Thursday 8 March 2012

House of Reps Probe CBN's Boko Haram Donations

Allafrica

Abuja — House of Representatives yesterday tongue-lashed the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sanusi Lamido Sanusi over his alleged misuse of public funds in assisting victims of Boko Haram bombings in Kano, Madalla and other interventions that were not within the constitutional purview of the bank.

The House also mandated its Committee on Banking and Currency to investigate the propriety or otherwise of the interventionist posturing of the nation's apex bank and report back to it within four weeks.

The resolution was sequel to a motion brought to the House by Hon. Uzo Azubuike, alleging misuse of public funds by Sanusi.

Leading the debate on the motion, the law-maker noted that many lives and property had been lost as a result of incessant bomb attacks by the Boko Haram Islamic sect. he also noted that the conditions of the victims and their families are pitiable and calls for assistance from the relevant and rightful agencies of Government saddled with the responsibility of providing relief in emergency situations.

Azubuike however, pointed out that amongst the numerous functions of the Central Bank of Nigeria as provided in the CBN Act 2007, building of infrastructural projects, provision of emergency relief and engaging in philanthropic gestures towards victims of natural disasters and crimes are not inclusive.

He further reminded the House that the CBN had in recent times misused public funds by earmarking on functions clearly outside its mandate; with particular reference to the N100 million donation for building of a bridge in University of Benin as well as N200 million donations to victims of bomb attacks in Kano and Madalla.

The legislator expressed concern that this action of the CBN boss amounted to usurpation of the functions of other agencies of government, describing it as inherently unlawful.

He also recalled that Sanusi Lamido Sanusi in the past released sums of money totaling about N650 billion from public funds to distressed banks.

The Aba-born parliamentarian cautioned that individuals should not be allowed to institutionalize themselves in public offices, saying that Sanusi has been acting without drawing a boundary between the CBN as an institution and himself as an individual managing the establishment.

He said the CBN Governor ought to have allowed the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and other relevant agencies of government to perform the function of assisting disaster victims.

Quoting from a comprehensive research done on the CBN Act, the law-maker stated emphatically that there was nothing in the law that empowered the apex bank or its Governor to take over the responsibilities of other agencies of Government.

Contributing to the debate, the Minority leader of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila stressed that the CBN is a regulatory agency whose responsibility is to regulate monetary policies of the nation, saying that it is neither a charity organization nor a donor agency.

He observed that Sanusi was making himself more powerful than the President of the nation because the President is not empowered by the law to spend such huge sums of money without the approval of the National Assembly.

Gbajabiamila noted that there was nothing like corporate social responsibility upon which the CBN boss hinged his power for providing assistance and embarking on releases for infrastructural development.

He further expressed concern that the same CBN Governor who accused the national Assembly of wasting public fund was deeply involved in unauthorized spending of the nation's funds.

Hon. Haruna Goni from Yobe State, in his contribution, noted that his state and some other states across the federation at one time or another experienced disasters without Sanusi extending assistance to them.

Condemning the action of the CBN boss vehemently, Goni noted that his selective assistance to Kano, Madalla and others was an act of terrorism in itself.

Zakari Mohammed observed that the House was not against assistance to the needy people in the society but implored the House to call Sanusi to order and compel him to restrict himself to his constitutional mandate.

When the Speaker put it to voice vote, the motion was overwhelmingly supported and passed.

But this did not go down well with some opponents of the motion particularly Reps from Kano state. Comrade Aminu Suleiman accused the Speaker of not allowing the opponents to express their views.

Tambuwal however refuted the allegation, saying that they did not raise their hands when he called for members to argue against the motion. This generated a lot of controversy as some of them made attempts to physically attack the proponents of the motion.

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