LAGOS, (Reuters) – Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan suspended Central Bank Governor Lamido Sanusi yesterday, removing an increasingly outspoken critic of the government’s record on tackling rampant corruption in Africa’s leading energy producer.
Currency, bond and money markets stopped trading because of the uncertainty created by the suspension. Trading in the naira currency resumed after the central bank intervened with dollar sales, by which time debt markets were closed.
The intervention enabled the naira to rebound from a record low of 169 to the dollar to 165, dealers said, its biggest one-day swing since a December 2009 devaluation.
Sanusi, who was due to end his term in June, had been presenting evidence to parliament that he said showed the state oil company Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) failed to remit $20 billion that it owed to federal government coffers. NNPC has repeatedly denied Sanusi’s allegations.
Deputy Governor Sarah Alade was appointed acting governor, presidential spokesman Reuben Abati said yesterday.
“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,” Abati said.
He later said Sanusi had failed to comply with procurement procedures in managing the central bank’s budget and had unlawfully spent money on projects outside his mandate.
Sanusi was not immediately available for comment on those allegations.
Jonathan nominated the managing director of Zenith Bank
Godwin Emefiele to be next central bank governor. If Emefiele wins the Senate’s approval, he will start in June, when Sanusi’s term would have expired, the head of its finance committee Senator Ahmed Makarfi told Reuters.
