Barely 10 years after exiting government, former President Goodluck Jonathan, Thursday, spoke up to debunk the controversial $US49.8 billion alleged to be missing from the nation’s coffer.
Jonathan spoke in Abuja during the unveiling of a book, ‘Public Policy and Agents Interests: Perspectives from the Emerging World’, written by his former Minister of National Planning, Dr Shamsudeen Usman. In attendance were former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and current Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi, who made the allegation, one-time acting CBN governor, Dr. Sarah Alade, and a former Statistician General of the Federation, Dr Yemi Kale, among several others.
Speaking as the event’s chair, Dr. Jonathan, who wrote the foreword, described the book as excellent, coming from one of the finest ministers of national planning that the nation ever had.
He, however, said his only grouse with the book borders on opinions of one of the contributors (Sanusi) who, according to him, alleged certain errors regarding his (Sanusi’s) removal from office as CBN boss and the false alarm about a missing $US49.8 billion.
Clarifying that aspect, Jonathan said: “I do not intend to join issues with one of the contributors because he is a royal father and he is here, but because I have the opportunity to be here, I need to state why I did not agree with some of his positions in the book.
“One of the issues he raised in this book is that he was sacked because he blew the whistle that the federal government lost 49.8 billion dollars. That is not quite correct. He wasn’t sacked, but suspended based on a report by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) which stated that the financial expenditure of CBN was outrageous and these were serious allegations that needed to be looked into. The time between his suspension and submission of FRC report was so short such that before we could finish, his tenure elapsed. Probably, he would have been called back.”
Continuing, he said: “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.”
“On the issue of 49.8 billion dollars, till today, I’m not convinced that the federal government lost that amount. No nation in the whole world would lose such an amount and still be able to pay salaries and perform governmental duties. 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.
“Initially, they claimed it was 49.8 billion, later it came down to 20 billion and 12 billion respectively. Immediately they said that, we contracted one of the best financial auditors around the world to look into the allegation by doing a forensic audit. The auditing firm finally said there was only 1.48 billion dollars that they could not trace and not the humongous amount being said to have been missing. The report asked that the NNPC should trace the amount and return it to the federation account.
“Former Kaduna state governor Makarfi as chairman of Senate Committee on Finance, he and his team also did an external investigation of the allegation through professional auditors to look into it; they didn’t see any missing 49.8 billion dollars. I therefore plead that when we are giving account of our stewardship, at least let’s not say such an amount got missing when Jonathan was president,” he added.
The former Nigerian leader, however, expressed delight to be part of what he called a historical event in the life of Dr Usman whom he said brought a lot of value into his administration.
“I never regretted my decision to bring him on board because he performed very well in all ramifications. He was one of the best national planning ministers Nigeria ever had. His expertise was instrumental to our developmental agenda. I did the foreword of this book with all pleasure because of my conviction of his immense wealth of knowledge,” Jonathan said.
The book reviewer and a former director general of Public Sector Reforms. Dr Joe Abah, said the main argument in the book is that due to personal greed and self aggrandisement, public servants abandoned official service and its creed.
According to him, the behaviour of all public servants paid from the coffers of the government affects the way the society evolves and not necessarily the leaders in power.
“At the heart of the struggle is the agency problem. This occurs when those entrusted with power pursue their own interests rather than the interest of the people they are meant to serve,” Abah said.
In his remarks, the lead author, Dr Usman, said he was inspired to write the book because the challenge Nigeria has is lack of commitment to implement plans and lack of continuity in government because of what he called ‘agent interests’. He said the book is his own robust way of contributing towards shaping Nigeria by sharing his service experiences.
…Emir Sanusi speaks
In a veiled response, Emir Sanusi paid glowing tributes to the author whom he said was his teacher in the university.
He had earlier commended Jonathan for his maturity and gentility in public space, but refused to comment on the issue raised by Jonathan.
Rather, he said: “I have tremendous regards for my president, Dr Goodluck Jonathan. No grudge against anyone; I am grateful to God for all He has done for me. In life, we go through challenges.
“For decades, the Nigerian state was captured for rent extraction rather than for development. This is because people get into office because of how much they intend to make rather than how much they intend to serve. Parties, governments and individuals come and go, but government remains because that is the only constant thing in any society. “I’m glad to be associated with Dr Usman because he is probably the longest serving minister in Nigeria who has never been invited by the EFCC to come and render account. He is an example of a public servant.”
A major highlight of the event was the launch of the Shamsudeen Foundation, put together by the former minister’s children, with donations coming from the Dangote Group, NISA Premier Hospital, Access Holding as well as other corporate organisations and individuals.