Close to two and a half years after his letter, which was referenced by former President Olusegun Obasanjo in another letter to former President Goodluck Jonathan on the non-remittance of $49.8 billion by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to the treasury was leaked, the Emir of Kano and former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Alhaji Muhammad Sanusi II, has finally admitted to what was long been an open secret in government and political circles and has been admitted by the former Rivers State Governor, Chibuike Amaechi.
Emir of Kano, in an interview with Forbes Africa magazine, admitted that Amaechi who is now the Minister of Transportation, was responsible for leaking Obasanjo’s letter to Jonathan on the “missing” $49.8 billion. Amaechi has also long been suspected for leaking Sanusi’s letter to Jonathan on the same issue.
Sanusi, as the CBN governor, had written to Jonathan to raise the alarm over billions of dollars from oil sales between January 2013 and July 2013 that had not been remitted to the Federation Account by NNPC.
In the said letter, he alleged that an estimated $49.8 billion had not been remitted to the Federation Account, which was strenuously denied by NNPC and the then Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke.
As the outrage over his revelation grew, he was later to revise the figure to $12 billion and $10 billion, before settling for $20 billion at a public hearing held by the Senate to investigate his allegation.
Chief Obasanjo then followed up with his own letter titled: “Before It is Too Late”, which was published in full by online newspaper, Premium Times, before it was republished by other outlets.
Sanusi was later suspended as the CBN governor, but a few months later was enthroned as the Emir of Kano while he was in court seeking that his suspension be declared illegal.
Sanusi, in the interview, revealed that Jonathan did nothing until Obasanjo wrote him the letter.
The emir also said Ben Bruce, the senator representing Bayelsa East, told him that he had it on good authority that Jonathan would jail him over the affair.
Narrating the “missing” funds saga to Forbes, Sanusi said in 2012 and 2013, government revenue collapsed by $10 billion, without a collapse in oil prices or production capacity, adding that the CBN found a $49 billion revenue gap.
Shocked at the revelation, Sanusi said he wrote Jonathan, saying: “If this continues, we are going to have a big problem if the price of oil came down. We can’t protect interest rates, we can’t protect exchange rates, we can’t protect reserves.
“We may have to tighten money to prevent inflation, there will be unemployment, government will suffer – all of the things we are seeing today.”
Sanusi said nothing was done until Obasanjo wrote his famous open letter to Jonathan. In that letter, he referred to a letter from the central bank governor.
“This was in August 2013, the president received the letter and did nothing. A few weeks after that, the finance minister called to say, governor, can we do some reconciliation on oil revenue numbers? I said minister, I report to the president.
“I have written to the president, if the president wants me to sit with you and do reconciliation, the president will tell me.
“After Obasanjo’s letter, all hell now broke loose. The letter was then leaked to online media, and it became public. That was when the president got angry and we then had to sit and do reconciliation,” he said in the interview with Forbes.