Twenty minutes to midnight on February 25, 2013, and a day before the board of the Central Bank of Nigeria was due to meet, Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi developed a craving for romance—he badly needed a kiss.
The governor, married with children, grabbed his mobile phone and typed out a message. “Maybe you should come kiss me before board meeting tomorrow,” Mr Sanusi wrote and then squeezed the send button.
At about 9 a.m. the next day, Mrs. Maryam Yaro, a married mother of two, an Assistant Director and subordinate to the governor at the CBN, arrived at Sanusi’s unnamed Abuja hotel, seeking to keep the date and help address his boss’ craving for a kiss. (Insiders say board members, including those who live in Abuja, are usually lodged in hotels ahead of board meetings).
But by the time Mrs. Yaro left the hotel to return to her official desk at the CBN, the duo had also struck out an arrangement to spend the rest of the week together in Lagos.
So, in the evening of Wednesday February 27, Mrs. Yaro flew to Lagos ahead of Mr. Sanusi and checked into a hotel in the city, skipping work, at taxpayer’s expenses, on Thursday February 28 and Friday, March 1.
To keep faith with Mrs. Yaro’s date, the CBN governor arrived Lagos, travelling on a chattered flight, on the night of February 28, and checked into the Federal Palace Hotel, passage and boarding all at taxpayers expenses.
Both Mr. Sanusi and Mrs. Yaro rendezvoused in the hotel till Sunday when both of them returned to Abuja, PREMIUM TIMES learnt.
“…I had such a wonderful weekend,” Mrs. Yaro confessed to the governor while aboard her Abuja-bound flight. “You have revived in me what I thought I lost long ago. I thought I lost the passion to love again,” she claimed.
“Alhamdulillahi. Love you,” Mr. Sanusi responded in a measured tone.
Insiders say repeated violation of the statutory code of conduct for public office holders such as hiring his girlfriends and mistresses without complying with public service rules, dating married and unmarried women within the bank, and flirting with them during official work hours have become defining characters of Mr. Sanusi’s governorship of the central bank.
An official of the bank spoke of how Mr. Sanusi had enthroned nepotism at the bank, arbitrarily hiring girlfriends and relatives and engaging in extramarital relationships with staff.
“This man (the CBN governor) is the most morally bankrupt governor the CBN has ever had,” the official, who did not want to be named for fear of retribution, told PREMIUM TIMES. “Forget all the pretences, he is a shameless man of loose character.”
Investigations by this newspaper revealed that Mr. Lamido hired his latest mistress, Mrs. Yaro, without complying with the CBN recruitment policy that stressed, “all appointments shall be made on the basis of merit, through a fair and open selection process.”
“The principles underlying the recruitment process are those of fairness, credibility, equal employment opportunities, merit and optimization of career prospects for currently employed staff,” the bank said on its website.
But Mrs. Yaro, insiders say, was hired in July 2012 without adherence to these principles. Those who should know say Mrs. Yaro, who was a staff at the National Programme on Food Security, an agency under the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, was brought into the bank as assistant director without “advert for the vacancy and after a kangaroo interview.”
When contacted, Mr. Sanusi said due process was followed in hiring Mrs. Yaro.
He said having worked for years in the ministry of agric, Mrs Yaro came highly recommended and qualified for the job for which she was hired.
The CBN governor continued, “I have known Dr Yaro since 1981. She was my student in Yola and she later came to ABU Zaria. We have been very good friends but this is not why NIRSAL took her. You may wish to check her CV against all the other CVs in NIRSAL. And she did go through an interview process with the NIRSAL CEO making the decision not CBN HR.
“As for the personal allegations, this is all strange to me but I have a personal policy of not responding to such allegations since in Nigeria anything can be published on any public officer without proof. I have limited myself to what concerns official allegations and leave you to your God and your conscience on whatever else you want to publish. Thank you for telling me though.”
Mrs Yaro however declined comments when contacted by PREMIUM TIMES.
“Be careful what you are saying,” she told one of our reporters on the telephone. “I have nothing to comment to you on anything.”
When asked if she would be willing to respond to specific questions about her trips to Lagos to keep dates with Mr. Sanusi, she simply said, “Whatever it is, I don’t know. Will you just let me be?”
