An
untidy succession race is currently apace in the country’s business and
finance community following rising tension between Central Bank of
Nigeria, CBN, Lamido Sanusi, and the presidency which inside and
knowledgeable presidential sources in Abuja, Thursday, say might lead to
the suspension of Mr. Sanusi “any time from now.”
ThisDay newspapers, Thursday, brought
the tension between Mr. Sanusi and the Presidency to public awareness,
reporting that the CBN governor had rejected a call from the presidency
to resign voluntarily ahead of his planned exit in June.
Presidency sources say this rejection
has triggered a “palpable air of anger and frustration” leading hawks in
the presidential villa to propose a suspension and swift replacement
which will circumvent the constitutional bottleneck that has tied the
hands of the president from summarily firing Mr. Sanusi.
The CBN governor, speaking through the
bank’s spokesperson, Ugo Okoroafor, said he has shelved his earlier
plans to proceed on his terminal leave in March.
Mr. Okoroafor quoted Mr. Sanusi as
saying, during a meeting with CBN staff, that he would serve out his
tenure in office as CBN governor till June 2. Sanusi watchers
interpreted this move as his preparedness to fight the presidency
head-on believing that some of his close hires have opportunistically
gravitated to the presidency in the hope of succeeding him.
By law, President Jonathan needs the
Nigerian Senate’s blessing to support such a prayer, which, as
presidential aides reasoned Thursday, will be unanswered in the new
environment where President Jonathan’s party is gradually losing support
and therefore any hope for confident support in the upper deck of the
Assembly.
A suspension will, however, be a public
relations disaster for Mr. Jonathan but it will feed into a pattern that
started when the President of the Federal Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo
Salami, was illegally suspended from office and was not allowed to
return till his retirement date was due, despite the recommendation by
the National Judicial Council, NJC, for his reinstatement.
The presidency is therefore resolved on
firing Mr. Sanusi, by way of a suspension, and then bar him from
accessing his office once the announcement is made.
One of the deputy governors within the
bank will then be named to step into Mr. Sanusi’s stead while the CBN
governors best bet would be to do an endless but fruitless battle with
the presidency through the court.
Aso Rock strategists believe that with
Nigeria’s slow judicial process, the CBN governor would be unable to get
the court to reinstate him until his tenure expires in June.
“If all things go well, the presidency
will give Sanusi the Salami treatment soon,” a highly placed source in
the presidency said Thursday. “At least we are all agreed on that.”
Presidential spokespersons could not be
reached to comment for this story. Both the Special Adviser to the
President on Media, Reuben Abati, and the Senior Special Assistant on
Public Affairs, Doyin Okupe, did not answer or return calls.
But in Lagos and Abuja Thursday
propositions for a Sanusi-successor went into hyper-drive with five top
contenders now, according to presidential aides, in a frantic race for
favour and acceptance.
From within the CBN, Kingsley Chiedu
Moghalu, the Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria in charge of
the Financial System Stability (FSS) Directorate, who trained as a
lawyer and took a doctorate degree in international relations, is
considered a top favorite.
Like Mr. Sanusi, who attracted him from
his consultancy business, he is also a risk management expert, and in
the years since he joined the CBN team has secured a favourable eyeball
in the presidency.
Another candidate who has attracted
interest at the presidency, mostly on account of how he is managing the
controversial Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) is yet
another Sanusi hire, Mustafa Chike-Obi. A hedge fund and private equity
investment expert, Mr. Chike-Obi has had a stint at the Goldman Sachs,
and held senior positions in various Wall Street firms.
He graduated from University of Lagos with a First class degree in Mathematics and an MBA from Stanford Business School.
A surprise candidate on the top list of
contender is the former Minister of Finance, who is current Minster of
Trade and Investment, Segun Aganga, a former top gun at Goldman Sachs.
Officials who spoke of his chances Thursday said “the fact that he is
not controversial like Sanusi is making strong impressions here.”
Another lawyer and banker, Aigboje
Aig-Imoukhuede, who has served as Group Managing Director and Chief
Executive Officer at Access Bank Plc (formerly, Access Bank Nigeria)
since 2002 is considered top in contention too. His candidacy enjoys
the blessing of Finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
Mr. Aig-Imoukhuede and Stephen Olabisi
Onasanya, an accountant and banker, who is the CEO at First Bank Plc are
the two industry leaders who are in contention for the position. Mr.
Onasanya, a long time associate and accounts manager for oil minister,
Diezani Alison-Madueke, is also thought to be bringing a sense of
measure and calm to the position if he gets the nod.
PREMIUM TIMES was also told Thursday
that Akpan Ekpo, a respected professor of Economics and former Vice
Chancellor of the University of Uyo, is also making inroads in his
desire to clinch the CBN job. Mr. Ekpo, who has served on the board of
the bank, is now Director General of the West African Institute for
Financial and Economic Management, based in Lagos.
Mr. Sanusi upset the presidential apple
cart when, in a stern memo, he claimed the non-remittance of over $49.8
billion (about N8trillion) oil money into the Federation Account by the
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC.
In his memo, Mr. Sanusi accused the NNPC
of systematically diverting more than 76 per cent of revenues realised
from crude oil sales between January 2012 and July 2013, paying into the
federation account only 24 per cent of the proceeds.
In defence of the NNPC, Group Managing
Director of NNPC, Andrew Yakubu, faulted the claims, accusing Mr. Sanusi
of playing politics with the issue.
A hurriedly arranged reconciliation
meeting between the NNPC, CBN, the Federal Inland Revenue Service and
the Ministry of Finance, led Mr. Sanusi to review his claims that at
this point only N10.8billion of the money needs to be accounted for.
Mr. Sanusi has also irked the
administration many times by his open and biting criticism of the
economic policies of the government.
Source: Premium Times
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