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Lamido Sanusi, the CBN Governor has stated that some officials
whose responsibility it was to raise the flag when things were going wrong in
the banks cannot be absolved from blame for the crisis that eventually
overwhelmed some banks.

Speaking at a workshop in Benin City, the Edo State capital,
with the theme, ‘The Blueprint for banking reforms in Nigeria: Issues,
Challenges and Prospects,’ Mr Sanusi said the CBN would not shield any officer
that is found culpable. “If for instance, I have documentary evidence that
junior officers had escalated warning signals across board and nothing was
done, why should I sack the junior officer and if those who were supposed to
have acted had already left the Central Bank, what do I do?”

He, however, said the outcome of an upcoming House of
Representative public hearing on the failure of the banking industry may
provide the right platform for the Central Bank to deal with its officials who
refused to act at the proper time.

He said documents that would be submitted by the CBN, Nigeria
Deposit Insurance Corporation, and Securities and Exchange Commission, would
expose who did what before the crisis. “We will still look within the Central
Bank and if there are people who ought to have seen things that they did not
see, then there will be consequences,” he said.

Whistle blower

Mr Sanusi said even before he became governor, he had blown the
whistle on the malfeasance of some of his colleagues, adding that the signals
were clear even when he was chief risk officer at First Bank when many banks
were taking depositors’ money and investing in markets that they did not
understand. “I told everybody then that there was a problem in the banking
system and the Central Bank was not facing the problem and that the system will
explode in the faces of all of us,” he said.

“I told the governor then
at the bankers’ committee that he had no business asking banks to restructure
margin loans without providing for them and he was not happy.” He said his
decision to delay reprimanding CBN officials who might be culpable of conniving
with the bank was tactical. “I had to make sure the Central Bank was strong and
secured before I fight.”

Quoting from Tze Tsu’s book, The Art of War, he said “If you are in battle,
the ground on which you stand must be strong. There is no way you go into a war
and light a fire under your own shoes.” Mr. Sanusi said his focus was on
building a strong institution so that every official can take collective
responsibility for decisions.

“Decisions and pronouncements that I
make should not be seen as that of Sanusi but as the decision of the Central
Bank based on what has flowed up from below,” he said. He said all the actions
taken last year to arrest the banking crisis were based on the recommendation
of the department of banking supervision. “They recommended that we removed the
managing directors. But as the governor, I take responsibility for that
decision. That is how institutions are built,” he said.