But our investigations revealed that the governor’s claim was far from accurate. Through several interviews and review of records, PREMIUM TIMES was able to determine that Mrs. Yaro and Mr. Sanusi had dated each other for at least six months before she was hired.
Insiders say Mr. Sanusi repeatedly pestered the human resource department of the bank ordering it to bring Mrs. Yaro’s application to him for approval. And once the file reached his table, the governor wasted no time in treating it.
On June 25, 2012, Mr. Sanusi, who was travelling in South Africa at the time, telephoned Mrs. Yaro to break the news to her that he had approved her recruitment in what critics consider a clear conflict of interest and a violation of a provision of Nigeria’s Code of Conduct which stipulates that “a public officer shall not put himself in a position where his interest conflicts with his duties and responsibilities.”
Mrs Yaro, (whose businessman husband, Ahmed, is largely based in Kaduna but visits Abuja regularly) assumed duties at the CBN in the first week of September 2012 and was deployed to the Development Finance Department. The department then put her in charge of the bank’s Nigerian Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System For Agricultural Lending, (NIRSAL), a unit that attempts to fix the agricultural value chain, so that banks can lend with confidence to the sector and, encourages banks to lend to the agricultural value chain by offering them strong incentives and technical assistance.
Sources said Mrs Yaro married Ahmed (or Shuaib, according to another source) six years ago after her first husband, Waisu Yaro Bodinga (then an executive director at the Nigeria Ports Authority) died in the ill-fated ADC plane crash of 2006.
The romance between Mrs Yaro and Mr. Sanusi became even hotter after she began work at the bank, with the two lovers regularly exchanging telephone calls and text messages during work hours to profess love for each other.
At times, Mrs Yaro would remain in her office far beyond close of work to enable her to keep appointments with the CBN governor, records show.
Sometimes, Mrs Yaro would raise concerns about Mr. Sanusi’s other girlfriends and mistresses (such as Sutura and Rose) and how they were blocking her from getting the governor’s full attention, but the relationship continued nonetheless.
Mrs. Yaro also began to have access to confidential information known only to top management and board of the bank, insiders say.
At a point, one source said, she began to strategise to corner contracts for one Goke Akinboro, the Chief Executive Officer of Lagos-based Cellullant Limited, an information technology company. Mr. Akinboro is also described as “very close” to Mrs Yaro.
On March 15, 2013, the CBN lovers headed to Lagos again for another weekend of fun. The initial plan was for the duo to fly to the nation’s commercial capital on Saturday, March 16, returning to Abuja on Sunday. But the trip had to be brought forward by a day after the lovers realized that the Area Council election in Abuja was holding that Saturday and that movement might be restricted.
Mrs. Yaro arrived Lagos on the night of March 15, and immediately checked into the Radisson Blu Anchorage Hotel on Victoria Island. Mr. Sanusi flew from Kano to Lagos via chattered jet on the bills of the Nigerian taxpayers. He arrived at about 11 p.m., stopped by his Ikoyi home, before dashing to the hotel where Mrs. Yaro was waiting in a seductive dress in Room 23. The lovers spent that night and the next day together in the hotel.
As he flew into Abuja March 17 on a chattered jet, Mr. Sanusi sent a message to Mrs Yaro saying, “Love. Just landed in Abuja. Thank you for a wonderful weekend.” Mrs Yaro replied, “Alhamdulillah. I had a wonderful weekend too. I am able to get the 3:15 flight on Arik Air. Love you.”
But in-between these rendezvous in Lagos, Mr. Sanusi and Mrs Yaro also found time to get together elsewhere. They were to meet on March 11, 2013, in Makurdi but somehow Mrs Yaro could not make it to the Benue State capital. But earlier on February 14, (Valentine’s Day), the lovers had a good time together in Maiduguri. Although, the two of them travelled to the city on different missions, they somehow found a way to get together.
At a point, Mrs Yaro voiced open frustration when Mr. Lamido delayed in taking her calls as she tried, frantically, to track him down. “I’m thinking that one Shuwa girl has snatched you away from me,” Mrs. Yaro wrote in a message. “I don’t trust them (Maiduguri girls) with you.”
