MALLAM SANUSI LAMIDO SANUSI, BOKO HARAM AND RELIGIOUS EXTREMISM
If you follow the news like I do, you would no doubt have read the latest "mis-speak" by Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the international award-winning Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria which was published on the upper column of the front page of Thisday newspaper of Saturday, 28th January, 2012. If you did not read the story, below is the internet link to access it:

http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/sanusi-links-bo

Expectedly, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi later refuted the Thisday story on Sunday, 29th January, 2012, claiming that he was "misquoted". Here again is the internet link to access the story:

http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/san

>But, as any discerning reader can easily tell, Sanusi’s rebuttal was feeble, baseless and a mere, inconsequential, after-thought.
A man speaks from the abundance of his heart. He may regret saying something or wish he had said it in a more refined way, but what a man says is really what he meant to say! It is straight from the heart. Sanusi’s rebuttal should have actually been about the Financial Times story published last Thursday, 26th January, 2012, not the Thisday story which was culled from it.
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Part of the Financial Times story reads: “ “There is clearly a direct link between the very uneven nature of distribution of resources and the rising level of violence,” Mr Sanusi told the Financial Times in an interview, arguing that it was now necessary to focus funds on regenerating other regions if Nigeria wants to secure long-term stability”. “

The error of Thisday as perceived by Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi may have been because the newspaper used the obviously offensive word "Derivation" in its caption of the story since the paper accurately captured
all Sanusi told Financial Times of London.

Now, what would be the ordinary reader’s understanding of Sanusi's statement? How has the "distribution of resources" led to Boko Haram's murderous campaign?

The full text of the Financial Times story is accessible at this internet link:
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>http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/02ce9e7e-4837-11e1-b1b4-00144feabdc0.html
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>Permit me to reproduce the full Financial Times story here to help put things in context:
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>Attempts to redress historic grievances in Nigeria’s oil-rich south may inadvertently have helped create the conditions for the Islamic insurgency spreading from the impoverished north-east of the country, says Lamido Sanusi, Nigeria’s central bank governor.
>In the past year, the Boko Haram sect has been responsible for proliferating attacks on churches, police stations and other state targets. Last week, it claimed responsibility for multiple bomb blasts which claimed nearly 200 lives in t e northern city of Kano. The size and sophistication of the attacks underlined fears that the conflict is spiraling out of control.
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“There is clearly a direct link between the very uneven nature of distribution of resources and the rising level of violence,” Mr. Sanusi told the Financial Times in an interview, arguing that it was now necessary to focus funds on regenerating other regions if Nigeria wants to secure long-term stability.

Oil-producing areas in the predominantly Christian south benefit from 13 per cent of the revenues generated from oil in their
area, on top of the federal allocations they and other states receive. As world oil prices have risen over the past decade, this has led to a widening gulf in income between oil-producing states and those without oil. The commercial capital Lagos, which raises 75 per cent of its own revenue from taxes, is the exception.

This formula was introduced after the military relinquished power in 1999 among a series of measures aimed at redressing historic grievances among those living closest to the oil and quelling a conflict that was jeopardising output.

>But by seeking to address one problem, Nigeria may have created another, weakening other states in the federation and fostering resentment in the poorest region which has spawned the Boko Haram sect.

“When you look at the figures and look at the size of the population in the north you can see there is a structural imbalance of enormous proportions,” Mr. Sanusi said. “Those states
simply do not have enough money to meet basic needs while some states have too much money.”
According to official figures, the leading oil producing state, Rivers, received N1,053bn between 1999 and 2008 in federal allocations. By contrast the north-eastern states of Yobe and Borno, where the Boko Haram sect was created, received N175bn and N213bn respectively. Broken down on a per capita basis, the contrast is even starker. In 2008 the 18.97m people who lived in the six states in the north-east received on average N1,156 per person.

By contrast Rivers state was allocated N3,965 per capita, and on average the oil producing South- South region received on average N3,332 per capita.

This imbalance is compounded when the cost of an amnesty programme for militants in the delta is included together with an additional 1 per cent for a special development body for the Niger delta. To boot, the
theft of oil by profiteers in the region diverts tens of millions more weekly from federal coffers.

The imbalance is so stark, he added, because the state still depends on oil for more than 80 per cent of its revenues. Nigeria has made little headway raising taxes for example from agriculture, which accounts for 42 per cent of GDP.

Inhabitants of the delta tend to have little sympathy with complaints about the revenue formula, given that Nigeria was ruled and at times plundered for much of the four decades after independence by northern leaders. Indeed, state governors from the region are now lobbying for an even greater share of oil revenues – in some cases they believe it should be as high as 50 per cent.

Northern Nigeria’s economy has traditionally depended on the government more than the south. Many of the industries set up as part of earlier efforts to promote national balance have gone bust or been sold off during a
decade of liberal market reforms, power shortages and infrastructure collapse.

The north’s inhabitants, although more numerous, are also among the poorest in Africa, and therefore represent a less attractive market for the banks, telecoms and retail companies booming in pockets of comparative affluence in Nigeria’s south. “We now need some sort of Marshall plan for these areas so we can begin to regenerate industrialisation,” Mr. Sanusi argued.

