As controversy tails His Royal Highness, Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi newest title,Let us take you the full Biography of Emir of Kano,Sanusi was born into the Fulani Sullubawa clan of Kano on the 31st of July 1961. He was crowned
on the 8th of June 2014 as the emir of Kano,
succeeding his late great-uncle Dr Ado Bayero (who died on friday 6 June 2014).
Malam Sanusi was a successful banker and was a former Governor of the Central
Bank of Nigeria.
He was appointed on 3 June 2009 for a five-year term, but was suspended from
office by President Goodluck Jonathan on 20 February 2014 after he was accused
of exposing some financial recklessness by the president’s regime. Malam Sanusi
is the grandson Muhammadu Sanusi (the 11th Fulani emir of Kano ).
He was a career banker and ranking
Hausa nobleman, and also serves as a respected Islamic scholar. The global
financial intelliegence magazine, The Banker, published by the Financial Times,
has conferred on Sanusi two awards, the global award for Central Bank Governor
of the Year, as well as for Central Bank Governor of the Year for Africa. The TIME magazine also listed Sanusi in its TIMES
100 list of most influential people of 2011. Banking career In 1985 Sanusi
joined Icon Limited (Merchant Bankers), a subsidiary of Morgan Guaranty Trust
Bank of New York,
and Baring Brothers of London. He moved to the United Bank for Africa in 1997 in the Credit and Risk Management
Division, rising to the position of a General Manager. In September 2005, he
joined the Board of First Bank of Nigeria as an Executive Director in
charge of Risk and Management Control, and was appointed Group Managing
Director (CEO) in January 2009. He was also the Chairman, Kakawa Discount House
and sat on the Board of FBN Bank (UK) Limited.
Sanusi is recognized in the
banking industry for his contribution towards developing a risk management
culture in Nigerian banking. First Bank is Nigeria’s
oldest bank and one of the biggest financial institutions in Africa.
Sanusi was the first northerner to be appointed CEO in First Bank’s history of
more than a century. Governor of the Central Bank President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua
nominated Sanusi as Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria on 1 June 2009 and his
appointment was confirmed by the Senate on 3 June 2009, in the middle of a
global financial crisis. Analysts believed that Sanusi’s tempered mien would
serve as a counterpoise to the more aloof disposition of his predecessor,
Charles Chukwuma Soludo. Based on his past record, it seemed probable that as
governor of the central bank he would impose stricter controls. In August 2009,
Sanusi led the Central Bank to “rescue” Afribank, Intercontinental Bank, Union
Bank, Oceanic Bank and Finbank by bailing them out with 400 billion naira of
public money, and dismissed their chief executives. Some point to other factors
including religious, ethnic and existing bank records and plans to say he in
fact had a hidden agenda. He said “We had to move in to send a strong signal
that such recklessness on the part of bank executives will no longer be
tolerated.” 16 senior bank officials faced charges that included fraud, lending
to fake companies, giving loans to companies they had a personal interest in
and conspiring with stockbrokers to boost share prices, and today he has been
appointed as the Emir of Kano by Gov. Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso of Kano following the departure of Alh. Ado Bayero. In September
2009, he said that 15 of the current 24 Nigerian banks might survive reform in
the banking sector. In a wide-ranging interview with the Financial Times in
December 2009, Sanusi defended the extensive reforms that he had initiated
since taking office, dubbed by some as the “Sanusi tsunami”. Some believe that
he had a personal vendetta against some of the bank CEOs while others point to
proof of mismanagement of funds by some of the CEOs, most notably Cecilia Ibru
as justification for the steps he implemented. He noted that there was no
choice but to attack the many powerful and interrelated vested interests who
were exploiting the financial system, and expressed his appreciation of support
from the Presidency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the finance
minister and others. In January 2010, Sanusi said that banks will only want to
give credit to Nigeria’s
small and medium enterprises (SMEs), if the government gives adequate attention
to the provision of infrastructure. In January 2010, Sanusi admitted that since
