A former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Prof. Tam David-West,
has thrown his weight behind the refusal of the governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, to resign from office. David-West, who hailed Sanusi’s decision while speaking with The Nation on telephone yesterday, said he supports him “completely” on his decision to stay till the end of his tenure in June.
The embattled CBN boss had insisted he would not resign in spite of the alleged directive from the Presidency to do so. He has been embroiled in a controversy over his claim of some alleged unremitted revenue totalling $49.8 billion by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Rather than force the CBN boss to resign, David-West said the Presidency should apologize to him for embarrassing him because it was his revelation that eventually made Nigerians know that up to $12 billion is still missing going by the last audit of Sanusi’s claims by all relevant government agencies. He said: “I read with great elation Sanusi’s refusal to resign on the front page of The Nation yesterday.
I support him completely. Sanusi must not resign for the sake of the country and for his own good name. I have interacted with four CBN governors, including Sanusi and I make bold to say that he is one of the best. This is vindicated by his many international awards which are a credit to Nigeria. “Why the President wants him to resign is because of the controversial $49.8 billion which he said was not remitted to the federation account.
It is a stupid reason to give. The Presidency should be ashamed. Sanusi did not lie. Granted that after all the different government agencies tried to reconcile the figure, it was still said that $12 billion is still missing. He has done a lot of good job for the country. “Sanusi must not resign. The nation should commend him, and the President should apologize for embarrassing him. Without him, we would not have known that $12 billion is missing. He has done no wrong.”