I am very concerned about Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. Nigerians should be worried about him. Most people really do not know this man and how very dangerous he really is. He is one of those championing the idea, which is now gaining momentum, that Boko Haram is the consequence of “poverty and unfair national revenue distribution”. This is false and a well-articulated disinformation by the powerful sponsors, financiers, organisers and supporters of Boko Haram. And they have successfully sold this lie especially in the American media with people like Ambassador John Campbell pretending to be the authority on Nigeria at the United States’ Council of Foreign Relations because of his stint in our country as the American Ambassador some years back.
Was Mohammed Yusuf, Boko Haram’s founder poor? Was Baba Fugu poor? At least Baba Fugu was of such personal networth that the High Court and the Court of Appeal felt that N100million was the least amount that it should ask the Borno State Government to pay his family as “compensation” for his alleged killing by some officers of the Nigeria Police after his arrest. In fact the Borno State Government has since explained that the reason it thought it was pointless taking the case to the Supreme Court for final adjudication was because it was afraid it might be made to pay much more than the meager N100million that the High Court and Court of Appeal decided it should pay the family. Clearly, the Courts know that the family is not poor unlike the families those killed by Boko Haram in Borno State which the State Government recently paid N250,000 (Two hundred and fifty thousand Naira only) as “compensation” for their irreparable loss. I guess the
Borno State Government reckoned that the gesture, however little, is really what counts since money cannot resurrect the dead even though the widows, widowers and orphans created by Boko Haram’s thirst for innocent blood could no doubt do with much more than N250,000.
Was that suicide-bomber who drove his vehicle into the car park of the Nigeria Police Force Head Quarters in Abuja a poor man? Not likely. The pictures of the man that were on the internet after the bombing showed him looking very-well fed and smiling contentedly while standing by his car with an AK47 automatic assault rifle on his shoulder. The report then was that the man had given his family N2miilion as “pocket-money” before he left Maiduguri for Abuja to carry out the Boko Haram attack. He was also said to be well educated and a successful businessman.
What about Alhaji Abdul Mutallab's son, the “bomb-in-the-pants” failed suicide-bomber who tried to blow up the plane in which he travelled to the United States just before it landed and who is now standing trial for terrorism there? Surely, the young man was not poor. Though unemployed, the UK University-educated boy had enough monthly allowances from his billionaire banker-father to travel frequently to Yemen, Ghana, Nigeria and the United States.
So where is this concept of “poverty-caused-Boko-Haram” coming from? Appears that, in addition to the Islamic Jihadist agenda of islamising Nigeria and imposing Shariah, it is really the envy of the patrons of Boko Haram over the 13% Derivation Funds being paid to the oil-producing states that created the terrorist group. They and Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi seem to have conveniently forgotten that prior to the Military’s incursion into government in 1966, the Derivation Formula was actually 50% of the funds generated to the regions where the revenue was derived and 50% to the Federal Government. So the perceived “injustice” of Nigeria’s revenue distribution should not be by Boko Haramites but by the oil-producing states whose peoples have not ceased to advocate for “Resource Control” till date. Boko Haramites, like other Islamic terrorists elsewhere in the world, are not poor people but just wicked, insane, misguided and deluded
religious extremists who believe they do God service by their murderous activities.
[b]Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi sent me a text last Sunday threatening me that he would sue me for "libel" for disclosing on my Facebook page, on the discussion thread where I raised the Thisday story of his statement about the motivation of Boko Haram, that he was indicted by Gen. Sani Abacha for the Kano religious riot in which Gideon Akaluka was beheaded. Sanusi's indictment was for his complicity as one of those the government believed instigated the riot. In fact, the report at the time was that eight people were fingered by the security agencies for their role in causing the riot. Seven of them were allegedly executed summarily but Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi was spared because of the pleas of notable northern leaders on his behalf being a Prince of Kano Emirate. His grand-father was the Emir of Kano who was deposed by the government of Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Premier of the Old Northern Region of Nigeria and the Sardauna of Sokoto. So Gen. Sani Abacha's government sent Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi to be incarcerated in Sokoto Prison for a period of about two years. He was never formally charged or put on trial before a Court or other judicial panel. So Sanusi somehow believes that all Nigerians above forty years of age and well-informed enough to know what transpired at the time have somehow developed a sudden case of mass amnesia or would be too star-struck by his award-winning brilliance to speak out. So he has ensured that the inglorious period of his incarceration is unaccounted for in his resume since he conveniently omits it from his Curriculum Vitae and Profile. I guess any human being would have done the same if they had such a skeleton in their closet and had to serve as the Governor of a Central Bank.
[/b]

I have challenged some journalist to go and interview Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi to get his reaction to my "allegation". And to independently check this information with his close friends, his former colleagues at ICON Merchant Bank and the key operatives of our security services and the Prisons authority who were in employment between 1993 and 1998.

So why have I decided to go public with this information at this time? I have decided to go public with this information at this time because I am now convinced that Sanusi is a dangerous religious extremist in government. He should never have been appointed as the CBN Governor!

Now there are many questions that should arise in the minds of Nigerians who seek TRUTH about Sanusi:

1. Why did he choose to go to Sudan for his Shariah Doctorate?
2. Osama Bin Laden was in Sudan about the same time Sanusi was in Sudan. Did they meet in Sudan?

3. Who were Sanusi's associates, friends, classmates, teachers and Imam in Sudan?

4. Who financed Sanusi's education in Sudan since he was without a job at this time?

5. Why has Sanusi been so zealously pro-Shariah implementation in Nigeria as shown in his writings on www.gamji.com?

6. Is Sanusi's fanatically advocacy of Islamic Banking and the issuance of "Sukuk Sovereign Bonds" by Nigeria merely about Finance?

7. Does Sanusi have any links to Boko Haram especially since he is eager to explain their activities?

8. Alhaji Abdul Mutallab, the Chairman of Jaiz Bank, former Chairman of First Bank and father of the failed "pants-bomber", is well-known as Sanusi's "god-father". Sanusi was also known to be a mentor and close friend of Abdul Muttalab's terrorist son who was an Al Qaeda recruit. What role did Sanusi play in radicalising this his protege?I am now convinced that Mallam Sanusi is too dangerous a religious extremist and a Jihadist to be in government how much more the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria!

