It has just been learnt that President Goodluck Jonathan had issued a query to ousted Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi in 2012 following an interview he granted the Financial Times of London which was considered critical to the administration.
In the interview with Financial Times, Sanusi criticized the government’s approach to the Boko Haram insurgency, blaming widespread poverty in the North for Boko Haram’s success in recruiting members. He criticised the uneven distribution of wealth in the country, saying some parts of Nigeria were by far richer than others.
READ: ‘A clear case of fraud’: The Report That Indicts Suspended CBN Governor Sanusi (READ)
READ: #ForTheRecord: Lamido Sanusi’s Suspension Letter
He said: “There is clearly a direct link between the very uneven nature of distribution of resources and the rising level of violence.
“When you look at the figures and look at the size of the population in the north, you can see that there is a structural imbalance of enormous proportions. Those states simply do not have enough money to meet basic needs while some states have too much money.
“The imbalance is so stark because the state still depends on oil for more than 80 per cent of its revenues.”
READ: President Jonathan Suspends CBN Governor Lamido Sanusi, Appoints Acting Governor
READ: ‘If you hire you can suspend’: Presidency Defends Action Against Sanusi
The statements made by Sanusi caused the foreign tabloid to pass a bad verdict on the economy of Nigeria.
Part of Financial Times’ analysis on January 27th 2014 reads: “Nigeria has made little headway raising taxes for example from agriculture, which accounts for 42 per cent of GDP. Northern Nigeria’s economy has traditionally depended on the government more than the south.
“Many of the industries set up as part of earlier efforts to promote national balance have gone bust or been sold off during a decade of liberal market reforms, power shortages and infrastructure collapse.
“According to official figures, the leading oil producing state, Rivers, received N1, 053 billion between 1999 and 2008 in federal allocations.
“By contrast the North-eastern states of Yobe and Borno, where the Boko Haram sect was created, received N175bn and N213bn respectively. Broken down on a per capita basis, the contrast is even starker.
In 2008 the 18.97m people who lived in the six states in the north-east received on average N1, 156 per person.”
With the displeasure, President Jonathan ordered the former National Security Adviser, NSA, late Owoye Andrew Azazi, to query Sanusi.
Azazi issued a query to Sanusi dated February 2nd 2012 titled “Recent Interview with Financial Times”, the director general of the Department of State Services, Mr Ita Ekpenyong, was copied in the letter.
A copy of the query has been made available by Premium Times.
According to reports, Sanusi failed to respond to the query, saying he would only respond to a direct query from the President, stating he is not answerable to Mr. Azazi.
The query reads:
“In the interview, you were alleged to have made statements to the following effects: That, the uneven pattern of distribution of resources is directly linked to the rising level of violence in Nigeria.
“That, it is now necessary to focus funds on regenerating other regions of Nigeria; other than the Niger Delta. That, additional federal funds allocation to the Niger delta states has created ‘a structural imbalance of enormous proportions,’ with some states not having enough money and others having too much.
“That, when the theft of oil by profiteers is considered, this imbalance between the oil producing states of the South-South (or Niger Delta states) and states in the North is compounded.”
“Not only is there no empirical evidence to support such a statement, conventional wisdom in Nigeria refutes that assertion. Experts obviously have provided numerous explanations for the emergence of Boko Haram activities and the general consensus is that there are no silver bullets.
“Your statements to the Financial Times do not only have no basis in fact but they are divisive, inflammatory, inciting and inappropriate of a senior officer of the Federal Government whose responsibility includes national stability and state continuity.
“This statement has already caused a lot of angst among the populace and raised significant questions as to your intent and motives. These statements bring disrepute to the administration and current and past leadership of Nigeria.
“While I understand your right to free speech and some of the independence your office enjoys, I must also caution you that as an officer of the Government of Nigeria and one entrusted to promote state stability, your utterances through this interview are not in the interest of Nigeria’s national security.
“I encourage you to explore and pursue approaches that will ameliorate the problems that your statements have caused, including a retraction or clarifying statements, possibly through the same medium of interview.”
Click here to view President Jonathan’s first query to Sanusi
