President Umaru Yar’Adua has declared his support for the efforts of the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Malam Lamido Sanusi, to sanitise the banking sector, including the sack of chief executives of five commercial banks in the country.


Addressing State House reporters on Sunday, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi, said the support by the president was to prevent bank failures with their attendant effects on the economy.


The president’s aide also debunked claims that Yar’Adua was implementing Northern agenda in the exercise.


These actions by Sanusi, according to Adeniyi, were not ethnically motivated, adding that the consolidation exercise of the immediate CBN Governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, could not be said to be a Southern agenda.


As part of the measures to keep the apex bank functional, the president also announced a number of appointments into the board and management of the CBN.


The statement read by Adeniyi said, “President Yar’Adua has nominated Dr. Kingsley Chiedu Moghalu for confirmation by the Senate as a deputy governor of the CBN.