The Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, says Nigeria lost about $1bn (N197bn) every month under former President Goodluck Jonathan.
Sanusi, who is a former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, said this during a programme titled ‘How a cancer of corruption steals Nigerian oil, weapons and lives’, which aired on The PBS NewsHour, an American daily evening television show.
The former CBN governor said many shady deals took place under the immediate past Minister of Petroleum, Diezani Alison-Madueke, who is being investigated in the United Kingdom.
The monarch said, “In Nigeria, there is no accountability at all and that is why I think Nigeria’s corruption is worse than corruption in most parts of the world. It is the worst type of corruption. It’s stealing.
“Frankly, I think a billion dollars under Jonathan a month was about what we were losing.”
Sanusi alleged that during Alison-Madueke’s tenure as petroleum minister, people paid as low as $50m for access to crude oil blocs valued at over $2bn.
Explaining how some of the shady deals took place, Sanusi said, “Basically, all it does is allow a group of people, who themselves don’t have any kind of operating background, to pay $50m for access to the crude oil in blocs, valued at over $2bn and they just take the crude oil, ship it out and don’t return the money and there is no trace of where the money has gone.
“Someone gets a contract to lift crude from the terminals to the refineries and in between, that crude is stolen; it is stolen on the high sea.”
Sanusi, who was fired by Jonathan in February last year for alleging that $20bn was missing from the account of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, said if the former petroleum minister was found guilty by a UK court, it would serve as a deterrent to corrupt people.
“If she goes to court and is jailed for example, it sends a signal; I think that there is a day of reckoning,” he said.
The US television show quoted United States and UK authorities as saying that Alison-Madueke might have “personally overseen the stealing of $6bn. The most common method is awarding oil contracts to companies owned by friends.”
It alleged that the second most common method of stealing oil was to make oil ships disappear mysteriously.
The PBS NewsHour said it had in its possession a letter written by the embattled former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.), and addressed to the CBN, requesting $47m.
The letter, which was written on the letterhead of the Office of the NSA, titled ‘Request of Funds for Special Services’ with reference number, NSA/366S, was dated November, 2014.
According to the US television show, which has over four million viewers weekly, the money was given to the ONSA in cash and was conveyed in armoured vehicles at midnight.
In a second document on the letterhead of the NNPC and addressed to the Director, Banking and Payments of the CBN, the CBN was asked to give the National Intelligence Agency, which was under the leadership of Dasuki, $289,202,382.
This was despite the fact that the NIA’s budget was only $160m for the year. Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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Emir! You should have exposed all these mess long before Dasuki was arrested. Anyway you exposed that women may be for refusing your advances. I will tell her to agree now that she looks horrible
ReplyDeleteThere is God oh!
just listen to yourself trivializing very serious issue like this,and i am sure if the effect of the action did not affect you it will affect someone close to you and you will be blaming the government for not doing its work,changes should start from our ways of life,thinking,talking etc
DeleteOmowunmi...dnt worry,tomorrow,emir sanusi will give us another figure to counter this one he has given...just watch out...el rufia has not yet apologised for his wrong figure oo,now sanusi has come again...OK nah...
DeleteNon of the money being quoted belonged to either Sanusi and his northern cronies nor you and your western cronies but belongs to the eastern region. If we had been practicing resource control all these bull shits wouldn't have happened in the first place.
DeleteSomeone of the Emirs standing should not peddle news just to make a sensational headline. Unfortunately, this seems to be the case in all his accusations.
Delete#197,000,000,000 daily translates to #72,905,000,000,000 per year. With exchange rate of that time at about #150 to $1, we are looking at $1,313,000,000 daily or $479,400,000,000 per year. If this kind of money was stolen and states still got their allocations, can Sanusi explain where the nation got the money not available to the federal government to steal.
Crude Oil which produces over 90% of our earnings cannot produce one sixth of that figure and at maximum, the nation is only entitled to 70% of the value of oil produced.
Actually, the matter of corruption is trivialized when we peddle unrealistic figures. It is also an insult on the generality of the populace.
Agreed there is corruption, but let us state facts and not try to demonize people unnecessarily.
In response to Omowunmi's reaction, sometimes when we are overwhelmed by so much negative news from a system working against the good of all, we sometimes make light of them in order to walk through them. The inept system has successfully thrown up a community of unimaginative citizens to the advantage of the oligarchs.
DeleteEach time I see or read about about all this figures it seems to me like someone is making mistakes somewhere. How can someone steals so much money that his or her generation can not spend even if they have to be on a million naira meals every day.
ReplyDeleteIt is dangerous to have corrupt leaders in government. President Jonathan looked on when his followers looted.
ReplyDeleteOlalekan pls tell them
ReplyDeleteSomeone of the Emirs standing should not peddle news just to make a sensational headline. Unfortunately, this seems to be the case in all his accusations.
ReplyDelete#197,000,000,000 daily translates to #72,905,000,000,000 per year. With exchange rate of that time at about #150 to $1, we are looking at $1,313,000,000 daily or $479,400,000,000 per year. If this kind of money was stolen and states still got their allocations, can Sanusi explain where the nation got the money not available to the federal government to steal.
Crude Oil which produces over 90% of our earnings cannot produce one sixth of that figure and at maximum, the nation is only entitled to 70% of the value of oil produced.
Actually, the matter of corruption is trivialized when we peddle unrealistic figures. It is also an insult on the generality of the populace.
Agreed there is corruption, but let us state facts and not try to demonize people unnecessarily.
Academically well answered. Comments should reflect your way of reasoning not like illiterates who jump into quick conclusion and rain insults. Please put up ur initials cos having take time to logically delegitimise Sanusi's claims based on facts, i look forward to comments from people like u. Sanusi n El-Rufai play with figures like they talk to fools eg. Independence Day celebration of past admin from 333million to 64billion Naira claim.
DeleteThose monies were not stolen by just a single individual, it is definitely a sub-head, like the office of the National Security Adviser Sambo Dasuki, he is not alone, they have got several branches doing the business, his office has a strong spending point whose procurement most times cannot be questions; it just got the acronym Security budget, sometimes they say defense budget.... and we had the insurgency situation on our hand who on earth would question cash flow to the sector, Some of the stolen figures might not even be known to the president, they call figures for arms procurement and he signs so they were hiding on such guise to loot the treasury dry...God help Nigeria!!!
ReplyDeleteCant you guys read properly, it is not #197,000,000,000 daily but the guy said #197,000,000,000 monthly. I dont know why people like to misconstrue reasoning to falsehood
ReplyDeleteSanusi was part of the past administration so if Jonathan administration is corrupt, sanusi is equally corrupt...he only had a fall out at about the time he was about leaving office....pls let sanusi shut up
ReplyDelete