Former Nigerian President, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan have disagreed with the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and now Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi II.
Jonathan, yesterday openly disagreed with Sanusi over his sack as a result of allegation of mission 49.8 billion Dollars.
The former President was reacting to a book Sanusi co-authored with the former Minister of Finance, Shamsudeen Usman.
Sanusi had claimed that the former President sacked him because he blew the whistle on the $ 49.8 billion allegedly stolen from the government’s coffers during his tenure.
But on Friday, former President Jonathan disagreed with Sunusi.
According to him, he (Sanusi) was only suspended over the query raised by the Financial Reporting Council, FRC, over expenses of the apex bank. Jonathan, however, added that had his (Sanusi) tenure not expired, he would have been recalled to office.
The former President, made the remark during the launch of the book, “Public Policy and Agents Interests: Perspectives from the Emerging World,”
Speaking at the book presentation, Jonathan said: “Let me mention that I do not agree completely with some issues raised by one of the contributors. But I don’t intend to join issues because he is our royal father. And he is here.
“The one he raised that he was sacked because he blew a whistle that the Federal Government lost $49.8 billion is not quite correct. He was not sacked. He was suspended because the Financial Reporting Council, FRC, queried the expenditure of CBN.
“There were serious infractions that needed to be looked at. That was the reason. But somehow, the time was short. So, before we finished, his tenure elapsed. Probably, he would have been recalled.
“On the issue of $49.8 billion, till today, I am not convinced that the Federal Government lost $49.8 billion. And that year, our budget was $31.6 billion. So, for a country that had a budget of $31.6 billion to lose about $50 billion. And salaries were paid, nobody felt anything. The researchers that wrote this book need to do further research.
“More so, our revered royal father came up with the figures, first $49.8 billion. Later $20 billion and later $12 billion. I don’t even know the correct one.”
The former President said he was vindicated about the claim after the former CBN Governor began to change the narrative. From $49bn to $20bn and later $12billion.
Jonathan, however, added that PriceWaterhouseCoopers, PWC, which investigated the matter, denied the story.
He said PWC revealed that no such amount of money was stolen. But noted that $1.48bn could not be accounted for by the NNPC at the time.
The former President also recalled that the then Senate Committee on Finance, led by Senator Ahmed Makarfi, investigated the issue. The Committee also found the claims unfounded.
Speaking further, Jonathan, therefore, insisted that no such amount was lost in his government.
He maintained that there was no way such a huge amount of money would be stolen in Nigeria and the impact won’t be felt.
He said for a country, whose budget was about $31 billion at the time, it was impossible for such funds to have been stolen from the country’s purse.
The former President also recounted how he was confronted by then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel over the matter. He stated that he explained to her that such money couldn’t have been stolen from a struggling country like Nigeria.
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