Jonathan Sacks Sanusi As CBN Governor, Emefiele In As CBN Governor

Nigeria's central bank governor, Lamido Sanusi, has been increasing critical about the record of Goodluck Jonathan's government on tackling corruption.

Nigeria's president, Goodluck Jonathan, has suspended the head of its central bank, removing an increasingly outspoken critic of the government's record on tackling rampant corruption.


Lamido Sanusi, who was due to end his term as governor in June, had been presenting evidence to parliament he said showed the state oil company Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) failed to pay $20bn (£12bn) it owed to the government. The company has repeatedly denied his allegations.
Sanusi's deputy Sarah Alade was appointed acting governor, presidential spokesman Reuben Abati said on Thursday.
"Lamido Sanusi's tenure has been characterised by various acts of financial recklessness ... inconsistent with the administration's vision of a Central Bank propelled by the core values of focused economic management," he said, without providing details about those acts.
Currency, bond and money markets stopped trading after the suspension. Trading in the naira later resumed after the bank intervened with dollar sales, allowing the naira to rebound from a record low of 169 to the dollar to 165, its biggest one day swing since a December 2009 devaluation.
Jonathan nominated the managing director of Zenith bank, Godwin Emefiele, to be the next central bank governor. If Emefiele wins the senate's approval, he will start in June, the head of its finance committee, Ahmed Makarfi, told Reuters.
Sanusi told local broadcaster CNBCA that he was proud of what he had done, and he hoped the economy would not be damaged by his suspension.
Asked whether it was politically motivated, he said: "It's not for me to comment. I think the answer to that is obvious."
Analysts predicted that foreign investors would now be active sellers of assets in Africa's second biggest economy, just when it had been attracting more interest.
Razia Khan, head of Africa research at Standard Chartered, said the suspension would come as a significant shock to foreign portfolio investors "whose willingness to invest in Nigeria was very much influenced by the transparency and anti-inflation credibility associated with Sanusi's policies".
Makarfi said a full removal of Sanusi would need senate approval, but that Jonathan had made no such request.
"The president has the prerogative under our laws to suspend him," without the senate's consent, he said.
The governor questioned the legality of the move, saying: "It's important to establish the point legally ... because if not established, then the very next governor of the central bank can be suspended for any reason, and the independence of the central bank is totally undermined."
Sanusi, a career banker, earned a reputation as monetary policy hawk while governor from June 2009 – raising interest rates, tightening liquidity and aggressively defending the naira with frequent foreign exchange auctions.
"Sanusi has been the face of naira stability," said Nwabueze Okonne, a Nigerian currency trader.
The governor's suspicion of massive fraud at the heart of one of the world's most opaque national oil companies has brought him into conflict with Jonathan's administration a year before elections. In a letter leaked in December, Sanusi said almost $50bn in revenues from oil exports from January 2012 to July 2013 had not been remitted to the state account. He later lowered the estimate to $20bn.
It was not the first time that high-profile figures have put the spotlight on corruption during Jonathan's presidency.
His one-time mentor and former president Olusegun Obasanjo said in a letter leaked in December that it would be "morally flawed" for Jonathan to seek a second term in 2015, saying corruption under his tenure was worse than that of General Sani Abacha, the military dictator who looted billions from the treasury and stashed it in Swiss bank accounts.
Jonathan rejected that criticism, and he frequently retorts that corruption in Nigeria is being exaggerated by his enemies.

Meanwhile, President Goodluck Jonathan Thursday named the Managing Director of Zenith Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, as the next Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria.
In a letter addressed to Senate President David Mark and read on the floor of the Senate, Jonathan who urged the parliament to treat the nomination with dispatch, said Emefiele  would replace Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, whose tenure expires in June.
President Goodluck Jonathan has appointed Godwin Emefiele, who is the managing director of Zenith Bank, as the new governor of Central Bank.
Mr. Jonathan submitted Mr. Emefiele's name to the Senate for confirmation Thursday hours after he announced the suspension of Sanusi Lamido as the CBN governor.
The CBN's deputy governor, Sarah Alade, was named early Thursday as acting governor of the bank.
Mr. Jonathan said if confirmed by the senate, Mr. Emefiele will take over fully as the substantive governor in place of Mr. Sanusi whose tenure elaspes in June 2014.
The president also nominated Adelabu Adebayo as the deputy governor of the bank. Mr. Adebayo is current an executive director at First Bank.
He will succeed Tunde Lemo who retired as Deputy Governor of the regulatory bank in late 2013.
Below is Mr. Emefiele's profile as published on Zenith Bank's website.
"He is the Group Managing Director, Zenith Bank Plc, a position he has held since August 2010. Until then he was the Deputy Managing Director of the bank, having been appointed into that position in 2001. Emefiele has been on the bank's management team since inception and has held various management positions in the bank, including serving as the Bank's Executive Director in charge of Corporate Banking, Treasury, Financial Control and Strategic Planning.
"Until he took over as Group Managing Director, Emefiele was directly responsible for all the Group's local subsidiaries, Treasury and Correspondent Banking, and Multilateral, Conglomerates, & Private Banking. He also had responsibilities for direct supervision of majority of the bank's branches in Lagos and Northern Nigeria.
"Emefiele has over twenty-six (26) years banking experience and holds a B.Sc and an MBA in Finance both from the University of Nigeria Nsukka. Before commencing his banking career, he lectured Finance, Bank Management, and Insurance at the University of Nigeria and University of Port Harcourt respectively.
"He is an alumnus of Stanford University, Harvard and Wharton Graduate School of Business where he took courses in Negotiation, Service Excellence, Critical Thinking, Leading Change and Strategy.
"Under Emefiele's leadership, Zenith Bank has strengthened its position as a leading financial institution in Africa, winning recognition and getting endorsement at home and abroad for giant strides in key performance areas like corporate governance, service delivery and deployment of cutting-edge ICT as well as impact in the bank's numerous spheres of operations.
"In 2012, Emefiele's visionary leadership saw Zenith Bank receiving acclaim from reputable institutions such as world finance, CFI and FTSE Global Markets that have named Zenith the Best in Corporate Governance, Best Commercial Bank in Africa, and Emerging Global Super brand respectively."

In another letter to the Senate president, Jonathan sought the confirmation of Mr. Adelabu Adebayo Adekola as Deputy Governor of CBN in line with Section 8 (1) and (2) of the CBN Act.

Reacting to the suspension of the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the House of Representatives Thursday condemned the move by  President  Goodluck  Jonathan as illegal and unconstitutional.

This is as the House Minority Leader of Femi Gbajabiamila  expressed dismay at the suspension of  Sanusi, saying  the action  was  an attack on the bank's autonomy and setback for the fight on corruption.