Former President Goodluck Jonathan has revealed that Emir of Kano Muhammad Sanusi II claims of $49 billion missing from the federal government accounts was false.
Mr Sanusi made this allegation in 2014 while he was governor of the Central bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Jonathan stated this on Thursday in Abuja during the launch of the book, “Public Policy and Agents Interests: Perspectives from the Emerging World,” co-authored by former Minister of Finance, Dr. Shamsudeen Usman, who served as Minister of Planning under his government.
The former president said he did not suspend Sanusi for making the allegations, insisting that no such money went missing.
The former President who responded to the contribution of Sanusi, who claimed in the book that he was booted out of office for exposing the disappearance of the money under Jonathan’s government, maintained that the CBN leadership under Sanusi cooked up the allegation.
The former CBN in 2013, said there were discrepancies in oil revenue remittances, which left $49bn unaccounted for.
In February 2014, just months after making the allegations, Jonathan suspended Sanusi for “financial recklessness and misconduct” as CBN Governor.
Jonathan who was making his opening remarks, as chairman of the book launch, said he agreed with the book’s thesis and recommended it for research, however, disagreed with Sanusi’s claim on the missing money.
He said Sanusi was suspended and not sacked, adding that such money would not have gone missing in Nigeria—whose budget was about $32bn at the time—without some immediate impact.
The former president said the 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.
“The one he raised that he was sacked because he blew a whistle that the Federal Government lost $49.8bn is not quite correct. He was not sacked. He was suspended because the Financial Reporting Council queried the expenditure of the CBN. And there were serious infractions that needed to be looked at. That was the reason.
“But somehow, the time was short. So, before we finished, his tenure elapsed. Probably, he would have been called back,” he explained.
Jonathan said Sanusi’s claims began to wobble when the figures changed from $49bn to $20bn and later $12bn.
“On the issue of $49.8bn, till today, I am not convinced that the Federal Government lost $49.8bn. And that year, our budget was $31.6bn. So, for a country that had a budget of $31.6bn to lose about $50bn and salaries were paid, nobody felt anything. The researchers that wrote this book need to do further research.
“And more so when our revered royal father came up with the figures, first $49.8bn, later $20bn and later $12bn, I don’t even know the correct one,” said Jonathan.
Jonathan explained that Price Water Coopers, which investigated the matter, revealed that no such amount was stolen but that the NNPC could not account for $1.48bn at the time.