A velvet-ranking figure within Nigeria’s economic and political circles, Mr. Sanusi, is generally perceived as one of the intellectual anchors and moral conscience of this administration. When his five-year term expires next year, he has indicated he would not renew his contract. Mr. Sanusi has a well-advertised ambition to become the future emir of his native Kano, where he is already a top chieftaincy holder (Dan Maje Kano). Dan Majen Kano, a historic title, which means Son of Emir-Maje, is reserved for the royal family members from the Kano Habe dynasty.
A zigzag prospect to run for the Nigerian presidency is also believed to be floating in the horizon for Mr. Sanusi.
Multiple sources at both the CBN and First Bank, where Mr. Sanusi was managing director before his appointment to the central bank, describe the governor as an “incurable womanizer.”
“This guy seems unable to resist anything in skirt, and it is unfortunate that a lot of young people look up to him as an example,” one of Mr. Sanusi’s aides in Abuja said, expressing widely held concerns in banking circles that “It is sad that he wouldn’t even let married women be.”
Mr. Sanusi, 51, appointed CBN Governor on June 3 2009, is a smart economist and award-winning banker with a background in risk management.
He holds a graduate degree in economics from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and a diploma in Sharia and Islamic Studies from the African International University in Khartoum, Sudan. Today, Mr. Sanusi is also commonly regarded as an important voice in Islamic jurisprudence.
The Banker, the UK-based financial magazine honoured him in 2010 as global Central Bank Governor of the Year as well as African Central Bank Governor of the Year. In 2011, the TIME magazine listed Mr. Sanusi in its annual publication of 100 most influential people.
At the African Banker Awards gala dinner held Wednesday in Morocco, Mr. Sanusi also emerged the “2013 Africa Central Bank Governor of the Year.”
“There is no doubt that he is a fairly effective banker,” an official of one of Nigeria’s leading banks, who requested anonymity for fear his bank might be targeted, told PREMIUM TIMES. “But he is a man of zero morality despite his public posturing. It is really sad.”
PREMIUM TIMES Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
What a shame, married man and a married women. Sanusi, u disgust me. After asking that Nigeria should sack 50% of its work force. U really are base.
ReplyDeleteThis looks like a Movie;a cock and bull story fabricated maliciously on pre-conceived idea. Inasmuch as I don't like Sanusi's character these story about him is unbelievable. Premium Times do honest Journalism don't ruin this womans marriage. The brain behind these are those jelous psycophants in CBN executives who are not happy with sanusi's leadership style.
ReplyDeleteThis is serious bizzy body. Some people can be so jobless to write up this kind of shit. Taking all time & resources just to gossip. A word of advice when doing this kind of thing. Put a captured picture of the duo. Liar !!!. Cheap blackmail
ReplyDeleteMtchewwww! I've wasted my precious time reading this scandal. Whoever conceived this idea αη∂ sit to write it plus the person that even typed it are all Jobless cunts and noneities! This is akin to a movie written and directed by an 18th century producer. For God's sake this is 21st Century! How do you expect us to believe this cheap lies. Throughout your write up you have not presented a single proof or evidence that will support your vain claim. You are concocting all your ideas based on assumption and hearsays vis-a-vis building a clay house on water! Will it stand? That's unacceptable. As far as I am concerned, this write up is being sponsored by may be someone who is bittered because he could not get the appointment given to Mrs Yaro based on lack of qualification. Am just saying, anything could be the cause. But it is obvious that this is done by someone who is an arch-enemy of Mr Lamido. Well, so far as we know, and only God knows the hidden, but for the obvious we know, Mr Sanusi is an upright man with reputable character. Yes! Someone may have some negative traits and infact everyone has some negative character in him but what good can you gain by exposing somebody??? Now you that wrote this, write about yourself and let's see how much of a saint you are!!! Before pointing fingers make sure your hands are clean! It's Suraj.
ReplyDeleteI borrow your words to arrest my case. Envy & joblessness.
DeleteAustin
It's rada unfortunate.even a student in nursery sch would never listen nor believe dis scandalous,irritaing,malicious,vexatious,childish&an absurd primary sch tales by moon light.sanusi is d best tin ever in dis unfortunate administration of jonathan.
