In line with this faustian season of letters, I have decided not to be of nuisance to anyone in particular, but to myself; having set to write a letter to myself, just as a teaching of the prophet of Allah says, "the best kind of righteousness or cleansing is the correction of ones' own character and attitude". I have accepted that the larger society would be a better place if we would all retrace our mis-steps and walk the right path, in the proper pace. Print, visual and social media are awash with critics that waste no time in hastily bringing down the sledge hammer on the wrong doers of our society, largely those in power, and yet, a cursory look at the attitude and demeanor of most of us leaves much to be desired; for proper conduct that would refine our society.
I have found it hard to swallow, that we would vilify those with genuine contributions and efforts towards nation building, and turn away from the real question in our public space. Even while cantering on the horse of criticism, we allow the thorns of ethnicism and religious bias to blur our efforts. Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as CBN boss, was mandated by the president to sanitise the banking industry, curb or maintain inflation, rescue bad loans and debts which were making banks look huge and hollow, and also protect nigerian customers from losing money in banks as was the scenario before now, where banks crumbled with customers bearing the full weight of their bank's fall. The CBN boss did a wonderful job of the mandate given him, excelling at it and gaining global recognition. He has infact maintained a 35 year all time low of reining in inflation and is perhaps on the verge of reducing inflation to a single digit. He has more than delivered what Mr President has asked of him. He has successfully arrested billions of customer and shareholder funds being fritted away by bank executives who have either been brought to book, or are in the arms of punitive laws for their improprieties.
Even if Sanusi recanted his claims of missing billions in dollars, we are still gaping at the confession by the Finance Minister, Ms Ngozi O. Iweala, that 10 billion and not 50 billion, is missing from crude sales. She didn't say that the shortage or shortfall was not earned or yet to accrue, she admitted to an absence or imbalance in the accounting of these funds, 10 billion dollars in number. From the time of the allegation to date, a three weeks period, we are yet to witness a balancing or discovery of the said missing billions. The effrontery is certainly not in Sanusi's inaccurate whistles, but a poor coordination and mismanagement of government funds which has seen to the 'missing' billions. Call it shortfall, fancy economic terms to veil the absence of public funds, bottom line is, the money is not there when it ought to be. This is witnessed by shortages in sharing of federal allocations and the puzzles that have bedevilled the revenue allocation committee. State commissioners have been at logger heads with the finance ministry and the accountant general over these shortages.
The tirade of condemnations and castigations cast at the CBN boss amazes me. His sin? Shouting that public funds were missing. And the funds are indeed missing, but the figure was just 10 billion. Mallam Sanusi's letter to the President was written in September, Nigeria got a wind of it in December, courtesy a leak in the press of it's contents and implications. The letter might have found itself in the junk mail box of the Aso Villa and we would have seen Sanusi leave the CBN without anyone, not even the idolised economics guru of a finance minister, say a hoot about the 10 and not 50 billion.
As madam Ngozi continues to coordinate all ministries, it seems she is having issues with the petroleum ministry and just fell short of saying, Mr President, there you are, this is my headache. External reserves have continued to plunder, and so has the excess crude account, all pointing to short falls from crude sales. The explanation that will acquit the petroleum ministry, as well as madam Ngozi, over these worrying figures and short falls is one we worriedly await. It it seems only Sanusi can and is willing to ask the right questions and cause for a harmonisation of records from all of governments revenue managers i.e FIRS etc.
If Sanusi is leaving the CBN, that is his wish and plan and I doubt if it will be due to lack of merits, performance or capacity. I usually wonder if this fella is not suffering from the onslaught of either religious or ethnic bias. Left to me and I am sure, many positive thinking Nigerians, Sanusi should be in that angle where he can see the anormalies that government accountants ought to see. He should continue to be there to write those letters, bringing Mr President's attention to such shortfalls, even if they are as little as 10, 5 or 1 billion dollars. Mallam Sanusi should remain in his office, so that when the 10 billion is returned, he will write Mr President and let him know that things are ok now, our shorfall is no more. However, if Nigerians decide that 10 billion dollars is not worth their trouble, then we might as well call it a year, turn over a new accounting page and leave the 10 billion behind in 2013.
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