Former President Goodluck Jonathan, on Thursday, denied suspending former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, now Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sunusi II, for alleging that $49.8bn went missing from the Government’s coffers.
The former President, who disclosed this on Thursday in Abuja, during the launch of the book, “Public Policy and Agents Interests: Perspectives from the Emerging World”, insisted that no such money went missing, said the CBN leadership under Sanusi cooked up the allegation.
The book was co-authored by former Minister of Finance, Dr. Shamsudeen Usman, who served as Minister of Planning under his government.
Jonathan was responding to the contribution of the former CBN Governor, who claimed in the book that he was booted out of office for exposing the disappearance of the money under Jonathan’s government. In it, Sanusi had referred to the incident, which, he maintained, led to his dismissal as CBN governor.
Recall that in 2013, Sanusi first raised the alarm about discrepancies in oil revenue remittances, which left $49bn unaccounted for. However, his initial figure was later revised to $20bn after discussions with the finance ministry.
The Jonathan administration quickly debunked the claims, with some sections of his government accusing Sanusi of trying to undermine the regime.
In February 2014, just months after making the allegations, President Jonathan suspended Sanusi for “financial recklessness and misconduct” as CBN Governor. However, many Nigerians believe the suspension was politically motivated and linked to his whistleblowing on the missing funds.
Sanusi became the 16th Emir of Kano, was deposed in 2020 and reinstated in 2024.
However, in his opening remarks, Jonathan, who chaired the book launch, said that although he agreed with the book’s thesis and recommended it for research, he disagreed with Sanusi’s claim on the missing money. According to him, Sanusi was not sacked but suspended, adding that such money would not have gone missing in Nigeria – whose Budget was about $32bn at that time – without some immediate impact.
He also narrated how former German Chancellor, Angela Merkel confronted him on the matter, and explained that such money could not have been stolen from a struggling country and no one would know.
“Let me mention that I did not agree with some issues raised by one of the contributors; but I don’t intend to take issues, because he is our royal father. And he is here”.