There are several questions on my mind about Sanusi and which should bother other Nigerians as well:

1. Did late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua not know these facts about Sanusi’s past?
2. If late President Yar’adua had this information, why did he think it was irrelevant to his decision to appoint Sanusi as the CBN Governor?
3. Did the security clearance issued by the State Security Service and/or other security agencies disclose this detail about Sanusi’s past?
4. Was the Senate aware of Sanusi’s indictment and incarceration when he appeared before it for the confirmation hearing to be appointed as the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria?
5. Did the Senators ask Sanusi to explain where he was and what he was doing during the missing period which is unaccounted for in his Curriculum Vitae?
6. Why did Sanusi choose to go to Sudan for his Doctorate in Shariah Law?

7. Late Founder of Al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden, was in Sudan about the same time when Sanusi was in Sudan. Did they meet in Sudan?

8. Who were Sanusi's associates, friends, classmates, teachers and Imam in Sudan?

9. Who financed Sanusi's education in Sudan since he was without a job at that time?

10. Why has Sanusi been so zealously pro-Shariah implementation in Nigeria as shown in his writings on www.gamji.com?

11. Is Sanusi's fanatical promotion of Islamic Banking with public funds and his advocacy of the issuance of "Sukuk Sovereign Bonds" by the Federal Government of Nigeria merely about “an alternative banking window for the unbanked Muslims” and international finance, respectively?

12. Does Sanusi have any links to Boko Haram especially since he seems to know what is really motivating their members?

13. Alhaji Abdul Mutallab, the Chairman of Jaiz Bank, former Chairman of First Bank and father of the failed "pants-bomber", is well-known as Sanusi's "god-father". Sanusi was also known to be a mentor and close friend of Abdul Muttalab's terrorist son who was an Al Qaeda recruit. What role did Sanusi play in “radicalizing” this protégé of his since his father had explained that the boy became “radicalised” outside his home and despite good parental guidance?

President Goodluck Jonathan and other peace-loving Nigerians should be very worried about Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi remaining as the CBN Governor given his history as a suspected sponsor of a religious riot and the fact that he has manifested extremist tendencies even as the CBN Governor.

I am actually looking forward to Sanusi's "libel suit" against me
and I have told him he should see it as his opportunity to set the records straight about his indictment by Gen. Sani Abacha.
GOD BLESS NIGERIA!

Eghes Eyieyien
1st February, 2012.
http://eghes..com
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There are few insinuations which cannot stand unbiased scrutiny but the emboldened begs for attention. Anyone who can confirm this allegation?

Hello

Hmmm

Jarus needs to come clear the air here. Hope he doesn't radicalize Jarus like Abdulmutalab.

Eghes is a propagandist and a known hater of SLS. I wrote this rejoinder to that article

EGHES EYIEYEN: THE LIMITS OF PSEUDO-INTELLECTION
The interconnectedness that trailed the advent and subsequent popularization of internet in Nigeria changed the face of public commentary in the largest black nation. In days of yore, before a piece of writing made its way to public space through newspaper, the only available medium then, the editors subjected it to thorough professional scrutiny. In the same vein, feedbacks to an opinion, if it came at all, took so long that they may be inherently discouraging to start. Some of us were not born then, but even if we discard our readings in journalistic history, it is all too obvious that this was the case in the formative years of public commentary in Nigeria.  Sometimes I imagine how the Anthony Enahoros, Babatunde Joses, Alade Odunewus, Segun Osobas, Felix Adenaikes, and other newspapermen of old went about their trade, when there was no email or short message service.

But today, thanks to the internet and its newest baby, named New Media, anybody can write just anything, formally or informally, and make it available for public consumption. Reactions can also begin to flood in immediately. Bad as things have gone, the editors still do their work of trashing some of those ill-written articles in editorial bin, but with no such censorship in the blogosphere(made up of blogging sites, news sites, facebook, twitter, etc), it has become the platform for venting such malicious write-ups by Nigeria’s legion of pseudo-intellectuals who hide under the garb of public affairs commentary to spread hate and division in the land.

One of such articles was that written by Mr Eghes Eyieyen, an Accountant, consultant and self-styled ‘apostle in the market place’, titled “Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, Boko Haram and Religious Extremism” which I bumped into in my regular surfing activities on the internet. I am very sure the article would not have passed the publishability test of any credible newspaper, if not for anything, for the glaring falsehood that dots every line in it, but the article is currently available in his blog (www.eghes..com) and lifted by other similar blogs.

As a declaration, the writer of that article is not an unknown person to me. I first came across him and his activities in the cyberspace mid last year via a conversation on the Facebook wall of a popular columnist with a leading Nigerian Business daily, who I so much respect, although such respect has waned in recent time on the knowledge, via his comments on facebook and other informal media, of his closet bigotry. Not being the one to keep quiet in the face of evidently misleading and bigoted comments, I have had a number of hot exchanges with Eyieyen in the past on the Facebook wall of the columnist mutual-friend, most of which border on his penchant for attacking, at the drop of a hat, the personality of Mr Lamido Sanusi, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, the same thing he did in his latest hate-filled article, but this time around, taken too far.

The article started with a copious quoting of Mr Sanusi’s Financial Times interview, where he (Sanusi) attributed rising violence in the northern part of the country (as well as that of Niger Delta before it) to poverty and flaws in Revenue allocation yardsticks in the country, and ended with an allegation of complicity of Sanusi in the religious crises that rocked Kano in the early to mid-90s. If he had only restricted the article to a criticism of Sanusi’s comment on poverty-violence relationship, I would not have written this article, because I also believe that the CBN boss needed not say that, even if he was right, given the Boko Haram tension in the land. That poverty bears relationship with violence is banal. Even if there are exceptions like the Farouk Muttalab’s misguided act, what is well-known is that most of the poorest regions of the world are also violence-ridden. Dr AbdulSalam Ajetunmobi, a University of Portsmouth law teacher, wrote in his article in The Punch (February 3, 2012) that, “In truth, poverty can certainly fuel violence. For example, most countries that are struck by economic destitution often experience political violence. From Liberia and Sierra Leone to Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo, there are plenty of examples to draw on the causal relationship between poverty and violence. To consider a different set of events, it would be hard to dismiss the argument that the outbursts of violence in the United Kingdom in August 2011 had nothing to do with the economic inequality and social deprivation faced by the youths living in London and other big cities.” Yet, I personally hold that, in the case of Boko Haram, poverty only fueled it by providing, for free, an army of illiterate, easily brainwashable youth, a misinterpretation of religious texts by the group’s founders cannot be wished away as a root cause. Also, Sanusi assumed, wrongly in my opinion, that if more funds are available for these northern government, it will trickle down to the downtrodden masses. History has shown that this will not happen because the governors will only have more money to divert to private coffers. On that score, I disagree with Mr Sanusi.

