Emir of Kano and former Governor of central bank of Nigeria, Lamido Sanusi has expressed his desire to die for Nigerians if need be to stop the incessant killings of Boko Haram in an interview with Christiane Amanpour.
The traditional and religious leader in the interview said that he was not convinced with the investigations made by the Federal Government, over the allegedly missing $20bn oil money.
Sanusi who raised dust over the level of corruption in the oil sector, mentioned the unaccounted billions of dollars of kerosene subsidy money. He further said that crash in the oil market s stemmed from mismanagement of oil funds.
He said, “My position in the Central Bank was that there was always this gap of $20bn after reconciliation between what the NNPC exported and what it deposited into the Federation Account. I raised a number of issues that I think have not yet been discussed and addressed sufficiently.
“One of them is the billions of dollars being paid in kerosene subsidies without appropriation by the National Assembly and against a presidential order and we don’t know who authorised those payments and yet no one has owned up to say I authorised the payments, I made a mistake. It must stop. I think those issues need to be addressed and until we address them and begin to close all the loopholes in government revenues, we are going to continue to create opportunity for the destruction of the economy.
“It could be $20bn at the end of the day. After reconciliation it could amount to $14(bn) or $12(bn) and I think these issues reflect unconstitutional and illegal withholding of revenues from the Federation Account.
“The country is paying the price today; oil prices have crashed, the currency has been devalued, the stock market has collapsed, government revenues are in a very bad shape. Whoever wins, whether this government or the opposition, will have to deal with these issues. The petroleum sector is a major drain on the resources of the country and this has to be looked at.”
Sanusi gave kudos to the Nigerian military troop, for the giant strides recorded in fighting Boko Haram which he said could have been eliminated a long time.
He further said that, “If I had a way of knowing that if Boko Haram took my life, they would stop killing people in Nigeria, I would give my life. I have nothing else to aspire to, I have achieved. I think the important thing is for every Muslim leader to speak up.”
He also gave assent to the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Maj.Gen Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), on the dilapidated state of Nigeria, as a result of Corruption. He urged Nigeria to stop living in denial.
