How Donation To Buhari Landed Sanusi In Trouble With Jonathan

Beyond his criticism of Federal Government’s policies and revelation on the $20 billion missing oil money, the suspended governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, actually ran into trouble over his romance and funding of opposition leaders.

A source in the Presidency told New Telegraph that President Goodluck Jonathan was miffed over Sanusi’s activities with the opposition. The source noted that in the build up to the 2011 presidential election, Sanusi made donation to the presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Major- General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd).

Jonathan was said to have invited Sanusi to the Villa to explain the motive behind the donation to Buhari’s presidential campaign. It was learnt that Sanusi admitted that he only made a N20 million donation to Buhari to advance his course because of the relationship the former Head of State had with his family, especially his uncle. But a source said the President had evidence of Sanusi donating more than N100 million to Buhari’s campaign.

“Ever since the donation was made, the president has been mindful of Sanusi’s political inclination. We see him as more of opposition than being part of the government. If a sitting Central Bank governor could be making donation to a presidential candidate in an election, then you should begin to suspect,” a presidential aide told New Telegraph.

Sanusi was also accused of awarding contracts to opposition leaders. A presidential aide gave two instances of such contracts. One, a N5 billion contract was reportedly awarded to a former minister and leading opposition figure. Another set of contracts worth over N15 billion were also awarded to a former governor. The former state chief executive was instrumental to Sanusi’s appointment and that of another head of government financial institution during the late Umaru Yar’Adua administration.

“This is seen as a measure to fund the opposition leaders against the president. There are several of such instances,” a source said Also, Jonathan was said to have given up on Sanusi after security report indicted him of providing sensitive documents to those perceived as “enemies of government.”

The report also provided details of several nocturnal meetings Sanusi held with opposition leaders both in Nigeria and abroad. The details of a meeting Sanusi held with Buhari, a former governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and other opposition leaders in London recently were leaked to the president. “The details of the meeting and several of such showed that the suspended CBN governor was on a mission to bring the government down. You can’t be an employee of government and at the same time you want to bring it down. You have to be shown the way out.

More so that he has a case to answer over the running of the apex bank,” an aide of the president said. Sanusi has remained in Lagos since his suspension last week. It was learnt that prominent opposition figures have been providing support for him and holding meetings with him. On the timing of Sanusi’s suspension after he had revealed that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) could not account for $20 billion oil money, another source in the Presidency said “government can act anytime, irrespective of the circumstances.” The source noted that Sanusi has been under probe for almost two years now. He said the probe into Sanusi’s activities started from complaints by senior officials of the apex bank “who felt that Sanusi’s style of administration, especially financial recklessness might hurt the economy.”