Fashola Faults Suspension Of CBN’s Governor

Posted by African Examiner Ayo Balogun, Featured, Latest Headlines Friday, February 21st, 2014

Ayo Balogun, Lagos

The Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola has faulted the suspension of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) Governor; Mallam Sanusi Lamido, describing the action as illegal.

Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola

The governor, who reacted to the development after the official commissioning of the Lagos Asphalt plant at Imota in Ikorodu area Lagos, Nigeria said Sanusi’s suspension was nothing but a sack.

Fashola stated that since President Goodluck Jonathan lacked the legal power to sack the CBN governor unilaterally, he labeled the action as a suspension.

He condemned Federal Government’s decision to suspend a man who had made serious allegations of financial impropriety against government and its agencies, saying it as an indication of the Federal Government’s insensitivity of government to the harm corruption is doing to the nation’s economy.

“You see, I don’t understand this kind of economic management. If the man is going in June, there must be a sense in which messaging about executive tampering with the independence of the Central Bank has economic consequences for investor positioning.

“This is not a suspension, it’s a sack really because it’s only there’s no power to sack him and they have looked and looked and looked and they have said; we suspend. It’s a sack really .The message you are sending out is that it is better to keep quiet about corruption. That’s what it seems to me.”

“For me really, if someone in my government tells me that some money is missing and without concluding any investigation, they suspended the person who blew the whistle. It is when the audit is concluded that they can now decide what to do to the man.

“But now, before the completion of the audit, they have sacked the man who alerted the head of the government that money is missing. So what message is the presidency sending out to Nigerians on corruption and others who may want to reveal any atrocity committee in the country?

“The message the presidency is sending out is that Nigerians should keep quiet whenever they see any corruption perpetrated in the country. That is not a good sign for the economy,” Fashola stated.