A Reaction to Tunde Fagbenle on His view on Sanusi Lamido (VIII) by Iroabuchi Onwuka

By Sampson Iroabuchi Onwuka



....This 2% interest rate paradigm was one of the last of Sanusi’s action, the incident of the 2% compel a longer list of his action and inaction after a year out of which he must be seen.

The Acts of Sanusi with or without the backing of Yar’duwa.

1, Sanusi indicted 9 banks for perpetrating gross actions of misconduct in banking and relived about 4 CEOs of Banks in Nigeria. The four CEOS were replaced by persons of his own choosing.

2, Sanusi invited five Islamic countries to come and buy Nigerian banks in financial crisis. Then the financial Minister herself was unceremoniously removed, not just Soludo and company.

3, Sanusi opposed trans- border trade and opposed Banks to have branches in many parts of the continent without being authorized. An action that may right but an action that means crippling on some sort.

4, Sanusi did not tolerate certain kind of risk in terms of lending and security placement, much of the act ducked the value of some banks since they have to go through him. The indirect message is that he lacks faith in other people.

5, He inveighed against the so called presorted class and may have influenced the removal of the NSE Chairperson in 2009.

6, He promised to recover business growth for the North and to alleviate its poverty status and condition. He allowed for parallel marketing of sale of currency and illegal sale of currency and he is supposed to oppose currency hedging.

7, Sanusi ex officio Soludo reduction of banks a sham in public and nearly made the CBN ex – officio composite for fraud. The conditions of panic which naturally affect markets and loss of faith in the industry were not the concern of Sanusi. If you look at the departure between the early signs of the problems of the debts and the issue of

8, He made compulsory CEOs tenure of office and attempted to rid the people who stayed there longer than 10 years.

9, he nearly dismissed securitization and made inviolate the tail of the ‘sheet’ called the Spread.

10, He pardoned a fellow Muslim by name Saraki of 8.8 Billion Naira which many Nigerians did not know

11, He allowed and negotiated with EFCC on the arrest fellow bankers, about 16 of them.

12, He influenced the appointment of financial head and made the 400 billion Naira to these banks which in the very wake allowed many Fulani to position that was proved vacant. And not just at the top.

13, He planned to make a case for 500 Billion naira to bailout of Nigerian Industries with particular attention to The North. And still act as if he too important to be questioned by any one. He is only the Chairman of Central Bank of Nigeria, an interventional privilege.

14, He threatened his fellow and former bankers with impunity and moon walked on his relationship with First Bank in the first few months in office. First Bank rose very quickly and steadily for a while and began to tilt downwards after a while.

15, He is planning to put a raise of 2% interest rate from what is now 11% percent.

16, Nigerian spending of its sovereign wealth has dwindled from 60 billion under Soludo to something in its 40s under Sanusi.

17, Sanusi is seriously participating in social and political negotiated issue, a process that means that we losing sight of what his job really is, - in spite of the independence of Nigerian banks.

All these are not behaviors of a CBN Chairman by any stretch. It is rather the hint of a crusader of some sort and a zealot within the banking society. Yet we can exonerate the man of many things, but in terms of what his action demonstrates, we can say that there is a serious influence of Islam and Islamic banking in them. These Acts are in many years rooted in Islam and Islamic Banking and are therefore not appropriate to secular society.