By Ishaya Ibrahim
“Where are the dollars?” ex-Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, has asked the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) to account for all the money that has accrued to the country after removal of subsidy.
Sanusi made this call while delivering his remarks at The Bank Directors Summit which held at the Congress Hall of the Transcorp Hilton in Abuja.
Sanusi said since subsidy payment no longer exists and the NNPCL also doesn’t pay under recovery, it owes the country the obligation to answer where the dollars made from the sales of crude oil are. He said asking this same question was what got him sacked, adding that he would never stop asking the questions.
Sanusi, who was CBN governor from June 2009 to February 2014, also said the President should not be the Minister of Petroleum.
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Sanusi also said the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) and the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) must remain until banks get together and pay up what they owe the system.
He also maintained that the banking sector must shore up its trust deficit in the eyes of the public and that there is no need to amend the CBN Act to keep the apex bank free of political influences.
In August, about three months after his inauguration, President Bola Tinubu split the Ministry of Petroleum Resources with the appointment of Ekperipe Ekpo as Minister of State, Gas Resources; and Heineken Lokpobiri as Minister of State, Petroleum Resources.
However, Tinubu, in an apparent tradition of his predecessor, ex-President Muhammadu Buhari, kept the position of the substantive Minister of Petroleum Resources to himself.