Cerebral economist and former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Chukwuma Soludo, has dismissed the an allegation by the Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, that he unlawfully loaned $7 billion of Nigeria’s reserves to banks as born out ignorance.
Falana had accused the former CBN governor making loans amounting to that humongous figure without recovering them.
He urged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to investigate the alleged “criminal diversion or withholding” of government funds by the CBN, under Mr. Soludo and his successor, Lamido Sanusi.
According to Falana, Mr. Sanusi, who is the Emir of Kano now, also gave another un-recovered N600 billion as bailout to the same banks.
He also accused Mr. Sanusi of illegally paying N2.5 trillion instead of N245 billion to fuel marketers as subsidy.
Mr. Sanusi denied the allegation and said he was ready to face investigations.
Soludo, in a statement, described the allegation as “blatant lies”, and demanded evidence or an apology.
He said, “I largely ignore such ignorant commentaries. However, Femi Falana is one of the Nigerians I deeply respect, and I am sure many Nigerians also hold him in very high esteem. I was therefore shocked beyond belief that someone like him could fabricate and peddle blatant lies.”
According to Soludo, Soludo, throughout his tenure as governor of the apex bank Nigeria never lost one penny of the reserves.
He further said, “From the above quotation, Falana alleged that I “removed” $7 billion from Nigeria’s external reserves and gave same as a “loan” to 14 Nigerian banks in 2006, and apparently such a “loan” has not been recovered. This is a blatant lie and I challenge Falana to publish the details of such a “loan” which remains unpaid or as a person with honour, publish a retraction and unreserved apology immediately.” Mr. Soludo said one of the legacies of his tenure as CBN Governor was the highest rate of reserve accumulation in Nigeria’s history as well as its effective and efficient management.
“On assumption of office, I met exactly $10 billion in foreign reserves. With average monthly oil price of $59 during my tenure, we accumulated reserves to all time high of over $62 billion. Even after paying off Nigeria’s external debt with $12 billion and facing unprecedented global financial and economic crisis, I still left $45 billion upon leaving office in 2009..
“Throughout my tenure, Nigeria never lost one penny of the reserves. It is particularly important to note that even during the global financial crisis of 2008/2009 when major international banks collapsed and some countries lost some of their reserves, our prudent management ensured that Nigeria never lost a penny but earned returns on the reserves. Given the powerful interests that I fought during the consolidation of banks and even since I left office, one can only imagine the international headlines that would have been made if just one penny of the reserves was unaccounted for.
“That under the provisions of the CBN Act as well as the guidelines for the management of foreign reserves, it is impossible for anyone to ‘remove’ any sum of money from the reserves and give out as “loan” to commercial banks in Nigeria. To qualify as ‘foreign reserves’ such reserves are held in foreign currency abroad as deposits with banks or in sovereign instruments such as the US treasury bills,” he said.
The economic professor, who has not been shy in speaking up about Nigeria’s economy, expressed his readiness to answer to queries concrning to his tenure at any time.
“I have come to terms with the fact that part of the burden one bears for having held public office in Nigeria is that one has to endure all kinds of uninformed and sometimes mischievous attempts to malign one’s character,” he said.
