By Joseph Erunke, Abuja
Former President, Goodluck Jonathan, Thursday, denied that the sum of $49.8 billion was lost from government treasuries during his tenure.
He insisted that no amount was missing, noting that the allegation was made up by the then leadership of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.
Recall that the current Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, was the then governor of the nation’s apex bank.
The former president spoke during the launch of the book, “Public Policy and Agents Interests: Perspectives from the Emerging World,’’ co-authored by former Minister of Finance, Shamshudeen Usman, who served as Minister of Planning under his government.
Insisting that no such amount was lost in his government, he publicly told attendees at the event,one of whom was the 16th Emir of Kano, that an internationally recognised audit firm engaged to probe the missing amount gave the administration a clean bill of health.
The former president was responding to the contribution of the former CBN boss, who had claimed in the book both of them reviewed, that he was booted out of CBN’s leadership for exposing the disappearance of a certain amount from government’s coffers.
In the book, Sanusi made reference to the development which he claimed led to his sack as CBN governor.
But Jonathan, who chaired the book launch, in his opening remark, said as much as he agreed with the concept of the book and recommended it for research and policy framing, he, however, disagreed with Sanusi’s claim on the missing $49.8billion.
The former president, who said Sanusi was not sacked but suspended, said there was no way such a huge amount would be stolen in Nigeria and the impact won’t be felt.
He said for a country whose budget was about $31 billion at the time, it was impossible for the funds to have been stolen from the country’s purse.
Jonathan also recounted how he was confronted by then President of Germany, Angela Merkel, over the matter and that he explained that such money couldn’t have been stolen from a struggling country.
He said,”Let mention that I did not agree completely with some issues raised by one of the contributors. But I don’t intend to join issues because he is our royal father. And he is here.
“The one he raised that he was sacked because he blew a whistle that the Federal Government lost $49.8billion is not quite correct. He was not sacked, he was suspended because the Financial Reporting Council queried the expenditure of CBN. And there were serious infractions that needed to be looked at. That was the reason. But somehow, the time was short. So before we finished, his tenure elapsed. Probably, he would have been called back.
“On the issue of $49.8billion, till today, I am not convinced that the Federal Government lost $49.8 billion.
“And that year, our budget was $31.6 billion. So for a country that had a budget of $31.6 billion to lose about $50 billion and salaries were paid, nobody felt anything. The researchers that wrote this book need to do further research.
“And more so, when our revered royal father came up with the figures. First $49.8 billion, later $20 billion and later $12 billion. I don’t even know the correct one”.
He said he was vindicated about the claim the after the former CBN governor began to change the narrative from $49bn to $20bn and later $12bn.
Jonathan further added that Price Water Coopers (PWC) which investigated the matter revealed that no such amount was stolen but that $1.48bn could not be accounted for by the NNPC at the time.
He also recalled that the then Senate committee on Finance, led by Senator Ahmed Makarfi, investigated the issue and found the claims unfounded.
The event also witnessed the formal unveiling of the Shamsuddeen Usman Foundation,SUF, founded and registered by Dr Usman’s children in his honour and dedicated to the promotion of education and Artificial Intelligence,AI,in the country.
At the time of filing this report, the reverred emir was yet to speak at the event he features as the Royal Father of the Day.
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