Sanusi Seeks NNPC Audit, Says President Shouldn’t Be Petroleum Minister

A thorough examination of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) is what Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the former head of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), demanded. He said this was the reason he lost his position at the top bank.

He revealed this while giving his speech at the Bank Directors Summit, which took place at the Congress Hall of the Transcorp Hilton in Abuja.

Sanusi, who led the CBN from June 2009 to February 2014, argued that the President should not also be the Petroleum Minister.

The ex-CBN boss said that the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) and the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) should stay until the banks pay back what they owe the system.

He also stressed that the banking sector should improve its trustworthiness in the public eye and that there was no need to change the CBN Act to protect the apex bank from political interference.

In August, about three months after he took office, President Bola Tinubu divided the Ministry of Petroleum Resources by naming Ekperipe Ekpo as the Minister of State for Gas Resources and Heineken Lokpobiri as the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources.

But Tinubu, following in the footsteps of his predecessor, ex-President Muhammadu Buhari, kept the role of the main Minister of Petroleum Resources for himself.