Breaking News: Sanusi Returns To Nigeria, Passport Seized By SSS, Replies the Presidency,“You Can Suspend An Individual, But You Can’t Suspend The Truth”; Vows to Challenge Suspension in Court

 

The Ousted CBN Governor Lamido Sanusi returned to Nigeria after attending an ECOWAS meeting in the Niger Republic. He was attending the meeting when he heard of his suspension. Upon arrival at the Lagos international airport, he was briefly detained by the Nigerian State Security Services and had his passport seized. However the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Lamido Sanusi, says he intends to challenge the legality of his suspension from office, to establish whether President Goodluck Jonathan has the legal authority to take such decision.

“It has never been my desire to hold on to a job. However, I believe if the CBN governor cannot be removed from office, then he cannot be suspended. He can be queried, but the exercise of the arbitrary decision to remove him must be challenged,” he said.
Mr. Sanusi was speaking to the cable news network, CNBC Africa, from Niamey, the Nigerien capital, shortly after news broke that he had been suspended from office by the Presidency.
The former governor, who was in Niamey to attend the ongoing conference of the West African currency zone with other governors of the Central Banks in West African, said he had to hurriedly leave venue of the meeting shortly after the Nigerian Ambassador to Niger confirmed to him the directive by the presidency to inform him of the suspension.
Though he said he was not bothered about the suspension as an individual, as he was proud about his achievements and legacies, Mr. Sanusi said his plan to challenge the action bordered on the need to protect the independence of the CBN as an institution.
“There is the view by some people on whether the president has the authority to remove or suspend the Central Bank governor, or whether the action is not illegal. I am not interested.
“As an individual, I was invited to serve my country, and I have always known that at any point the government feels it is time to go, I will go. But, in terms of the institution, it would be helpful to establish the principle by the court, and I think that is the step I intend to take,” Mr. Sanusi said.
Inspite of his decision to challenge the decision in court “to establish once and for all if the President has the powers to do what he has done,” Mr. Sanusi said he has resolved not to return to the job, as it was never his desire to hold on to any office.