2005 the Central Bank had not conducted routine examinations of the 14 banks
allocated to it under the sharing arrangement with Nigerian Deposit Insurance
Corporation (NDIC). Abubakar Nagona, president of Integrated Development and
Investment Service (IDIS), a venture capital investment company urged Sanusi to
“not be cowed and succumb to undue pressure from operators of the same sector
he is striving to bring sanity to.”[16] At a February 2010 conference on banking
in Nigeria,
Sanusi described his blueprint for reforming the Nigerian financial system. He
said that it was built around four pillars of enhancing the quality of banks,
establishing financial stability, enabling healthy financial sector evolution
and ensuring that the financial sector contributes to the real economy. Talking
later that month, Sanusi said that the crash in the capital market was due to
high level of financial illiteracy on the part of Nigerian investors. The
Banker unanimously recognized him as the Central Bank Governor of the Year 2010
citing his radical anti-corruption campaign aimed at saving 24 banks on the
brink of collapse and pressing for the managers involved in the most blatant
cases of corruption to be charged and, in the case of two senior bankers,
imprisoned. Sanusi has spoken at many distinguished events, including Warwick
Economics Summit in February 2012 where he spoke about banking reforms in Nigeria and
their impact on the economy. Sharia authority In parallel to his banking
career, Sanusi contributed to the debate over Sharia law. In 1997, Sanusi
obtained a degree in Sharia and Islamic Studies from the African
International University
in Khartoum, Sudan. Writing in the Weekly Trust
in September 2000, he noted the problem of reconciling “belief in the universal
and eternal applicability of the Shariah with the need for a wholesale adoption
of its historically specific interpretation to meet the requirements of a
particular milieu.
” He further said that “Even a cursory student of Islamic
history knows that all the trappings of gender inequality present in the Muslim
society have socio-economic and cultural, as opposed to religious roots.” At a
conference in 2000 in Kaduna,
Sanusi delivered a lecture on Islamic economics called Institutional Framework
of Zakat: Dimension and Implications. He argued that although collection of
zakat is the responsibility of the state, it may be the responsibility of the
Nigerian government rather than the emirs in Northern
Nigeria. In July 2001 at a seminar in Abuja
he talked on Basic Needs and Redistributive Justice in Islam – The Panacea to
Poverty in Nigeria.
He took the mainstream position that zakat is an instrument for redistributing
income, but argued in favor of giving the role of redistribution to the
government. In October 2002 he published a paper on The Hudhood Punishments in Northern Nigeria: A Muslim Criticism. In July 2003 he
presented The Shari’a Debate and the Construction of a ‘Muslim’ Identity in
Northern Nigeria: A Critical Perspective at a seminar at the University of Bayreuth.
In August 2003 he presented Democracy, Rights and Islam: Theory, Epistemology
and the Quest for Synthesis at an international conference on Shari’ah Penal
and Family Law in Nigeria
and in the Muslim World: A Rights-Based Approach in Abuja. There are two underlying themes to
Sanusi’s position. First, Islam is concerned with delivering justice and should
not be a tool for self-seeking political agendas. Second, the Wahhabist
rhetoric of fundamentalists is counter to genuine Muslim interests.
He explains
that Sharia is not divine but merely religious, and is neither uniform nor
unchanging. Nigeria
‘Fuel Subsidy’ removal Economists have tended to favor the removal of
subsidies. He cites the high level of corruption engendered by the practice,
the inefficiency of subsidizing consumption instead of production leading to
slower economic growth, and the fact that the government borrows money to
finance the subsidy, in effect taxing future generations so that current Nigerians
can consume more fuel. Sanusi, other economists and development
practitioners[25] also cite that the subsidy is heavily biased in favor of the
small middle- and upper-class who use most of the fuel. Additionally, some
people purchase the subsidized gas in Nigeria to resell it in other West
African countries. Emir of Kano Being a royal descent, Sanusi was selected to
succeed his great uncle Ado Bayero as the Emir of Kano on the 8th of June, 2014
and his formal coronation took place on the 9th of June, 2014 making him the
57th Emir of Kano
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