But the kernel of this article is Eyieyen’s other attributions to the CBN governor and his subsequent conclusions. Knowing Eyieyen, having followed his activities on Facebook for some time, his innuendoes were not surprising. Either due to complex or intellectual challenge, or both, he cannot make three postings on Facebook without bringing Sanusi to the matter, no matter how far off the issue on the table is, an observation equally shared by one Celestine Mel, another mutual friend of ours on the Zuckerberg’s invention. That he has a personal axe to grind with the CBN boss is all too predictable.

In his latest piece, Eghes brought to public notice that Mr Sanusi was once detained in Sokoto prison by General sani Abacha for complicity in a religious violence in Kano in the 90s. Therefore, Eghes concluded, Sanusi is a member of Boko Haram who should not only be relieved of his job but also tried. This is the weightiest of the series of strings Eyieyen and his co-travellers in their intellectual delusion have been pulling to bring down the CBN boss since the Islamic banking debate came up last year.

Being a public intellectual and an outspoken activist since his university days, Sanusi’s antecedents are all available in the public space.  Pray, since when did Abacha start detaining people for right reason? If a brush with Abacha is a criterion for criminalizing one, then every Nigerian activist, from Wole Soyinka to Gani Fawehinmi to even Femi Falana, that had brushes with Abacha and were detained for obviously trumped up charges are all criminals. In fact it has become fad in Nigeria today that the criterion for knowing true progressives is activities under Abacha and IBB. I will never be surprised if Sanusi had brushes with Abacha because all Nigerians that know his past know him to be a fearless progressive who never fails to tell truth to power and would have spoken against Abacha’s despotic regime. And knowing Abacha too that if he accused one of doing something, the opposite was the truth, the opposite of whatever charges he made against Sanusi would be the truth. It is also instructive at this juncture to remind the reader that Sanusi was part of the pro-democracy activists of the early 90s that risked their lives to speak against the continuous incarceration of Abiola and worked with the likes of Femi Falana and Wole Soyinka in various pro-democracy movements, including being a director in Radio Kudirat, the underground platform for fighting the tyrannical Abacha then. Such is Sanusi’s pedigree in progressive politics. It is therefore unfortunate that all manners of charlatans have come to the stage to soil the man’s name, which even Renaissance Professionals, with all the millions spent to dig up something incriminating against him, were not able to do.



Eghes Eyieyen’s problem with Sanusi, like that of many other critics (except few ones like Henry Boyo and Ijeoma Nwogwugwu, who sometimes disagree with him on purely economic facts and don’t go petty as to bringing religion and ethnicity into the matter), is the man’s identification with his religion and ethnicity. This he repeats in his article in question where he, pathetically, asks why Sanusi schooled in Sudan as if it was a crime to school in Sudan.

The problem with Eyieyen, who claims to be an apostle in the marketplace and once wrote on his Facebook wall that he wanted all Nigerians Muslims to become Christians, is that he is uncomfortable with Sanusi’s rising international profile. Like many of his ilks, he is yet to come to terms with a Sudan-schooled, gworo-chewing aboki man, as they condescendingly refer to them, having such superior intellect. In his worldview, it is a taboo for a northern Muslim, more so one that is active in his religion, to be at the helms of affairs. I have never seen any public figure in Nigeria being referred to as ‘too Christian’ but anybody with the slightest identification with Islam is seen as ‘dangerously too Islamic’. It is not a crime for a President Obasanjo to enroll for Theology in a university but it is a crime for a Sanusi, grandson of an emir and who has never hidden his ambition of becoming an emir in the future, to study Islamic studies. An Erastus Akingbola, that is an ordained pastor and mandated morning fellowshipping in his public limited liability bank, is a man of God and religious issue would never have come up if he was nominated as CBN boss at the peak of his career, but a Lamido Sanusi, whose knowledge of banking and economics is not in doubt, is an Islamic bigot. In what appears like a coordinated attempt to punish the CBN boss for also being an Islamic scholar, they have fabricated all forms of lies against, including claiming(pitiably, by the columnist friend too) that he re-introduced Arabic lettering in Nigerian currency. At the point where critics resort to lies and blackmail, they have obviously lost the plot.

Eghes, in that article, also called attention to Sanusi’s past articles on Gamji website, using that to label him a Muslim fundamentalist. The problem with these intellectual paperweights is that they select what suits them in Sanusi’s writings and twist it to achieve their premeditated conclusion. Pray, is it not the same Sanusi that fought to standstill Kano’s most revered Islamic preacher, late Sheikh Adam Jaafar(suspected to be killed by Boko Haram members in 2007) for what he called ‘Islamic demagoguery’? Is it not the same Sanusi that wrote articles like ‘The Adultress’ Diary’, ‘In defence of Father Martin Kukah’ and ‘Muslim leaders and the myth of marginalization’ where he carpeted not only religious leaders but also northern political leaders for hiding under Islam to pauperize the people? I challenge Eghes and other Sanusiphobes to read those articles and come back and tell me whether a Muslim bigot will write that.

