Nigeria: President Jonathan sacks NNPC's GMD

On 1 August it was announced that President Goodluck Jonathan had dismissed both Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s (NNPC) Group Managing Director (GMD), Andrew Yakubu, and Hamidu Namtari, Managing Director of the NNPC’s upstream subsidiary, Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC).

The President’s special media and publicity adviser, Dr. Reuben Abati, released a statement naming Borno State’s Dr. Joseph Dawha as NNPC’s new GMD and Anambra State’s Anthony Ugonna Muoneke as NPDC’s new GMD. The statement continued that “All the appointments are with immediate effect,” but refused to comment on the reasons behind the dismissals. 

Reports in Nigeria, however, suggest that the dismissals are linked to the allegations by the Central Bank of Nigeria’s former governor, Lamido Sanusi, over the NNPC’s misuse of public funds and an upcoming PWC audit of NNPC finances and revenue losses. 

The statement continued that President Jonathan had approved a further shake-up of NNPC management with Ms. Aisha Mata Abdurrahman reassigned to the corporation’s Commercial and Investment GMD and Dr. Attahiru Yusuf’s appointment as its Business Development Group Executive Director.

This week’s issue of Nigeria Politics & Security and the August issue of Nigeria Focus will provide expert analysis about the changes and the reasons behind them.

Judge orders SSS to return Lamido Sanusi’s passport to him

Judge Ibrahim Buba of the Federal High Court in Lagos has ordered the State Security Service (SSS) to return the passport of the suspended Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Lamido Sanusi, to him and pay N50 million (US$305,000) in damages for detaining him.

Sanusi was suspended by President Goodluck Jonathan on 21 February after Sanusi had raised some uncomfortable questions about the US$20 billion that he said the state-owned Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) had failed to remit to the government.

Sanusi, who had been in Niger at a meeting of regional central bank governors at the time, was greeted by SSS agents on his return to Lagos, where he was detained and his passport confiscated.
Sanusi's problems are, however, far from over. He is challenging his suspension in court; not, he says to get his job back but instead to make the impropriety of his effective dismissal a matter of record. At the same time, he still faces questions from his opponents about his tenure at the CBN. Sanusi and his team - retired deputy governor Tunde Lemo and deputy (now acting) governor Sarah Alade - appeared before the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria, to respond to questions about alleged irregular transactions in 2011-2012.

Meanwhile, the new Central Bank governor, Zenith Bank’s CEO and Group Managing Director Godwin Emefiele, was confirmed on 26 March after a speedy Senate hearing. He takes over from Sarah Alade in June.

For more news and expert analysis about Nigeria, please see Nigeria Focus and Nigeria Politics & Security.

© 2014 Menas Associates

Nigeria: Sanusi suspension becomes test of will for Jonathan

Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi is challenging his suspension by President Goodluck Jonathan in the courts, and the case is becoming an overwhelmingly political clash as accusations are traded publicly.

Sanusi submitted a 36-point memorandum to Jonathan on 17 March which containing detailed rebuttals of the allegations against him contained in a Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria briefing note.

Jonathan’s February suspension of Sanusi was preceded by earlier attempts to get the governor to resign before the June 2014 end of his term. Initially, Sanusi said that he would not seek reinstatement to his post but would test the constitutional legitimacy of the suspension in court to establish a legal principle.

Having been sent a list of infractions at the bank under his management, Sanusi has analysed them and seems to have changed his strategy. He is now publicly asking Jonathan to reinstate him for the remaining three months of his tenure.

A long political and legal battle looms but it is certain that Jonathan will use every tactic to ensure that Sanusi does not get access to the governor’s office before his tenure formally ends. 

The trend of claims and counter-claims in the dispute suggests that there will not be an independent and credible effort to investigate the basis of Sanusi’s concerns about the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, which has been unable to account for failing to transfer some US$49.8 billion in revenues from January 2012 to July 2013 to the CBN accounts.

Acknowledging that he lacks the constitutional power to remove Sanusi from office, Jonathan says the governor is free to return to office once he disproves the ‘acts of financial recklessness’ allegations against him. These supposedly arose from recently received audits of CBN accounts.

Sanusi’s quick response to Jonathan’s allegations was to allege that there was a conspiracy supported by bank chiefs who are unhappy that they would have to open their books to independent auditors so that the missing billions can be tracked.

This view, relating to the role of Nigeria’s banks as likely intermediaries in corrupt flows of funds, has been voiced by Sanusi and other financial experts. Prior to his appointment as CBN governor, Sanusi was chief executive of First Bank Nigeria, through which billions of state oil earnings are transferred between state agencies and other institutions.

Sanusi will meet Justice Gabriel Kolawole later this week when he attends a rescheduled hearing on the case. 

For more news and expert analysis about Nigeria, please see Nigeria Focus and Nigeria Politics & Security.

© 2014 Menas Associates

Nigeria: CBN raises benchmark rate

The Central Bank of Nigeria's (CBN's) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has raised the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR), which is the benchmark interest rate for the country, by 25 basis points, to 6.5 percent from 6.25 percent. The bank explained that the increase in the benchmark rates was a proactive measure, aimed at hedging against inflationary trends and controlling excess liquidity in the system occasioned by spending on election campaigns, government spending and fund injections by the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON). AMCON is in the process of buying up all the non-performing loans and toxic assets of the rescued banks.

The MPC also raised the Cash Ratio Rate (CRR) from 1 per cent to 2 per cent, effective from 1st February, and the Liquidity Ratio (LR) by 500 basis points, from 25 per cent to 30 per cent, effective from 1st March.

CBN Governor Lamido Sanusi explained that the tightening measures to curb inflation were taken because the country's economy had underperformed despite the favourable conditions and notwithstanding recent stabilisation of price inflation.

Sanusi also seized the opportunity to reiterate his view that the payment of federal subsidies on petroleum products is unsustainable and a constraint on the development of the country's refineries.

For more news and expert analysis about Nigeria, please see Nigeria Focus and Nigeria Politics & Security.


© 2010 Menas Associates