Stop Harrasing Sanusi - APC Warns Jonathan

The All Progressives Congress, APC, on
Thursday advised President Goodluck
Jonathan to tread carefully on his reported
plan to force the Governor of the Central
Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Lamido Sanusi, to
resign.
The APC, in a statement written by its Interim
National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, said
asking the CBN Governor to step down, on the
basis of a mere allegation that he leaked the letter
he wrote to the President, over the unremitted
$49.8 billion oil revenue, will dwindle Nigeria's
already weak economy and further impoverish the
country.
The APC warned that any move to suspend Mr.
Sanusi or use security forces to prevent him from
entering his office, as reported by the media, will
be terrible as it will mean the President is willing to
circumvent the provision of the law which states
that the Governor of the CBN can only be removed
by two-thirds of the Senators.
The party said suspending the CBN Governor will
be a replay of the damage that Mr. Jonathan did to
the judiciary when he suspended former President
of the Court of Appeal, Ayo Salami, until his
retirement, adding that the President could abuse
his power and re-enact such scenario whenever he
feels offended. "Our worry here is that the
President should not destroy our institutions before
he leaves office," the party said.
The APC said its main reason for commenting on
the planned removal of Mr. Lamido, either through
forced retirement or via suspension, is the impact
that a crisis of confidence between the President
and the CBN Governor will have on the nation's
economy. "
These include a loss of confidence in the economic
management of the country, leading to uncertainty
among domestic and foreign investors; as well as
pressure on the exchange rate as foreign portfolio
investors in government bonds and the stock
market make their exit, and the corresponding fall
in the value of share prices," it said.
The party said there was nothing wrong in a CBN
Governor alerting the President to any discrepancy
he may have noticed in the remittance of revenue
from oil, which is the mainstay of the economy,
adding that such action is expected from any CBN
Governor who is worth his salt.
The APC also said there is no reason to believe that
Mr. Lamido leaked the letter he wrote to the
President, especially because the CBN Governor
wrote the letter in September and the letter was
not leaked until December. "It stands to reason
that if the CBN Governor had wanted to leak the
letter, he had no reason waiting for four months to
do so.
Also, the moment the letter was sent to Mr.
President, it has gone beyond the purview of the
CBN Governor, and anyone with a reason to do so
could as well have leaked the letter," it said.
The APC said President Jonathan's alleged move to
sack the CBN governor few months before the end
of his tenure smacks of vendetta. The party warned
the president against the move. "… we advise
President Jonathan against precipitating a crisis in
the economy, and we urge all Nigerians to advise
him against such," the APC said.

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