A more classic example of Sanusi’s quote on religion and politics, excerpted from his article ‘Issues in restructuring Corporate Nigeria(1999)’ is reproduced thus:

“Very recently, the Katsina State Government tried to pass Bills banning the sale of alcohol and the operation of LovePeddler-houses in the metropolis. As a consequence of this move (and, it is said, failure of the House to approve the Bill), irate Muslim youth, shouting Allahu Akbar decided to burn not just beer parlours, hotels and whorehouses, but also Christian churches.

“Now, the Qur’an (Hajj. (ch. 22): 40) specifically forbids tearing down monasteries, churches, synagogues and mosques. Yet the leaders of Muslims have not come out strongly enough to condemn this violation of the rights of Christians, nor considered the implications of Christians in turn burning mosques in retaliation. It is also worthy of note, that christian morality does not approve of alcoholism and prostitution.

“A second example is the recent furore over Obasanjo’s appointment of northern Christians into his cabinet. I have elsewhere made my views on this known although several people have branded me, and others like Col. Umar, anti-Islamic or anti-north for not joining this hypocritical farce

“In failing to rise above bigotry and chauvinism, northern Muslims act against injunctions of their faith. The Qur’an expressly preaches freedom of religion [see, for example: Al-Baqarah (ch.2): 256; Yunus (ch.10): 108; Hud (ch.11): 121-122; Kahf(ch18):29;  andAl-Ghashiyah (ch.88) :21-24]

It is also pertinent for those who criticize us to recall that Allah specifically instructed that trust and leadership should be given only to those worthy of them and to judge between men with justice (Al-Nisa (ch.4): 58). Also, if anyone believes that false witness should be given for or against a man simply because he is a Muslim or Non-Muslim, he should read [Al-Nisa (ch4): 135; also 105and Al-Ma’idah ((ch.5): 6]. Finally for those who object to our inviting good muslims and good christians to come together and give the poor people of this country the good government preached by both faiths, please read [Al-Imran (ch3): 64] which provides a basis for coming together on common ground.”

There are tons of  other anti-religious violence comments of Sanusi in the last two decades on the internet which are readily available for any objective researcher on the man, but to the rabid critics, writing on religion and ethnicity, in the first place, is a crime for Sanusi, but in their own blogs and columns they not only write freely on religion and ethnicity, but also project their faiths.

I can go on and on on Eyieyen and the illogic of his campaign against the CBN boss but there is no point rehashing the obvious. This is actually not the first time I can’t stand Eyieyen’s hogwash of article. On two occasions I put off the temptation to reply him, the latest being his article in Thisday newspaper(January 24, 2012) where in a bid to defend the indefensible, he only succeeded in dancing macabre dance. Being one of the preachers of the ridiculous ‘luck theory’ that sentimentally ushered in a Jonathan presidency, he has been struggling in recent time to justify his theory that is being shred into pieces with every action of his incompetent messiah. I called off that article because it will inevitably lead to open disagreement with Mr Atedo Peterside, a man I respect so much for his integrity and unblemished corporate governance credentials and almost unarguably the man that redefined investment banking in Nigeria. Even if I have been disagreeing with Mr Peterside on Jonathan presidency, I have no doubt in my mind that he doesn’t deserve an open criticism from me, not just because he is a benefactor, but also because he doesn’t play the tribal and religious cards the likes of Eghes revel in. Unknown to Eghes, the Islamic banking he has been shouting hoarse about in the last few months is the only issue Mr Peterside, whom he sought to defend in his diatribe against Segun Adeniyi, agrees with me, including, at the risk of committing ‘name-dropping’ as Eghes would have us believe for anybody that claims contact with a more accomplished personality, getting his (Peterside’s) commendation on my article on Islamic banking (Guardian, July 27, 2011).

To deceive the many ill-informed readers, this crop of pedestrian intellectuals who dominate the blogosphere have always resorted to flaunting their credentials when they run out of logic. I am an FCA, I am an ex-this or that, I know x person from Adam etc, all in order to validate their obviously warped write-ups.

I sincerely hope that this intervention will make Eghes Eyieyen think twice before releasing his hate-filled and divisive pieces in the future. Even in the face of pervasive ignorance in the Nigerian cyberspace, some of us still discern pseudo-intellection when we see one.

Just to tell you that the writer of that article is my friend whom I had replied since last week and he had also read my rejoinder. Knowing him, I know he can go to any extent to fault Sanusi. Despite the millions Renaissance Professionals spent trying to nail Sanusi, you think they woulg not have dug up that if it truly happened? Why did Eghes wait for this long before revealing this if it was true? Eghes only worked from answer to question.

As for SLS calling him, yes he did. He called him and told him he will sue him for libel. Eghes is not SLS friend, but his friends like the newspaper columnist I mentioned are, so it is easy for SLS to hear about what he wrote and call him.

If anybody believes Sanusi radicalized Faruk Muttallab or that he would support religious violence, go and read the following article of SLS

The Adulteress Diary 2001
In defence of father Martin Kukah, 2005
Muslim leaders and the myth of marginalization, 1999
Milk of Kindness: An intellectual engagement with the intellectually challenged 2005

The ironic thing is that while you people see SLS as an Islamic extremist, his people see him as one too-liberal lover of Christians and anti-Islam alongside the likes of Sheu Sani for defending the Christians in his articles, especially at the height of his engagement with Sheikh Jafaar in 2005, when he was almost stoned in Kano.

People can spread misinformation in the land but some of us that have taken our time to research will not stop setting things straight.

Still waiting for answers to some of the well articulated and itemized questions, not interested in attacking the personality of the messanger

SLS shld come out and clear his name, these allegations are not the type anyone can wave aside with his take on issues that are unrelated here. I hope he sues the writer of this piece so we can know who is who.

Can you, Naijaking, itemize the questions, because as far as I know, I have addressed the questions? Also, an enlightenment into the background of the writer, whom I know and also knows me, gives an insight into where he is coming from. That also cannot be discounted.

