Nigeria's president Goodluck Jonathan may have been badly advised when he chose to effectively fire the governor of his country's central bank. Lamido Sanusi had alleged that more than $20 billion of Nigeria oil income had been syphoned off illegally and found its way abroad. Sanusi produced considerable documentation to back up the allegations, in the main against officials at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. The reaction of the corporation was that the Central Bank governor had “ little understanding of the technicalities of the oil industry”. That may well be the case but nevertheless the Senate, to which Sanusi brought his allegations, it talking about holding a proper investigation. The NNPC ought to be welcoming any enquiry which will help it explain the apparent $20 billion black hole in its receipts. If the central bank governor is in any way right in his assertions, this loss is not the only sum of which the Nigerian government and therefore the people, are being deprived. Crude oil is being stolen on an industrial scale from pipelines and terminals and being carried away in tankers. Nigeria has an unenviable reputation for corruption. Successive generations of politicians have arrived in power with promises to clean up. Anti-graft supremos have been appointed, and all to soon been fired, if it appeared that they were taking the job too seriously. With the arrival of president Jonathan, it really did seem that a change was in the air. The promises he made to crack down on corruption were widely believed. Among those who are supporting him for re-election next year, there remains a widespread conviction that at last Nigeria has the leader who will break the power of the country's apparent kleptocracy. It is pointed out that Jonathan became president in 2010 when his predecessor Umaru Yar'Adua died. A year later he was elected in his own right. But supporters say that it is only if he can win an overwhelming mandate next year, that he will feel himself strong enough to institute long-overdue widespread financial and administrative reforms. Unfortunately Jonathan's response to his whistle-blowing central banker would seem to tarnish that promise. For a start, the president sought to fire Sanusi outright, only to be advised that the legislature alone had the power to remove a sitting governor. So instead a procedural move was used to suspend him. This dogged focus on getting rid of a difficult official has not looked good for the president. It is being asked, with some justice, why, instead of shooting the messenger, he is not paying close attention to the message and checking out the volumes of data that Sanusi provided to back his graft allegations. Jonathan's position is made the more difficult because of the high international reputation that Sanusi enjoys in financial circles. He is credited with restoring a strong degree of coherence to the country's chaotic banking and financial system. His achievement has earnt him international awards and boosted investor confidence in Nigeria. All this is now at risk and with it potentially the value of the currency, the niara, which is already weakening against the dollar. It may not be too late for Jonathan to reverse this own goal. He could reinstate Sanusi, whose terms finishes in June anyway, and publicly fire those officials who advised him to make such a disastrous move in the first place.
