Bola Tinubu, the president of Nigeria, shouldn’t serve as both the minister of petroleum and the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), according to former governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi.
Speaking at The Bank Directors Summit on Thursday at the Transcorp Hilton in Abuja’s Congress Hall, Sanusi made the utterance.
After taking office, President Tinubu divided the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, appointing Ekperipe Ekpo as the Minister of State for Gas Resources and Heineken Lokpobiri as the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, but he kept his position of substantive Minister of Petroleum Resources for himself.
In addition, the former Emir of Kano demanded that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) be audited, claiming that it was this demand that ultimately cost him his position as CBN Governor.
This is similar to how his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, handled it when he was also the Minister of Petroleum.
On the other hand, Sanusi said in his speech that the President shouldn’t also serve as the Minister of Petroleum.
The former governor of the CBN also emphasised during the occasion that the CBN Act has to be changed in order to maintain the independence of the central bank from political interference.
