He’s the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Forbes ’ Africa Person of the Year in 2011 and the Emir of Kano, the second-highest position of Islamic authority in Nigeria.
Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, also known as Emir Muhammadu Sanusi II, is a man of many titles. And the banker-turned-religious-leader is adamant that the title of criminal will not be added to that list, despite Nigerian authorities launching an investigation into allegations of embezzlement.
The head of the anti-corruption unit in the state government in Kano, the city in northern Nigeria where Sanusi, 55, is based, confirmed to AFP that the treasurer and secretary of state of the Kano Emirate Council—of which Sanusi is the head and which is funded by the Nigerian government—had been summoned for questioning.
The investigation is focused on the use of 6 billion naira ($19 million) of the council’s funds to pay for luxury cars, mobile phone bills and other expenses. Sanusi’s office has denied the allegations, describing them as “baseless” and “mischievous” and claiming that two Rolls Royce cars were donated to Sanusi by his friends.
Whether in his secular role as a top banker or his religious role as an Islamic leader, Sanusi’s public life in the West African country has often been marked by controversy. The economics graduate came to prominence in 2009, when former Nigerian president Umaru Yar’Adua appointed Sanusi as head of the central bank in Nigeria, an oil-dependent economy that is one of Africa’s biggest, in the heat of the global financial crisis.
Sanusi plunged into his role at a rapacious speed. In the first six months of his tenure, the CBN bailed out nine Nigerian banks at a cost of $4 billion, with Sanusi firing the top executives at eight of the banks. His activity in unearthing financial mismanagement, or even corruption in some cases, was so swift that it was dubbed as the “Sanusi tsunami.”
His actions earned him acclaim from international observers: Sanusi was named the world’s best central banker for 2010 by influential magazine The Banker. But his probing pitched him against some of Nigeria’s most entrenched vested interests, which eventually led to an all-out confrontation with Nigeria’s all-powerful oil industry in 2014: Sanusi told a senate committee that $20 billion in oil revenues had disappeared over a 19-month period. Nigeria’s state oil firm strenuously denied the allegations and then-Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan suspended Sanusi in February 2014. The former banker stands by those allegations.
.Newsweek