^^^
Haba, Oga
The questions are clearly listed from #1-8. While an effort to understand the mind frame, personality, or even what the author ate for breakfast maybe important as side show, these listed questions are begin to be answered, and loudly too.

I, alongside one Celestine Mel(a Niger Delta Christian), had engaged Eghes on this article on Facebook and tore it to shreds, and I have also written the above article, but let me spare my time to decontruct it here too.

1. Why did he choose to go to Sudan for his Shariah Doctorate?
What is wrong in going to Sudan, an Islamic country with a well-known university(International University of Khartoum) to study Islamic studies? Is that a crime? Or you want him to go and study Islam in Israel? Or America?

2. Osama Bin Laden was in Sudan about the same time Sanusi was in Sudan. Did they meet in Sudan?
Ibime was in PH around the time Tompolo was there and met him. Is Ibime now a militant?

3. Who were Sanusi's associates, friends, classmates, teachers and Imam in Sudan?
Why do you need to know? That's an insult. Erastus Akingbola and other pastor-CEOs decreed fellowshipping in their public limited liability companies, no hue.

4. Who financed Sanusi's education in Sudan since he was without a job at this time?
Eghes, a senior colleague in Accounting profession, fall my and big time here. I have friends that worked for just 2 years and went abroad to study for 3 years and lived on the income they earned while working. To think Sanusi, who had more than 10 years working experience and already a Bank area manager, before traveling to school in a less expensive Sudan(not America or England), will not have money to sponsor his education is an insult to intellectualism. You see why I called Eghes a pseudo-intellectual?

5. Why has Sanusi been so zealously pro-Shariah implementation in Nigeria as shown in his writings on www.gamji.com? Why can't he as a Nigerian and a Muslim express his views on any issue? By the way, go and read his article, THE ADULTERESS DIARY(November 2001) and come back to tell me whether he supported the northern-governors' Sharia then. In that article, he not only stood behind the sharia-convict, Sefiya Husseini, but also exposed teh hypocrisy of the northern sharia governors who, in their guest houses perpetrated adultery. If anybody read that article and still believes SLS is a fundamentalist, then the person's head needs checking.

6. Is Sanusi's fanatically advocacy of Islamic Banking and the issuance of "Sukuk Sovereign Bonds" by Nigeria merely about Finance?
I am a heavy sucker for news and I remember far back 2005 I have been reading about Islamic banking in Nigeria. Soludo, it was who issued the first guideline on Islamic banking. far back 2008, Soludo sent his deputy, Tunde Lemo, a pastor, to go understudy Islamic banking in Malaysia. I don't know whether you people expect SLS to sweep it under the table when he assumed office. It is people like you that controverted IB by shotuing hoarse and forcing SLS to react to the allegations(what you now call vigour). It is just a regular banking model gaining momentum the world over. If the current CBN governor was not a Muslim, you guys would never have suspected anything. By the way, I read couple of days ago that Germany introduced guidleines for IB.

7. Does Sanusi have any links to Boko Haram especially since he is eager to explain their activities?

7. Does Sanusi have any links to Boko Haram especially since he is eager to explain their activities?
He has never been eager to explain their activities. When he was silent on it all these days, he was accused of complicity. He talked, he was accused of complicity. Haba!
Like SLS told me when I confronted him with this article he is aware of a 'structured attempt to drag him into the debate and Eghes in particular is seeking relevance'.
By the way, Bill Clinton has also stated that poverty in the north bears relationship with the violence there. Maybe he is a Muslim fanatic too. Only ignoramuses that don't know SLS will think SLS will be a party to violence, religious or ethnic. He has debunked religious violence in the past and this quote from him(2001) is anotehr proof:

", Very recently, the Katsina State Government tried to pass Bills banning the sale of alcohol and the operation of LovePeddler-houses in the metropolis. As a consequence of this move (and, it is said, failure of the House to approve the Bill), irate Muslim youth, shouting Allahu Akbar decided to burn not just beer parlours, hotels and whorehouses, but also Christian churches.

“Now, the Qur’an (Hajj. (ch. 22): 40) specifically forbids tearing down monasteries, churches, synagogues and mosques. Yet the leaders of Muslims have not come out strongly enough to condemn this violation of the rights of Christians, nor considered the implications of Christians in turn burning mosques in retaliation. It is also worthy of note, that christian morality does not approve of alcoholism and prostitution.

“A second example is the recent furore over Obasanjo’s appointment of northern Christians into his cabinet. I have elsewhere made my views on this known although several people have branded me, and others like Col. Umar, anti-Islamic or anti-north for not joining this hypocritical farce

“In failing to rise above bigotry and chauvinism, northern Muslims act against injunctions of their faith. The Qur’an expressly preaches freedom of religion [see, for example: Al-Baqarah (ch.2): 256; Yunus (ch.10): 108; Hud (ch.11): 121-122; Kahf(ch18):29; andAl-Ghashiyah (ch.88) :21-24]

It is also pertinent for those who criticize us to recall that Allah specifically instructed that trust and leadership should be given only to those worthy of them and to judge between men with justice (Al-Nisa (ch.4): 58). Also, if anyone believes that false witness should be given for or against a man simply because he is a Muslim or Non-Muslim, he should read [Al-Nisa (ch4): 135; also 105and Al-Ma’idah ((ch.5): 6]. Finally for those who object to our inviting good muslims and good christians to come together and give the poor people of this country the good government preached by both faiths, please read [Al-Imran (ch3): 64] which provides a basis for coming together on common ground.”

- SLS(2001) 'ISSUES IN RESTRUCTURING CORPORATE NIGERIA'

8. Alhaji Abdul Mutallab, the Chairman of Jaiz Bank, former Chairman of First Bank and father of the failed "pants-bomber", is well-known as Sanusi's "god-father". Sanusi was also known to be a mentor and close friend of Abdul Muttalab's terrorist son who was an Al Qaeda recruit. What role did Sanusi play in radicalising this his protege?I am now convinced that Mallam Sanusi is too dangerous a religious extremist and a Jihadist to be in government how much more the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria!

