Jonathan denies sacking Sanusi over missing $49.8bn

Former President Goodluck Jonathan has denied suspending former Central Bank Governor, Dr Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, now Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi II, for alleging that $49.8bn went missing from the government’s coffers.

Jonathan, who insisted that no such money went missing, said the then-CBN leadership fabricated the allegation.

The former president made this statement on Thursday in Abuja during the launch of the book, Public Policy and Agents’ Interests: Perspectives from the Emerging World, co-authored by former Minister of Finance, Dr Shamsudeen Usman, who also served as Minister of Planning under his administration.

Jonathan was responding to the contribution of the former CBN Chief, who claimed in the book that he was removed from office for exposing the alleged disappearance of the money.

Sanusi referred to the incident, which he said led to his dismissal as CBN governor.

In 2013, Sanusi first raised the alarm about discrepancies in oil revenue remittances, claiming $49bn was unaccounted for. However, his initial figure was later revised to $20bn after discussions with the Ministry of Finance.

The Jonathan administration swiftly debunked the claims, with some officials accusing Sanusi of attempting to undermine the regime.

In February 2014, just months after making the allegations, President Jonathan suspended Sanusi for “financial recklessness and misconduct” as CBN Governor. However, many Nigerians believe the suspension was politically motivated and linked to his whistleblowing on the missing funds. Sanusi became the 16th Emir of Kano but was deposed in 2020 and reinstated in 2024.

During his opening remarks at the book launch, Jonathan, who chaired the event, said that although he agreed with the book’s thesis and recommended it for research, he disagreed with Sanusi’s claim regarding the missing money.
Jonathan clarified that Sanusi was not sacked but suspended, adding that such a large sum of money could not have gone missing in Nigeria—whose budget at the time was about $32bn—without immediate repercussions.

He recounted how former German Chancellor Angela Merkel confronted him on the matter, and he explained that such an amount could not have been stolen from a struggling country without anyone knowing.

“Let me mention that I do not agree with some of the issues raised by one of the contributors, but I don’t intend to engage in a debate because he is our royal father, and he is present here.

“The claim that he was sacked for whistleblowing that the Federal Government lost $49.8bn is not entirely correct. He was not sacked. He was suspended because the Financial Reporting Council queried the CBN’s expenditure. There were also serious infractions that needed to be investigated. That was the reason.

“But time was short, so before we could conclude, his tenure ended. Perhaps he would have been reinstated,” he explained.

The former president maintained that no such money went missing, adding that Sanusi’s claims became inconsistent when the figures shifted from $49bn to $20bn, and then to $12bn.

“Regarding the $49.8bn, to this day, I am not convinced that the Federal Government lost such an amount. That year, our budget was $31.6bn. For a country with a budget of $31.6bn to lose nearly $50bn, and still pay salaries without anyone feeling the impact, seems improbable. The researchers who wrote this book need to conduct further investigation.

“Moreover, our esteemed royal father initially quoted $49.8bn, then $20bn, and later $12bn. I’m still unsure of the correct figure,” Jonathan said.

He explained that PricewaterhouseCoopers, which investigated the matter, found that no such amount had been stolen, although the NNPC could not account for $1.48bn at the time.

Jonathan also noted that the Senate Committee on Finance, chaired by Senator Ahmed Makarfi, investigated the issue and found the claims to be unsubstantiated.

Later, the monarch responded to Jonathan, saying he had been “constructively dismissed”, contrary to the latter’s assertion.

“My boss, who sacked me. I was constructively dismissed. I continue to respect Jonathan, and I hold no grudges against anyone,” the Emir said during a brief message at the event, where he served as Royal Father of the Day.

The Emir also expressed regret over what he described as attempts to frustrate the Dangote Refinery project.

He argued that, instead of yielding to vested interests, Nigeria should be capitalising on the opportunity to end fuel importation with the establishment of the refinery.

“Rather than seizing this opportunity, we are obstructing it. This is due to vested interests… People assume office and immediately think of how much they can extract from the state,” he stated.

The Emir also revealed that the book’s chief author, Usman, was once his lecturer at university and commended him as one of the longest-serving public officials who has never been summoned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

Thursday’s event also saw the formal unveiling of the Shamsuddeen Usman Foundation, founded and registered by Usman’s children in his honour.

The foundation is dedicated to promoting education and Artificial Intelligence in Nigeria.