I Will Probe Sanusi – New CBN Governor, Godwin Ifeanyi Emefiele

Newly appointed governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Ifeanyi Emefiele, signaled yesterday that he would look into the financial activities of his forerunner to ascertain what happened in the past. The Senate confirmed the appointment of the Group Managing Director of Zenith Bank Plc on Wednesday, March 26. There was no single 'nay' to his confirmation in the chamber.

President Goodluck Jonathan had forwarded Emefiele's nomination to the Senate on February 20, same day he suspended Sanusi Lamido Sanusi from his post. Emefiele was answering questions from senators during his screening on Wednesday. He said he would look into the expenditure profiles of the CBN to examine why the institution run a budget deficit of N266bn in 2013. Emefiele said he would probe into the various expenditure components of the bank to know how exactly the deficit became inevitable. He noted that some of the deficit would have come from areas that pertain to operational expenditure.

'Why not wait for Sanusi's court case to be over?' 

Before the session started, and also, prior to his admission into the chamber, chairman of the committee on states and local governments, Senator Kabiru Ibrahim Gaya, tried to stop the process He moved a motion through Order 53(5) of the Senate Standing Orders (2011, as amended), in which he reminded the chamber and the Senate President David Mark that "the matter is in court. When the CBN governor was suspended, he went to court and Order 53(5) bars us from moving ahead on this matter. Why not wait for the court case to be over? That's my submission, sir."

Mark, however, ruled Gaya's order out, saying that "what's before the court has nothing to do with what we are going to do now"