Sanusi Lamido Seeks NNPC Audit, Says President Shouldn’t Be Petroleum Minister

Former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, has called for a proper audit of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), noting that this call was what cost him his job at the apex bank.

Sanusi made this known while delivering his remarks at The Bank Directors Summit holding at the Congress Hall of the Transcorp Hilton in Abuja.

Sanusi, who was CBN governor from June 2009 to February 2014, insisted that the President should not be the Minister of Petroleum.

For the ex-CBN chief, the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) and the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) must remain until banks get together and pay up what they owe the system.

He also maintained that the banking sector must shore up its trust deficit in the eyes of the public and that there is no need to amend the CBN Act to keep the apex bank free of political influences.

In August, about three months after his inauguration, President Bola Tinubu split the Ministry of Petroleum Resources with the appointment of Ekperipe Ekpo as Minister of State, Gas Resources; and Heineken Lokpobiri as Minister of State, Petroleum Resources.

However, Tinubu, in an apparent tradition of his predecessor, ex-President Muhammadu Buhari, kept the position of the substantive Minister of Petroleum Resources to himself.