By Remi Oyeyemi

No change of circumstances can repair a defect of character.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson, (1803 – 1882), American Essayist and Poet

The recent allegations against Nigeria’s Central Bank Governor, Alhaji Sanusi Lamido Sanusi should not come as a surprise to those who have been observing him. Deciphered, Sanusi, a child of privilege, has always exuded some odious intellectual pretensions.

Obviously vacuous as an economist, a review of his works showed that[b] he has had more writings on Sharia than he has had on economics[/b]. Sanusi, a grandson of late Emir of Kano, Alhaji Mohammmadu Sanusi, who ruled from 1954 to 1963, had his path well paved for him to attain great heights by virtue of his birth and not necessarily by his ability. Sanusi’s father, Muhammad Lamido Sanusi, himself a child of privilege, was a permanent secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the early 1960s after serving as Nigerian Ambassador to Canada, Belgium and China.

The fact that someone like Sanusi could become the governor of Nigeria’s Central Bank only shows the misfortune of merit in Nigeria. Sanusi prides himself as a “Fulani nobleman.” There is nothing wrong about being proud of your heritage and lineage. But to appropriate undue opportunities that are not readily available to others is not just a cardinal sin but a height of injustice. We are all aware that there are no equal abilities, but there has to be equal opportunities. His becoming the CBN governor is an attestation to his “noble roots,” that some of us deem feudalistic, oppressive and antithetical to social justice. It has nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with his ability.

It is only a son of a Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a grandson of an Emir like Sanusi, who could be a lecturer in Economics in a tertiary institution with a Bachelor’s degree which is not even First Class in the 1980s of Nigeria. This could happen only in a Northern controlled Ahmadu Bello University, where Southerners are treated in worse manners than the Lebanese or other genre of Arabs. With an economist of his pedigree in 1983 (graduated with his Bachelor in 1981 and probably did his NYSC in 1982), it is better imagined what the unfortunate students that went through him endured for the two years of his tenure as a lecturer.

In writing this piece, I scavenged for academic /intellectual papers on Economics and or related fields that could be ascribed to Sanusi, the man who governs our CBN, but could not lay my hand on any. I am appealing to any member of the public or academia who might be aware or has access to any of such papers to please make them public for rigorous overview and evaluation. The only two papers, to which he has appended his name in the field of economics that I am aware of as of now, are now subject to litigation resulting from alleged plagiarism.

Sanusi is probably, more or less an “Islamic scholar,” if his scanty work in this regard is enough to earn him the sobriquet. Through my search on the internet, the following papers are what he has delivered in the public domain on Islam:

1. Institutional Framework of Zakat: Dimension and Implications
(Delivered at a Conference in Kaduna in 2000)

2. Basic Needs and Redistributive Justice in Islam – The Panacea to Poverty in Nigeria.
(Delivered at a Seminar in Abuja in 2001)
3. The Hudhood Punishments in Northern Nigeria: A Muslim Criticism.
(Published in October 2002 – the particular paper was not referenced)

4. The Shari'a Debate and the Construction of a 'Muslim' Identity in Northern Nigeria: A Critical Perspective (Presented at a seminar at the University of Bayreuth, Germany, in July 2003).

5. Democracy, Rights and Islam: Theory, Epistemology and the Quest for Synthesis (Presented in August 2003 at an international conference on Shari'ah Penal and Family Law in Nigeria and in the Muslim World: A Rights-Based Approach in Abuja)

Preconditioned by his origin and lineage, Sanusi is a dangerous conservative, who pretends that he has mentally crossed into modernity, but is evidently cocooned in his feudalistic tapestry. He is a bogus modernist who reads and interprets all political, economic, social and religious issues with a mind shackled with anachronism. Yes, Ralph Waldo Emerson was right, “No change of circumstances can repair a defect of character. “

To understand the shallowness of his mind, one only needs to look back at his rationalization of the Boko Haram challenge which he attributed to that of unequal distribution of national wealth to the disadvantage of the Hausa Fulani dominated North, a wobbly explanation that could only emanate from an intellectually feeble mind. Thank goodness, Ross Alabo-George in his pulsating piece “Derivation and deprivation: Why the North is poor,” put a lie to the statistical fraud of Sanusi.

