No doubt Sunusi did very well to the financial institutions of Nigeria and also did well to the monetary polices of the economy. I convinced with his a lot of contribution in those part which he said
“A lot of what I did in the Central Bank was not unique; I think many people have not just read much about Central Banks’ responses to crises.
I was very fortunate; a lot of things happen in life, and it is luck. Sometimes when you sit like this and talk about personal matters, people begin to see things with clarity.
The time I was being considered for Governor, I had a very good friend, her name is Sophie Hague. She was working for the British High Commission. She had done her PhD in Political Economy; she was an intellectual partner. She was lecturing; she went to Cambridge. From my days in First Bank we had been excellent friends, discussing Foucault, religion and so on. It just so happened that Sophie had done her PhD on the Asian Financial crisis. So, when the President spoke to me, I confided in her. That this was a possibility and that I needed her papers.
So, I took her PhD thesis and the research work she had done. The study of the American response, the Japanese response, the Turkish response, the Indonesian response and how she had concluded that the Malaysian response to the financial crisis seems to have worked better than any other especially in Asia. A lot of the thesis compared Malaysia to Indonesia. And everything: from putting in liquidity in banks, from Asset Management Corporation, removing management; every single thing had been done in Malaysian.
By the time I stepped into the Central Bank, I had a very clear idea of what needed to be done. It was just to find out what the problem was, no matter how big it was, disclose it, take concrete action on governance, recapitalize the banks, purchase the non-performing loans and move on which is what Europe should have done. I did not doubt that that was the only way to solve the crisis. Pretending that you could wait and that the banks didn’t have a problem was never a solution; and without an asset management corporation, we couldn’t also go in this direction.
So basically, we put the banks on life support, put in a lot of money to keep them afloat, while we try to put up the safe outcome. The only difference was that in Malaysia, they have three institutions; one purchases non- performing loans, the other recapitalizes banks, and the third restructures loans. What we did, because of our legislative process, was to put the functions of all three in one company.
One of the challenges I had was because I came in intellectually prepared, I had a vision that was not very clear to colleagues at the Central Bank, and I had to bring them up very fast. So, I started this idea of a board strategy retreat outside the country. We went to Malaysia and sat with the Governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia. She gave us six hours of her time and we had gone with the Board of the Central Bank and the Chairman of the Senate banking committee and our banking committee, who were going to help us with legislation.
The Malaysian Central Bank Governor had been the Deputy Governor at the time of the financial crisis, and had now been Governor for eleven years. By the time we left Malaysia, everybody on the Board of the Central Bank knew that I knew what I was doing, and everybody keyed into it.”
As I mention aboved Sunusi did well in some sector of the Economy, but his ideology is decaying our domestics production which he always make an emphasis to the Capitalist oriented whereby he keep mute on domestiics production in order to boost our exportation for the economic growth and development and to the extend that the country to become sufficient in local production. He also backed the policy of Brenton wood institutions for Currency devaluation and subsidies removal, it’s the Situation that plunged the country into the miserable situation and backwardnes making the country still underdeveloped. from the mention aboved I rated Sunusi as an agent of exploitation.
Sunusi brainwashed our Iliterates Northerners and even the so called elites have been praising his mess and called him ‘ Ai Mai Ilimi ne’ instead to educated the people and express their vehemently towards his ideology, where they believed Sunusi is perfect to our Economy, but according to me he is one of the people making the country backward because of his liberal ideology which he neither Encourages our local production and nor pressurizing to boost the export. therefore Sunusi is just a mere social critic that can only Attract exploitative global Financial institutions to exploit our resources.
Let me emphasize my point to the Policy which introduced by the Nigeria Government on rice production, he did never in his speeches mention the significance of the Policy to encourage Nigerians to achieve economic growth and development by the way and manner of no longer defendant of food production in order to achieve import substitution. But now it’s obvious for every Nigerians, we can now feed ourselves and no longer importing rice to the Country as we now became food sufficient to the domestic production. with this policy Nigerians are now processing rice to the standard of the global market and many of our unemployments have got jobs instead of given the jobs to other country than to exploit our resources. With this policy of banned the importation of rice in the country. The gigantic achievement is making us productive to the extent that our State Bauchi Private individual came and established one of the best rice mill with enormous production capacity and other States establishes also, it’s therefore a very recorded development to the economy.
I never come across Sunusi in any news pressuring and criticizing the Northern Governors to resuscitate the dilapidated industries in the region for boosting the IGR of the North. He is always saying those States couldn’t pay Salaries BLA BLA…. Despite he knew that the Region have no Financial Institution. whats effort did he make in order to obtain the financial institution for the economic well being of the region when he was the boss in the Apex Bank? So therefore Sunusi have no patriotism for the Development of the North as well as the Country.
In the present situation of dilemma of traditional institutions , he is at peak of destroying the institution since he was turbaned as Emir of Kano, he introduced something strange to our traditional institution by sending his daughter to represent him which violet the ethics of our traditional institution as well as the religion, being we are Muslim oriented. Neither of his ancestors nor his successor ever did such. It’s a sign of disrespect to the council and to the entire Kano tradition title holders that attended the council meeting.
He devalue the traditional institution by directly engaging himself in to politics whereby Everyone can came to the social media and counter what he said or he is doing. The traditional institution and Islamic clerics remain respected and voice of the Northern voiceless. They are the only remaining pillars for the Northerners that will protect their interests. His wrong doing is always beyond his good did both to our economy and the traditional institutions.
Sunusi Lamido Sunusi would have been a great King if he composes himself and be calm. Calmness brings respect and greatness to a King, not too much talking or reacting to issues on media will make you great, it will only downgrade you and your value. Not everything worth reacting, some issues need silence as an answer. In Islam Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihim Wassallam said say good things or keep silence, but Sunusi says anything both good and bad, which is very wrong because a Powerful and Respected King doesn’t talk much so people are always afraid of what will come out of his mouth or what action will he take if they provoke him.
About the Power Tussle that is happening in Kano, Sunusi Lamido Sunusi would have rejected the offer when the Governor of Kano offer him a comeback invitation because that would have make him fearful and respected like his late Grand Father Sunusi the first, he lived and died like a King he was with full respect and dignity, but now even if Sunusi the II succeeded in the court and become King, He will still be removed if APC wins and that will bring more shame and disrespect to him more than the first dethronement. May Allah make Nigeria great
Ahmed Ghani Hassan
28/6/2024
ahmedghanihassan@gmail.com