ReplyDeleteThis is unbelivable.
ReplyDeleteCan't these little baby journalists stop all this publishing of irrelavant stories that are full of blackmail. Rubish
ReplyDeletemtchhheeeeeeww! very cheap propaganda. handiwork of shallow brains and idle hands.
ReplyDeletethose behind this story should get a life...
wey my post NE?
ReplyDeleteIn all these, I wonder how the writer got privy to their texts and private conversations like he/she was there. Don't publish what you cannot prove or a libel lawsuit awaits
ReplyDeleteLast writer,stop talking like u don't watch American films. Abi u neva hear of bugging? Lets c whether d,CBN Governor wil comment. However, dis is just a blackmail by people whose toes he has stepped on. U tink he doesn't play game? Leave day one. Am sure u heard in d news day they found condoms in d boko haram camps and they claim to b over religious. It was a serious monitoring on Sanusi and if tis really true, he has to pay for it.
ReplyDeleteThank you all for ur comment, I was surprise how this busy body got their text messages. Well, we have better thing to read ,so write good write up.
ReplyDeletei don't believe this is true is all made up
ReplyDeleteThe Whole story is just Made up,Doesn't sound Real.
ReplyDeleteThis is nonsense and dis-service to good journalism! Why on earth will a news publication go after a man's private life? I feel sorry for the people behind this show of shame. The man should be measured by what he did in his capacity as CBN Governor and not the size of his boxer.For once, you guys missed it,outrightly!
ReplyDeleteAll this because of girl friend? Name one Nigerian big man that does not have one.
ReplyDeleteI believe it comes with the office.
ReplyDeleteNigerians, what is your business who Sanusi sees? Does he do his job well? Yes he does. That is all that should concern you. The man is muslim and is entitled to at least 3 wives. You ma, Mr Lamido, who has access to your phone? You should take better security measures.
Is there any rumour without an element of truth? Leave d journalist alone, its their work 2 investigate n give us news,either rumours or facts. Every man's weakness is a woman,u cud say not all men but someone like lamido with his influence is bound to make such a mistake. Personally,i dont need evidence to believe d story, d response of both of them shows deep guilty conscience.
ReplyDeleteHatred vs. Stupendous Stupidity!!! Mtscheeew
ReplyDeleteIf this is true, its a shame to the entire world. There's what we call dignity. If our husbands or wives go about womanizing in public......but if this is false, what a damage to the families involved. I dont pity any of them, let them av it. If u r in power doesnt mean u can have everything and oppress the poor
ReplyDeleteThis is nonsense and who wants to believe this can, but not me or any normal Nigerian.
ReplyDeleteSorry for myself for wasting my time reading this. Premium gossip collector, sanusi must be responible for what he say or do but not what u understand or conceieve in Ÿ̲̣̣̣̥ø̲̣̣̥u̶̲̥̅̊r envious evil closet mind. If at all he is a living creature. ARE YOU HOLY????????
ReplyDeleteI must suscribe to another news agency, the level of your malicious gossip can infest the mind. Are you holier than Sanusi. Surely poeple must lose their job for this trash. Hoping to see & hear your cry on ChannelTV, even you Sutura and Rose.
ReplyDeleteWia r D̶̲̥̅̊ evidence. D̶̲̥̅̊ Bible Saγ̲̣̣̥ " who made ΰ judge over d̶̲̥̅̊ε̲̣̣̣̥m" and another scripture says" remove D̶̲̥̅̊ log frm Ʊr eyes b4 ΰ try t̶̲̥̅Æ¡̴͡ remove frm another mans eye" he who is witout sin shld cast D̶̲̥̅̊ 1st stone" he wo tinks he stand takes heed b4 he falls" pls let us stop finding faults on pple, instead let's find a way of helpin d̶̲̥̅̊ε̲̣̣̣̥m stand if we tink d̶̲̥̅̊ε̲̣̣̣̥γ̲̣̣̥ r fallin. May Ç¦Æ ̴̴̴͡D̶̲̥̅̊ help us A̶̲̥̅̊ƪƪ.