It was the same way that he (Sanusi) had moronically echoed the narcissistic, ungrateful, and ideologically confused Balarabe Musa, the former governor of Kaduna State, by suggesting that “the Yoruba leaders are the problem of Nigeria,” because the Yoruba leaders would not subscribe to the moribund, exploitative and subjugating feudalistic tendencies of his Fulani oligarchy. He spoke as if he was the only one who knew the history of Nigeria as he tried to play a game of “divide and rule,” trying to drive a wedge between the Yoruba and Ndigbo.
A fake nationalist and small minded bureaucrat, he had engaged in selective cleansing of the banking sector as he witch-hunted everyone who is not a Northerner. No one is making excuses for those who are corrupt, but can anyone, who is familiar with the contemporary history of Nigeria, make a case that it is only in the South that we have corrupt bankers?
As much as he tried, he could not overcome his arrogance imbued by his “Born to Rule” mentality. A mentality that makes him feels superior to the rest of us and thus endows him with the right to give unto anyone that catches his fancy, our collective wealth, without any legislative approval. He went ahead to donate money to alleged victims of Boko Haram in Kano, several months after many Igbo, Yoruba and other Southern women across the North, had become widows and their children, orphans. He did not deem them deserving of our collective wealth to assuage their sorrows inflicted by his deranged group, Boko Haram.

Yet, these are the people he was trying to pitch against each other in his infamous effort to attribute the problem of Nigeria to Yoruba leaders forgetting that his distant uncles in Sokoto and Balewa villages were the ones calling the shots from October 1, 1960, and with their arrogance and incompetence led us into a situation that resulted in the Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970).

This is apart from the fact that this kind of exercise – donating our money to victims of violence – could not have been part of the statutory functions of a Central Bank Governor. Thus, if such a man was found to have plagiarized another man’s work, it would not be a surprise. But we await the judgment of the courts.

Brilliant Objective Well researched nice work Mr Oyeyemi things are much worse for under sanusi at the helm of cbn compared to soludo's time. Hv u observed cbn's silence to lai mohammed/saraki fraud case? The same crooks that were appointed to steer intercontinental bank after disposing its founder and ceo erastus akingbola a christian and major financier of free daily devotionals

No matter how much the north will want to paint issues they can never ever make sense. Brilliant, fluid and well essayed!

Uhmm! I lik d analysis, so blantant and point out facts. I am muslim bt i dnt suport any ideas dat contributed to destroy others in order to make ur own higher. Such an ideals is unislamic, i want u pple to take note of dis dat somnortners ar not fightin in favour of islam bt hijack islam principles to atack others. For exampl, “fight wherever u meet infidels“ d questn is fight dose fight u not dose who ar nt practisin ur religion bt dose who plot agains u. Does dat relate to kilin christian? No is unislamic. Allah says; dere is no compulsion in religion. I see bokoharam and deir allianc as tyrant who hijack flag of islam as camouflage in oder to achiev politicle power. I pray may GOD give us gud leader either younger or older.

i have said it before and will say it again. Sanusi lamido sanusi is a very efficient and effective tool in the hand of the devil.
Heading the cbn with a low grade bsc only, and a bag of sharia cefikitakes.

Una nefa tire? Sanusi is the CBN governor whether you guys like it or not, hope the guy will not give you people high blood pressure.

The article was dripping with malice. The writer felt CBN wasnt statutorily empowered to carry corporate responsibilities yet he felt the faulty donation didn't get to the "right" people which is ethnically defined.

The article omitted his experience in the banking sector, and presumed Sanusi was a bad teacher. Also be particularly interested in theology equals to fanaticism.

The North is badly impoverished and wretched with the highest level of illiteracy in the country, coupled with the intricacies of religion will result to fanaticism. Which everyone is suffering from.

Corrupt bankers have no case, including those with that publish free devotional. Remi's article is nothing but cheap bad xenophobic authorship

Choi! Verbal beat-down!

Kay 17: The article was dripping with malice. The writer felt CBN wasnt statutorily empowered to carry corporate responsibilities yet he felt the faulty donation didn't get to the "right" people which is ethnically defined.

The article omitted his experience in the banking sector, and presumed Sanusi was a bad teacher. Also be particularly interested in theology equals to fanaticism.

The North is badly impoverished and wretched with the highest level of illiteracy in the country, coupled with the intricacies of religion will result to fanaticism. Which everyone is suffering from.

Corrupt bankers have no case, including those with that publish free devotional. Remi's article is nothing but cheap bad xenophobic authorship

Was he a banker before he became a teacher? You also did not deem it fit to say anything about CBN's criminal silence on the on-going allegations against Saraki and Mohammed a la Intercontinental Bank. If an Erastus had committed such gaffe you would have seen our 'esteemed professor' pontificating on why some criminals running the banking sector such be pilloried. Of course those things don't matter!