Lamido Sanusi, a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has demanded a proper audit of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) to solve Nigeria’s persistent foreign exchange crisis.
Sanusi also kicked against the President playing the role of a petroleum minister in Nigeria.
He made this call while delivering his address at the ongoing Bank Directors’ Summit in Abuja.
According to him, insisting on the probe of NNPCL allegedly cost him his job as the CBN governor, a position he held from June 2009 to February 2014.
He noted that NNPCL, the government’s major foreign exchange earner, is the sole solution to the country’s persistent forex exchange crisis.
“The exchange rate needs to be stabilised, and we must address the fundamental question: why is there no money coming in? Why is the NNPCL not able to bring in dollars?
“I am sorry, this is the question that cost me my job, and I will continue asking this question until NNPCL fixes it up or until I die. Where are the dollars? We need to shine a light on the NNPCL.
“We are no longer paying subsidies, so where are the dollars? It was under recovery during the subsidy era, and that has been stopped, so where is the money? This was the issue I raised for which I was suspended; well, you can suspend me again.
“The NNPCL is the most opaque oil company in the world. They have not been audited when I was in the Central Bank for 15 years,” he said.
He stressed that appointing a substantive minister of petroleum will help check the excesses of NNPCL.
“By the way, let me advise you that the idea of the President becoming a petroleum minister is not a good one. The last President was the minister of Petroleum for eight years.
“When I was governor of the Central Bank, we had a minister of petroleum, so when I talked about the NNPCL, I could attack Diezani Madueke.
“Now, nobody can talk about Petroleum because for eight years, if you talk, you have been attacking the President. We need that buffer; somebody has to be there, so a minister who is held accountable by Nigerians has to be there,” he added.
DAILY POST recalls that since the emergence of ex-president Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to the Tinubu government, the substantive minister of Petroleum has remained the President.
Probe NNPCL to end forex crisis – Sanusi
