Forensic Accountant, Adeyemo Petitions Presidency Over Sanusi,CBN

Ori Adeyemo

The presidency has been petitioned on alleged regressive and obnoxious policies and practices of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) by a forensic accounting professional. The petitioner, Mr.  Ori Adeyemo in a letter addressed to President Goodluck Jonathan, accused the Governor of the Central Bank, Sanusi Lamido of gross misconduct and wrong policy implementation. The petitioner asked for his immediate sack as he described Sanusi as not meaning well for the Nigerian economy ever since he became CBN governor.

Insurbordination, cancellation of ceiling on lending rate, illegal bank charges, low interest on savings, the cashless banking policy and the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) are amongst other reasons the petitioner is asking for Sanusi’s dismissal. The 14 page letter had some supporting documents including a 2009 letter from the presidency directing the CBN Governor to investigate the alleged admission of FINbank to having stolen over N160m from one of its customers, Pabe Oil & Gas. According to the petitioner, Sanusi was ordered by the Late President Umaru Yaradua on the 2^nd of November,2009 to look into the matter, ‘to our greatest surprise, till date the CBN Governor has not deemed it fit to call us for the resolution of the issues raised in our petition which action undeniably amounts to crass in subordination and total disrespect to lawfully constituted authority’. Mr.  Adeyemo argues that ‘it is immaterial whether Alhaji Umar Yar’Adua is late however we are aware that he took the decision in his capacity as the Head of State of Nigeria and whose instructions must be obeyed.  Would Malam Sanusi Lamido Sannusi have ignored late Alhaji Umar Yar’Adua’s order had the man been alive today?  The answer is apparently NO!’

Adeyemo also frowns seriously at the cancellation of lending rates  by Sanusi in 2009. He feels this is highly injurious to the Nigerian Economy and wonders why banks will lend out money to customers at spurious rates, in some cases as high as 50%, ‘’how do you want people to pay back?”.  He mentioned that a reversion to a regulated interest rate in Nigeria tagged to the prevailing CBN Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) would suffice to prevent undue accumulation of irrecoverable, toxic and spurious bank debt.

On the issue of AMCON, Adeyemo  explained it as a cover up to the various fraud within the banking industry by Sanusi and the CBN, ‘If you want to hear the holistic truth, AMCON can never recover any debt sum from anybody because the purported toxic assets bought over by AMCON ab initio is fraudulently contrived and aggregated by the banks.  Rather, AMCON has bought over life-snuffing liabilities in the form of contingent liability that would soon crystallize in due course through the legal system, which would ultimately extinguish life out of the moribund AMCON and also take along with it those of the colluding fraudulent banks’.

On Islamic banking, Adeyemo was quite vocal. He describes the CBN policy on this form of banking as insensitive and could pit one religion against the other. ‘We are aware that there is a provision for non-interest banking license issuance in the Nigerian banking industry.  However, our grouse with the Sanusi Lamido Sanusi led CBN is why would the CBN be using tax-payers’ money to fund, finance and advertise the Islamic Banking stuff to the detriment of the global non-interest banking of which it is part thereof?
Or, why would the CBN issue different criteria for Islamic Banking and a different set of industry codes for other forms of non-interest banks thereby making special the Islamic Banking with the ultimate effect of pitting one religion against another?’.

The current low savings interest regime of the CBN is another source of worry for Adeyemo and those who are in the same school of thought. He feels that the margin between the lending and savings rate is too high.  ‘Savings we know is one of the bedrock of any economy, the USA and BRITAIN rely on this heavily.
In the years past and up to the 1990s; savings used to be a source of earning extra income the contrary is the case with Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi led CBN that is taking every known steps in killing the savings culture in Nigeria thereby preventing the country to creating wealth.
It scream to high heavens that your citizen with a total of about N2,000,000.00 in his or her saving account will only earn about 1%-3%pa, the same bank will lend that saving to another citizen of yours at 25%p.a. thereby making a kill.  The question is this: how many other Nigerians have the opportunity to make this sort of margin on their daily business and unlike the banks?’. Adeyemo further described this as ‘voodoo banking’.

The cashless policy scheme was also challenged in the petition with the petitioner stating that “it was time bomb waiting to explode as it is surely going to fail’’. Adeyemo during an interview with the media said he would not relent until the CBN governor is sacked and all the faulty policies of the CBN were reversed.

February 26, 2012