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Thursday,Dec 24,2009
Dim Ojukwu and Peter Obi’s Re-election Campaign
Former Biafran leader, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, has reportedly vowed to return Peter Obi to the Government ....
By Jideofor Adibe
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Thursday,Dec 17,2009
Don’t Cry for Me, Nigeria
It must have been around 1984 that Wole Soyinka declared his generation, ‘the wasted generation’. The 1....
By Jideofor Adibe
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Thursday,Dec 10,2009
A Nation in Coma: Beyond Constitutional Provisions
Nigeria is once again at one of those junctures where tripping over the precipice cannot be ruled out. At issue is ....
By Jideofor Adibe
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Thursday,Dec 03,2009
Uba’s Honorary Doctorate: Why UniZik Was Right
The recent award by Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UniZik), of an honorary Doctor of Public Administration (DPA), to An....
By Jideofor Adibe
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Thursday,Nov 26,2009
Sanusi: A Radical in a Conservative Job?
Sanusi Lamido Sanusi is a very brilliant man. He writes the English language with remarkable authority, and e....
By Jideofor Adibe
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Thursday,Nov 19,2009
Anambra State Needs Liberation
Anambra state has been in the news, often for the wrong reason, for much of the 4th Republic. It has in many ways b....
By Jideofor Adibe
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Thursday,Nov 12,2009
Heroes, Democracy, and the ‘PhD’ syndrome
A nation that does not honour its heroes is not worth dying for –so goes the cliché. This appear....
By Jideofor Adibe
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Thursday,Aug 06,2009
Are We Trying to Pull Down Barrack Obama?
Since Barrack Obama announced a visit to Africa, his relationship with Nigerian Internet bloggers seems to have sou....
By Jideofor Adibe
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Sanusi: A Radical in a Conservative Job?
By:
Jideofor Adibe
pcjadibe@yahoo.com
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Sanusi Lamido Sanusi is a very brilliant man. He writes the English language with remarkable authority, and even speaks it better. This could however be both an asset and a liability. Too much love of ‘grammar’ (turenci) could lead to an undue love for the podium and limelight, with attendant risks of gaffes in moments of rhetorical flourishes.
Central Bank Governors are thought to possess so much crucial information about their country’s economy that investors and analysts closely monitor their utterances even after they have left office. For instance when Alan Greenspan, who retired as chairman of the US Federal Reserve on January 31, 2006, predicted on February 26, 2007 that the US would enter into recession before or in early 2008, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped by 416 points (or 3.3 percent of its value) the following day. At that time, it was the worst one-day loss since September 17, 2001, when it lost 684 points (7.1 percent) after reopening in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
It is perhaps because of the ‘oracular’ nature of being the boss of a country’s central bank that emphasis is often placed not just on the professional qualifications of candidates for that office but even more importantly on their character and temperament. Willem "Wim" Frederik Duisenberg, first president of the European Central Bank (1998-2003) was generally considered a failure for not having the appropriate temperament for the job. In a special report on February 8, 2002, aptly captioned, “The Wrong Man for an Impossible Mission”, the Financial Times (London) summed up the angst against the late Dutch economist and financier: “The biggest criticism of Mr Duisenberg is not over the substance of his decisions, but over his presentation. His willingness to talk off the cuff and his often vivid turn of phrase have frequently raised eyebrows among other policy-makers.” About his critics, Duisenberg was quoted as saying: "I am direct - some say I am too direct… It is part of my character. Even if I wanted to change my character, I do not think I could."
At an event earlier this year in London to talk about the reforms in the banking sector, I asked Sanusi, if, professionally speaking, he saw a tension between where he now found himself, and where in his heart he felt he ought to be. I have read a few of Sanusi’s writings on Gamji.com and never ceased to admire his brilliance. I also always felt his ‘natural’ calling would be as a radical academic.
Sanusi said he did not consider himself a radical but admitted that when he was in merchant banking, he did feel that tension.
Despite his protestations, I am inclined to see him as a ‘radical’ or ‘revolutionist’ – in the sense of someone who favours extreme or fundamental changes in the way the society is organised. As with most revolutionists, Sanusi’s approaches to complex issues tend to be simplistic, and as the contradictions in his chosen options become obvious, the proffered solutions tend to appear contradictory or hastily taken. Consider the following examples:
In what would appear to be a reckless outburst of emotions, Sanusi was quoted as saying that the sacked bank executives now standing trial at the various courts in the country deserved to die by firing squad for eroding public confidence and raping the institutions that were entrusted to their care through reckless credit and loan administration processes. Sanusi was later to recant, perhaps after he realised the enormity of the statement. He now claimed that Nigerian bankers are honest, hardworking professionals and not the crooks he had made them to appear.
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