Since becoming the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor on June 3, 2009, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, his critics argue, has become the most controversial governor in history. According to them, he has migrated from one controversy to another, and his manner of doing things does not fit into their idea and notion of what a Central Bank governor should be. These criticisms have become even more ferocious in the last few weeks following the interview he granted the Financial Times of London, and the CBN donation to the victims of the Boko Haram bombings in Kano.
In the interview, Sanusi said, “There is clearly a direct link between the very uneven nature of distribution of resources and the rising level of violence”, and went on to say that “when you look at the figures and look at the size of the population in the North you can see there is a structural imbalance of enormous proportions.” Many have criticised these statements because they felt he argued that the reason for poverty and unemployment in the North is the relative prosperity in the south, and that the prosperity in the south is mainly as a result of increased derivation for the Niger Delta states. An even more poignant interpretation is that the derivation of the Niger Delta states is directly responsible for Boko Haram activities in the Northern region.
Sanusi is too intelligent to make such a simplistic analytical conclusion. Perhaps blame him, perhaps blame his press handlers, the interview is one dimensional, and does not reflect the underlying and holistic interpretation of history from Sanusi’s perspective. The statements reflect two very critical nuances – it is relative and it is static, but not consequential. It is ingenious to input the consequential, and extending the interview beyond what it really is. Indeed, the interview cannot be interpreted in isolation of other interviews or statements of the governor, and thus cannot be taken as justification for Boko Haram activities in Nigeria – that will be preposterous. The interview can only, and this is sufficient in the context, be an explanation of the underlying economic and social conditions that drive these enormous levels of crimes against Nigerians. And the situation is not different from everywhere else and every country, where the preponderance of poverty and unemployment is often a classic recipe for criminality and violence. These take different forms in different countries, but the underlying factors of poverty and unemployment remains. This is the message in the interview.
And Sanusi is not the only one that holds the view. President Clinton at the recent ThisDay awards echoed the same sentiments, saying that poverty and unemployment is contributing to the violence in the North. He would not have argued that derivation to the Niger Delta states is responsible for violence in the North. So to suggest otherwise is to believe that Sanusi made a zero sum game argument in the interview – that is, all that the South has gained is at the expense of the North, considering he had made scathing remarks about economic management approaches in the North before.
But to fully understand the context in which the interview was granted, one needs to carefully analyse Sanusi’s economic preferences over time. Two recent examples will suffice. First, last week at the Murtala Mohammed memorial conference or lecture, Sanusi said, “We are building a new banking model, the type that will contribute meaningfully to the economy, other than monetary policies.” (emphasis mine). Also, as the guest speaker at the London School of Economics (LSE) at the annual Sir Patrick Gillam lecture last month, the CBN governor ventured into growth again. He said, “While the primary goal of the Central Bank should be price stability, in the context of developing economies, the Central Bank should also emphasise on its development roles in order to support positive economic transformation and rapid growth.” (emphasis mine). To Sanusi, it is not sufficient that the economy is expanding at a reasonable rate of over 7 percent, or that inflation is in the single digit, but what this pace of growth does to the reduction of all forms of poverty in the country.
This Sanusi’s economic preference underlines every policy and activity of the apex bank since he became governor. For instance, on the recent donations to Kano, one could mention several interventions made by the CBN under the leadership of the governor that is not connected to either Muslims and or the North. Some of these include to some other regulatory agencies, development and specialised banks, in agriculture and in education. The Bank of England has similar measures in place through the leadership or their staff for intervention purposes. Of course, the scale and manner of intervention may be different, and it is expected, but it shows that the CBN is not unique in this respect. Nevertheless, it is not the purpose of this piece to explain the rationale by the CBN for every donation made. The purpose of this piece is to argue that all these donations are consistent, when viewed from the lens of economic growth, not from a headline figure view, but on its effects on all forms of poverty. We can fault his approach, as there is not a perfect approach here, but we cannot deny that it is the motivation to correct these imbalances that pushes these interventions.
