil money he raised remain unresolved.
Former Minister of Education, Dr Obi Ezekwesili, and former Vice President of the World Bank, African Division, described the Jonathan administration as being “intolerance for accountability”.
According to her, the issue of missing $20 billion oil money raised by Sanusi should have been resolved before the Presidency takes any action on the suspended CBN boss.
“For CBN Governor to be suspended when serious issue of missing $20 billion that he raised remain unresolved shows intolerance for accountability”, she said.
Lagos based lawyer, Bamidele Aturu on his part said the purported suspension of the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, by the President is the most egregious desecration of the rule of law and the principle of legality in Nigeria to date. It is unsurpassed in its blatant illegality and immorality.
He said the “decision is symptomatic of the desperation that has gripped the presidency and its allies in the wake of the troubling allegations made by the Governor of the Bank that public officials in the NNPC are looting the country blind in the name of subsidy payments. To the best of my knowledge the allegation has not been coherently answered by the Corporation or by the Government.
“As far as the law goes, the purported suspension of the Governor is unwarranted. Section 11 of the Central Bank of Nigeria Act, 2007 clearly lists the instances when the Governor or any of his Deputies can cease to remain in office. For the avoidance of any doubt whatsoever, none of such instances include suspension by the President”, he noted.
“The only mention of the word ‘suspension’ is in section 11(1)(d) relates to the removal of the Governor when he or she is disqualified or suspended from practicing his or her profession in Nigeria. Of course, the illegal suspension of the Governor is not from a professional body and is not at all contemplated by the law”, he added.
The national president of National Council of Muslim Youth Organisations, NACOMYO, Alhaji Kamal’ddin Akintunde described the suspension of the CBN governor as unfortunate development ,coming on the heels of furore generated by media-report of the differences between the apex bank boss and NNPC’s over unremitted oil sales/certain lodgements.
He said the suspension undermines effort at rejuvenating the country’s ailing economy, just as it can over-heat the polity.
