By Jake Bright
Nigeria’s soaring economy has met its match: old-style politics.
On Feb. 20, president Goodluck Jonathan suspended central bank governor Lamido Sanusi amid the latter’s claims that $20 billion in revenue was missing from the state oil corporation. The move sparked widening bond spreads and tumbling currency valuation in Africa’s most populous nation.
In
a public statement, Jonathan said the central banker was relieved
for “financial recklessness and misconduct”—a curious characterization
for a man globally and generally regarded as a competent financial
steward. In an interview with
Quartz, Sanusi dismissed the allegations, pointing to his outing of oil
graft as the actual reason for his discharge. “My
sense is the government wanted me to stop a number of investigations
and this was their way of getting me out of the way,” he says. Sanusi is
pressing for an accounting of the missing $20 billion and on Feb. 26 filed suit in Nigeria’s High Court against Jonathan’s authority to suspend him.
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