I was Ready To Go To Jail When Jonathan Sacked Me As CBN Governor-Sanusi

A former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and the 14th Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi II has said he was ready to go to jail when he was sacked by former President Goodluck Jonathan as the apex bank boss.

Sanusi said this at a dinner on Sunday night which was put together by the Nigerian Platform to celebrate his 60th birthday.

Jonathan’s government had in February 2014 removed Sanusi as the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, a development that triggered huge outrage.

When the government removed him in late February of 2014, it denied that the removal had anything to do with Sanusi’s queries on the handling of billions of dollars of public funds.

The country’s laws had protected Sanusi from an outright sacking until his tenure formally ended on 3 June 2014.

The Department of State Services (DSS), promptly seized his passport. The banker sued to ask the court to restrain the security agents from harassing him.

The DSS told the court that they were simply investigating the banker for alleged funding of terrorists. Sanusi denied the accusation.

The court in early April of that year, ordered the security personnel to return his passport. Justice Ibrahim Buba, sitting in the Federal High Court, ruled that Sanusi acted correctly when he brought the suit on the violation of his fundamental rights as a citizen.

Besides ordering that his passport should be returned, the judge also awarded Sanusi N50m (about US$312,500) in damages, to be paid by the federal government.

He also ordered the security agents not to infringe on Sanusi’s fundamental human rights in any other form.

Speaking on the development, Sanusi said at the dinner on Sunday that he had always been courageous about speaking against evil.

He said having been imprisoned for over a year in Sokoto when he was much younger on the basis of a trump-up charges, there was nothing for him to fear again when it comes to prison life.

Sanusi who is now the Khalifa Tijjaniya in Nigeria told the gathering that even if he was put in jail, he would have served his term, come out from prison alive and continue to raise his voice for a better Nigeria.

He said, “Apart from death, in human history, man has not designed any punishment for fellow man that is worse than prison and isolation. What is the greatest threat anyone can do to me? If you tell me you will jail me, I have been there. That is the worse. Or if you kill me, we will all die anyway.

“So those of you that is afraid that they will send police after me or if I go to prison I will die, someone who has been there.

“When I had my problem in the Central Bank and there were all these noises, I said tell the President that he doesn’t need to go through all those.

“He should just tell me that he is sending such and such a prison for a particular number of years, I will drive myself, go to the prison, I will register, I will stay for that number of years, I will come out and continue doing what I am doing now.

“The reality is that two things destroyed this country. Fear and greed. And if we can all conquer those, we should be able to make this country a great one that it should be.”

While thanking God for his favour upon him in the last 60 years, the former Emir called on those in privilege positions to use their resources to impact the lives of the people positively.

He added, “I have been fortunate, I have seen the highs and lows of life and I truly have so much to be thankful for. At age of 60, I won’t say I have achieved but the favours that I have been bestowed upon me are huge.

“I was the Chief Risk Officer of First Bank and the only Northern Nigerian Chief Executive Officer of First Bank in over 125 years, then Governor of CBN and Emir and now the Khalifa and the third holder of this title. I have nothing but gratitude to offer.

“With all these privileges comes responsibilities and when we seat here as elite, we must remember those who are hungry, those who are sick, malnourished, those out of school and if we don’t spend every moment of our lives thinking how can we give them little bit of what we have been blessed with, then we have a problem.

“These are the kind of passion that should drive us as country.”

Speaking on speculations that he might go into politics because of his popularity, Sanusi said that he was not currently considering such ambition.

He added, “People keep asking me what next I want to do and let me state here; for those who keep talking politics, I have never hidden the fact that my ambition was to be Emir of Kano, I have never hidden my intention about anything.

“So, if I say I am not interested in politics, it is because I am not interested. If I wanted to go into politics, I would have come out and say I am contesting for the Presidency of Nigeria. But I am not just interested and the reason is because I have not prepared myself for politics.

“I prepared myself a long time for academic life, I prepared myself for banking, I prepared myself for the Emirate but I have not had one day experience in politics.

“I have applied and I have been admitted and from September, I will be writing a PhD in law in the university of London and I’m writing my thesis on the codification of Muslim family law as an instrument of social reforms.”

In his address of welcome at the event, Coordinator of the Nigerian Platform, Dr Aliyu Modibbo Umar said the event is beyond a birthday celebration as it provided a platform to extoll the wonderful qualities of the former Emir.

He said the composition of the Nigeria Platform Group is such that is made up of 40 per cent older generation and 60 per cent of the younger generation.

He added, “The objective behind such an arrangement is obvious. First, is to draw on the vast knowledge and experience of the older generation; and two, to leverage on the youthful energy, technology driven expertise and modern intuitions of the younger generation to blend the two towards the development of a long-term; measurable and sustainable plan for the next 30 to 50 years from now that is supported by a defined ideology.

“In doing that, it was also the intention to expose the younger ones to mentorship from the older generation to prepare them for leadership in the future.”

“The Nigerian Platform Group had, in the interim, focused on the sorry state of the North; particularly the alarming and worsening poverty level but with a wider view towards proffering workable solutions to the nation’s problems.”