ReplyDeleteMischief at the highest point
ReplyDeleteThese details were meant to rubbish someone If you are even correct the way you went about the details makes one feel you are out to wrec havoc
Go and look for your own liver abi you get interest for the mrs Yaro
Dis is absolute rubbish prove ur usless story with a Pix u daft get a life joor,even if he is dating a married woman nd so bloody wot.its not a new tin go nd eat shit nd stop dis cheap trash
ReplyDeleteThank God i didnt read all through.This is CHEAP BLACKMAIL!!!!
ReplyDeleteI took my time to read this rubbish.We just have to always bear in mind that what ever we do is going to be accoutable on the day of resurrection.All we knew,SUNUSI is a good,trustworthy person that we believe on his credibility.ABUBAKAR LIMAN
ReplyDeleteWhy tarnish their image without proof? Did he give you his phone to read his text message.? Do you have pictures,or any proper proof?if yes,please publish it and stop feeding us with stories. It is only in Nigeria you accuse someone without evidence. Get a life? What would you gain if you ruin one marriage just because you want to make name as a publisher? Shame on the writer.
ReplyDeleteThe writer seems to be a jobless man although your giest is good for the trash. I laugh at people who cannot make meaning out from this joke. A nice junk
ReplyDeleteLet us stand by the truth...when you hear or read something like this,there is element of truth in every rumor ,this is What some of them are doing with our money.May be we should start from Sanusi and Yaro,in advance country of the World they don't joke with this kind of issue untill they get to the root of it.Lets investigate and punish them if they are guilty,many Nigerians are jobless and facing hard time,why should they be wasting the resources meant for all.
ReplyDeleteNigerians are just full of mix-feelings, someone wrote a well articulated and calculated so to say story..instead of you guys to sit and think how he/she came about the story..,either by crook or cook, some efizzy guys have started blowing grammar, charting a course for why he should not write on peoples personal behaviour, yu guys started saying different nonesense, why has he not said it to someone else, the story of Clinton started like this, but eventually the humble president came out and apologised publicly, so who is Sanusi..he can be investigated, attitude and characters can never be hidden for long, and he cannot be an island of communication.
ReplyDeleteinstead of you guys to see how much of this info can we be fed with, someone had started justifying why he could marry more than million wives, someone saw it has lapses in his security details, castigation after castigation...,however, am not categorical about the story, still i cannot still push all the story aside..it has a lot of content.
This is wicked journalism. Can the writer say he/she does not do the same?
ReplyDeleteRubbish.
ReplyDeleteYou all are forgetting that he is human and has blood and emotions running through his veins...more so, a man and not just any man, the CBN governor...no matter how highly respected he is in the public eye, he has a weakness and apparently, are his problem...i dont have pity for him, its the women that welcome his crap that i blame, making the women race cheap. then his family and the family of the other women....hissssss!!!
ReplyDeleteWe dont need this kind of of story. Pls give us educative stories.
ReplyDeleteMarried men and women should keep their marriage vows. Stop persecuting the writer, he merely gave us news about the CBN Gov. I look forward to seeing Mrs Yaro.s husband's reaction.
ReplyDeleteSANUSI EKUN!!!
ReplyDeleteHmmmmmm this looks likes a story from the Hints and Hearts of the 90s. Anyway true or not let everyone check themselves and live as if u av a camera following you around. May God help us all.
ReplyDeleteI am of the opinion that this should be properly investigated,and if Sanusi is found guilty,he should be humble enough to apologize to the Nigerians.Most importantly,for those of us that are looking at him as a mentor and really believe in his leadership qualities.If Bill Clinton could apologize to the Americans for this kind of offence,I dont think Sanusi is too big to do the same.Remember the addage that 'those who live in a glass house should not throw stone'Truly,this is the true picture of what has been happening in almost all organization.
ReplyDeleteas far as am concern, Sanusi has his life to live. But if the woman is complaining then it is violence against women at workforce.
ReplyDeletemay be she is no more married and wants to marry Sanusi as the second or third or forth then let her go ahead.
about his work. he is an economist per excellence. Congratulations. I wish he come back for this post again,