Any top northern banker of SLS generation who doesn't see Alh Muttalab as his father is not worth his salt. It's like a southern banker not having relationship, no matter how far, with Subomi Balogun or Pascal Dozie. These are idols in the trade. Mutallab snr, FCA, FCCA, is an accomplished banker since the 70's, former CEO of UBA in the 80's and until retirement in 2009, Chairman of FBN. One way or the other, directly or indirectly, you would have worked under him and, probably seeing you as an exceptionally brilliant northerner, might have developed personal relationship with you. Is there any offence in that? Now, can Eghes prove that SLS has an extra relationship with Muttalab Jnr, who was a rebel in the family and cut ties with the family for engaging in banking(haram)? You think SLS have time to know all Muttallab's 16 children and relate with them on personal level? You think SLS will ever support terrorism? Or killing? No, you don't know SLS.

As for the Abacha-detention allegation, SLS was in Sudan 1992-1997 and Abacha ruled 1994-98. If anyone believes that ill-concocted allegation, he will believe anything.

@ Jarus,

Like I said earlier, some of the insinuations cannot survive unbiased scrutiny and those include most if not all the questions.
I am actually interested in the incarceration allegation. That's a very weighty allegation which should land the author in prison if it is not true.

O ba pari o, some people will go to any length to discredit the man, Jarus, please copy this response and just paste it on any thread that is started by the anti SLS people, when you listen to Boyo, you know that the man is a professional, he sticks to the issue at hand not petty name calling.

agabaI23:

@ Jarus,

Like I said earlier, some of the insinuations cannot survive unbiased scrutiny and those include most if not all the questions.
I am actually interested in the incarceration allegation. That's a very weighty allegation which should land the author in prison if it is not true.

Good you understand that. The incarceration allegation is a lie and SLS has called him that he will sue him for libel.
Note that this article was not published by any credible newspaper , just the writer who put it in his blog and Facebook note(he has other anti-SLS articles in his FB notes). No credible paper has published it, if it was truth, it would have been major news headlines. Sanusi may truly have had brush with Abacha(he was a strong Abacha critic whom he called 'son of cigar seller in Fagge quarters in Kano' and also a director in Radio Kudirat), but never because of religious violence and I am not aware that he was ever detained.

And, does anyone believe such a thing would have happened and not being in public domain since at least 2009 that SLS has been controversial, not least from Renaissance professionals, who spent hundreds of millions to 'expose' Sanusi?

“There is clearly a direct link between the very uneven nature of distribution of resources and the rising level of violence,” Mr. Sanusi told the Financial Times in an interview, arguing that it was now necessary to focus funds on regenerating other regions if Nigeria wants to secure long-term stability.

@Jarus, some of us have jobs and in my own time I will go through all your write-ups but one small favour, in your words and interpretation, did Sanusi make the above comments in an interview with FT and if he did what is your own interpretation of the statement ?

Jarus:

Good you understand that. The incarceration allegation is a lie and SLS has called him that he will sue him for libel.
Note that this article was not published by any credible newspaper, just the writer who put it in his blog and Facebook note(he has other anti-SLS articles in his FB notes). No credible paper will publish that. Sanusi may truly have had brush with Abacha(he was a strong Abacha critic whom he called 'son of cigar seller in Fagge quarters in Kano' and also a director in Radio Kudirat), but never because of religious violence and I am not aware that he was ever detained.

OK your point noted

RoadStar:

“There is clearly a direct link between the very uneven nature of distribution of resources and the rising level of violence,” Mr. Sanusi told the Financial Times in an interview, arguing that it was now necessary to focus funds on regenerating other regions if Nigeria wants to secure long-term stability.

@Jarus, some of us have jobs and in my own time I will go through all your write-ups but one small favour, in your words and interpretation, did Sanusi make the above comments in an interview with FT and if he did what is your own interpretation of the statement ?

Sorry, some of us are jobless too.

Bill Clinton has same thing thing. Reuters' analysts and reporters have written same thing. Hell was not let loose. SLS offered same view, roof is being brought down.


If you don't agree with them, present your arguments, not labeling(Sanusi only, pitiably) supporter of BH.

My own view: while religious fundamentalism by a few extremists cannot be wished away as a root cause, the rising poverty in the region fueled it by providing, for free, an army of illiterate, vulnerable, easily brainwashable youth for the violence. You can't fault that!

Jarus:

My own view: while religious fundamentalism by a few extremists cannot be wished away as a root cause, the rising poverty in the region fueled it by providing, for free, an army of illiterate, vulnerable, easily brainwashable youth for the violence. You can't fault that!

Has anybody also noticed this similarity: The poverty in the Niger Delta led to militancy. Their own poverty was not as a result of small federal allocation but just pure corruption and greed. That is why I don't totally agree with SLS that just pumpin more money to any region will miraculously eliminate violence.

agabaI23:

@ Jarus,

Like I said earlier, some of the insinuations cannot survive unbiased scrutiny and those include most if not all the questions.
I am actually interested in the incarceration allegation. That's a very weighty allegation which should land the author in prison if it is not true.

It was Soyinka who said there is a religious rivalry btw christians and muslims in Nigeria and it has led to all sort of hate. It was what compromised the 2011 elections; it is presently fueling the BH insurgency and only God knows where it will lead us to next.
The autor of these allegations is a Christian and many of the things he has said many of my christian brethren share the same sentiments. It's very unfortunate.
One of the biggest sins of all time, and arguably unforgivable before God, is to lie against another human being with the aim of tarnishing his image. If SLS was never incacirated by Abacha and that author said he was, he has God, not even the law courts, to contend with.

I am a born-again Christian but I fear where this hate btw Muslims and Christians is leading the nation to. Already we have an incompetent President voted in solely on the basis of his religion and ethnic affilitaiaon. What else is left to happen. We had better end this.

