Sanusi seemed to hit the ground running and rolled out a set of regulatory measures that helped sanitize the rouge banking sector of our one commodity economy. That was it. His evil twin just took over even before the full effects of his policy kicked in. SLS became tyrannical, cocky, snooty or perhaps these dormant personalities simply became manifest. In 2012, Lamido was the chic saxophonist in the Jonathan ensemble on the fuel subsidy road-show that worked hard to convince Nigerians to accept jacking up the price of petrol, two-fold, at the pumps. In the same team was the overrated double finance-economy minister Ngozi Iweala promising to use the savings from the so-called subsidy to generate one million jobs for Nigerians within the first 12 months. But two years later, aint no subsidy, aint no bloody jobs for Nigerians. The whole thing was but a bunch of malarkey, a grand slam of a scam from the meanest cabal of them all.
Next, Lamido started doling out public funds from his CBN safe to a rainbow of dissimilar causes rather whimsically leaving everyone's jaw on the knee. The only donation that had a reason was the first one which was the N100m to the victims of Boko Haram (BH) bombings in his hometown of Kano. As if Kano was where the very first Boko carnage took place. His subsequent thoughtless donations had no rhyme other than to cover the shame of his first. So N25m was bequeathed to the Christian victims of BH bombings in Madalla, N4b to his Kano's Bayero University, N500m to Uniben, N10m to Othman Dan Fodio University, even his alma mater high school, Kings College Lagos got a whopping N50m. One of his deputies, 55-year old Tunde Lemo, soon followed with a reported staggering donation of N500m to his own alma mater high school, Lisabi Grammar School, Abeokuta. Vagabonds!
Altogether, Sanusi's 7-page suspension letter summed up CBN mindless expenses on 63 'intervention projects' across the country at N163 billion. Makes you wonder where the heck the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and Federal Ministry of education or National University Commission (NUC) were when CBN was senselessly intervening in and throwing largess cash at their problems. I have never heard of such monumental waste of national resources from a national central bank, anywhere in the world. When asked by members of the national assembly, Sanusi simply mesmerized the equally crooked legislators that he could spend as he pleased because the CBN budget was not subject to appropriation. What an abominable level of fiscal irresponsibility from the agency that manages the worth of a national currency?
- Qansy Salako
- Ikhide
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