Former President Goodluck Jonathan has revealed that the suspension of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi from his position as governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was not related to whistleblowing over missing government funds but rather due to financial mismanagement flagged by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC).
Jonathan made this clarification on Thursday during the launch of the book Public Policy and Agents Interests: Perspectives from the Emerging World, co-authored by former Finance Minister Shamshudeen Usman.
READ ALSO: Jonathan meets president Tinubu in Aso Rock
Addressing the controversy that has long surrounded Sanusi’s removal, Jonathan refuted the narrative that the former CBN governor was sacked for exposing the alleged disappearance of $49.8 billion from government coffers. Instead, he explained that Sanusi was suspended after serious financial irregularities were discovered by the FRC, an agency responsible for ensuring proper financial accountability in government institutions.
“The one he raised that he was sacked because he blew a whistle that the Federal Government lost $49.8 billion is not quite correct,” Jonathan clarified. “He was not sacked; he was suspended because the Financial Reporting Council queried the expenditure of CBN. And there were serious infractions that needed to be looked at.”
During the event, which was attended by Sanusi-now the Emir of Kano-Jonathan pointed out that the suspension was based on valid concerns about how the apex bank was managed under Sanusi’s tenure. He noted that the decision to suspend Sanusi was necessary, though the timing of the investigation meant his tenure had ended before any final resolution could be reached.
Further discrediting Sanusi’s whistleblower narrative, Jonathan highlighted the inconsistencies in the figures Sanusi had provided over the years regarding the so-called missing funds. “On the issue of $49.8 billion, till today, I am not convinced that the Federal Government lost $49.8 billion. Our budget at that time was $31.6 billion, so for a country with that budget to lose about $50 billion and still pay salaries, nobody felt anything. The researchers who wrote this book need to do further research.”
Jonathan also recalled being confronted by then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel about the alleged missing funds. He explained that the claims had been thoroughly investigated by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), a globally recognized audit firm, which found that no such amount was missing from government accounts. However, PwC did identify that $1.48 billion was unaccounted for by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), a far cry from the staggering $49.8 billion originally alleged.
Adding to this, Jonathan pointed out that the Senate Committee on Finance, led by Senator Ahmed Makarfi, had also looked into the matter and found the claims to be unfounded. According to Jonathan, Sanusi himself had shifted the narrative multiple times, first stating that $49.8 billion was missing, then revising the figure to $20 billion, and later to $12 billion.
“First it was $49.8 billion, then $20 billion, and then $12 billion. I don’t even know the correct figure. But what I do know is that such an amount could not have been stolen without the impact being felt,” Jonathan added.
The event, which also featured the unveiling of the Shamsuddeen Usman Foundation (SUF)-an organization dedicated to promoting education and artificial intelligence-saw several prominent personalities in attendance. However, at the time of filing this report, Emir Sanusi, who was present as the Royal Father of the Day, had yet to address the claims raised by the former president.