Well done Jarus, for your effort in defending SLS, but God is certain to do better.

I maintain that we must put aside religion to fix this country and then use the tenets of our religion to regulate our conducts in public office to move the country forward. All other issues of contention in religion will not do the country any good; the basic tenets of the two religion if followed religiously are enough to make Nigeria heaven on earth.
Peace!

Drummaboy

Is it possible to clone you like 160 Million times? This is an objective assessment, imagine SLS that is just a CBN governor trying to do the right thing, if Buhari had won nko, the criticism will be OTT.

Really? If its not about religion, why did IBB a muslim northerner register Nigeria in OIC when it has a large percentage (@ least 48%) of Christians, not counting the animists and atheists o!

@Jarus
Thanks for your stout defense of SLS. You almost got me by approaching the questions numerically as stated, unfortunately you forgot the Basic elements of Logical Reasoning. In this undergraduate course work, you're taught that unless you're in a Socrataic environment, any attempt to answer a question with another question is either a fallacy or a red-herring. A lot of folks here a way too educated to be misled with a fallacy. We know when you answer the questions and when you lunch a verbal counter-attack.

Even if he is right, the north will defend him with their life. You people don't understand politics. It could have been deleted from their records. Abegi

naijaking1:

@Jarus
Thanks for your stout defense of SLS. You almost got me by approaching the questions numerically as stated, unfortunately you forgot the Basic elements of Logical Reasoning. In this undergraduate course work, you're taught that unless you're in a Socrataic environment, any attempt to answer a question with another question is either a fallacy or a red-herring. A lot of folks here a way too educated to be misled with a fallacy. We know when you answer the questions and when you lunch a verbal counter-attack.

I not almost, I got you and Eghes.
I didn't commit redherring, neither did I violate basics of logic. In all the questions, I raised my points/answers, only buttressed with questions that border on obvious. Accept you and Eghes(the article writer) have run out of logic.

Jarus:

I not almost, I got you and Eghes.
I didn't commit redherring, neither did I violate basics of logic. In all the questions, I raised my points/answers, only buttressed with questions that border on obvious. Accept you and Eghes(the article writer) have run out of logic.

Somehow I misunderstood you for some sort of intellectual defender of Sanusi's philosophy, but I forgot that in Nigeria people don't know the difference between an attack dog and an intellectual defender.
If you look at the list of questions submitted by the author, you have not done Sanusi one ounce of favor, because you have not bothered to answer simple and basic questions such as where he had been for a whole 2 years of his resume, at a time the author purpoted that the Sanusi was in detention. He stated and implied that if Sanusi had not embelished and fabricated his resume the senate would not have passed him.
As an attack dog, your response was simply to attack, attack, and attack the personalty of the messanger, not the message. I guess, you know there's truth in the message.

Can you tell me the missing period because this is Sanusi's whole adult ife and it is in public space

81-83. ABU Zaria Msc
83-85 - ABU Zaria, Lectiurer
85-92 - iCON Merchant Bank, rising to become Area Manager
92-97 - International University, Khartoum, Sudan
97-2005, UBA, rising to become GM
2005-2009 FBN, rising to become CEO
2009 to date, CBN

Oya, tell us another story?

Jarus:

Sorry, some of us are jobless too.

Bill Clinton has same thing thing. Reuters' analysts and reporters have written same thing. Hell was not let loose. SLS offered same view, roof is being brought down.
If you don't agree with them, present your arguments, not labeling(Sanusi only, pitiably) supporter of BH.
My own view: while religious fundamentalism by a few extremists cannot be wished away as a root cause, the rising poverty in the region fueled it by providing, for free, an army of illiterate, vulnerable, easily brainwashable youth for the violence. You can't fault that!

It is shocking that you and Sanusi see incidence of poverty in the north as being caused by lack of extra funds from the government. Apart from the ND, the revenue allocation to the North is comparable to that of the SW, SE, and middle belt , in most cases even higher. see thread being discussed right now on NL https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-872313.0.html.

U can see that among the top 18 states 8 are from the north While ONLY 1 is from the SE.
Are you trying to say that it would be understandable if the SE should resort to terrorism ?

It is disgusting that Sanusi compares the North to ND and omits comparison to the SE which by the way is the region with one of the lowest federal allocation and still with the lowest poverty rates in Nigeria.

That the Oil producing states are given part of their god given wealth is seen as abnormal and unjust.

Soludo pointed out in a speach in Kaduna (High poverty is northern phenomenon) cited that a failure in leadership and a complete neglect of Education in the North as being the root cause of poverty in the north.This statement from Soludo was highly detested by northern leadership .

Imo state produces more JAMB applicants than the whole 16 northern states put together, in ur own opinion isn't education big enough to impact the poverty level in those regions ?

You are partly right , poverty breeds not only terrorism but all sorts of vices including armed robbery and prostitution. Are you saying that they too be excused ?

This excuse by the likes of your obviously learned self and Sanusi is sad .
I weep for Nigeria.

Has anybodt said it is an excuse? SLS never gave it as excuse or justification, neither did Clinton.

Explaining something is not giving excuse for it.

By the way, I don't hold that opinion, mind you.

@Jarus, I was expecting u to honour the request in the comment below by giving us ur own interpretation of the bolded atleast.

RoadStar:

“There is clearly a direct link between the very uneven nature of distribution of resources and the rising level of violence,” Mr. Sanusi told the Financial Times in an interview, arguing that it was now necessary to focus funds on regenerating other regions if Nigeria wants to secure long-term stability.

@Jarus, some of us have jobs and in my own time I will go through all your write-ups but one small favour, in your words and interpretation, did Sanusi make the above comments in an interview with FT and if he did what is your own interpretation of the statement ?

i av gone thru ur replies but it i can't see any direct answer.