"Between January 2012 and July 2013, $20bn had not been accounted for....The president does not have the power to sack the central bank governor-only the National Assembly can do this....Efforts to tackle corruption rarely get anywhere in Nigeria."...Reported Oct. 2013, $1 billion every month is stolen from Nigerian oil, everyone is involved, banks in US
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2/20/14, "Nigeria central bank head Lamido Sanusi ousted," BBC
"Nigeria's central bank governor Lamido Sanusi has been suspended by the president for "financial recklessness and misconduct".
Mr Sanusi caused shockwaves in Nigeria when he alleged that $20bn (£12bn) in oil revenue had gone missing.
Nigeria's state oil firm has denied failing to account for the money, saying the claim was "unsubstantiated".
Mr Sanusi is widely respected after undertaking reforms to the banking sector since his appointment in 2009.
He was named central bank governor of the year for 2010 by Banker magazine.
Continue reading the main story
His allegations threaten to expose high-level fraud in Nigeria's notoriously opaque and corrupt oil sector. He says over a 19-month period, more than $1bn was unaccounted for every month.
The controversy comes at a time when elections loom and some of the president's senior officials are being asked some very awkward questions.
Mr Sanusi's critics wonder about his own political ambitions and question whether he is using his job to harm President Jonathan's chances in 2015. But to many Nigerians it will appear that the president has chosen to suspend the whistleblower rather than focus on stopping fraud.
Efforts to tackle corruption rarely get anywhere in Nigeria. In 2007 Nuhu Ribadu was suspended as the head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. As Nigeria's pidgin speakers would say: "To fight corruption. No be easy job o.""
(continuing main story):
Analysis
To say that Lamido Sanusi has become a fly in the ointment for President Goodluck Jonathan would be something of an understatement.His allegations threaten to expose high-level fraud in Nigeria's notoriously opaque and corrupt oil sector. He says over a 19-month period, more than $1bn was unaccounted for every month.
The controversy comes at a time when elections loom and some of the president's senior officials are being asked some very awkward questions.
Mr Sanusi's critics wonder about his own political ambitions and question whether he is using his job to harm President Jonathan's chances in 2015. But to many Nigerians it will appear that the president has chosen to suspend the whistleblower rather than focus on stopping fraud.
Efforts to tackle corruption rarely get anywhere in Nigeria. In 2007 Nuhu Ribadu was suspended as the head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. As Nigeria's pidgin speakers would say: "To fight corruption. No be easy job o.""
(continuing main story):
He told the BBC he would challenge his suspension in order to preserve the central bank's independence.
Foreign exchange, bond and money markets have stopped trading because of uncertainty caused by the move, Reuters news agency reports.
The BBC's Will Ross in Lagos says Mr Sanusi's allegations threaten to expose high-level fraud in Nigeria's notoriously opaque and corrupt oil sector. Nigeria is one of the world's biggest oil producers.
The controversy also comes ahead of next year's elections, with the governing party split over whether President Goodluck Jonathan should contest.
Anti-corruption credibility
Earlier this month, Mr Sanusi told a senate committee that out of $67bn of oil sold between January 2012 and July 2013, $20bn had not been accounted for.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation said the allegations showed "little understanding of the technicalities of the oil industry".
Mr Sanusi is currently in Niger attending a meeting of top officials, which he has now left.
His deputy, Sarah Alade, who is travelling with him, will fill in until a new governor is appointed.
President Jonathan asked him to resign in December but Mr Sanusi refused, sources told the BBC Hausa service.
The president does not have the power to sack the central bank governor - only the National Assembly can do this."...
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Nigeria's $1 billion per month oil theft racket rivals narcotics trade as world's most lucrative crime-UPI, Reuters
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10/18/13, "Nigeria's booming oil theft racket costs $1B a month," upi.org, Port Harcourt, Nigeria
"Royal Dutch Shell is selling off four of its onshore Nigerian oil blocks because of the constant theft of large volumes oil from its pipelines, officials said.
"Current estimates are that more than $1 billion of oil per month is stolen from the Niger Delta fields and corruption remains endemic even under well-meaning President Goodluck Jonathan. Nigeria ranks 133rd on the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index and 143rd on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index. True, high oil prices reversed 40 years of decline in living standards through 2000. And while GDP growth is slowing, it’s still expected to run at 6 percent to 7 percent this year. But with inflation in double digits and government expenditure budgeted to exceed revenue by 31 percent in 2012, Nigeria’s situation is unstable."
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Half of Nigeria's oil revenue has disappeared via theft and corruption:
April 2009, "Has globalization failed in Nigeria?" Yale.edu, Michael Watts
"Since 1960, over $600 billion in oil revenues has flowed into Nigeria’s coffers; it represents an opportunity unavailable to much of the developing world. These petrodollars could have been spent productively, could have transformed agriculture, laid the foundation for an effective public education system, provided much-needed infrastructure. Yet, according to the World Bank, of that $600 billion, $300 billion has simply disappeared into overseas bank accounts through theft and corruption."...
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"Public office is so lucrative that people will kill to get it. Nigeria has 36 state governors, 31 of whom are under federal investigation for corruption."
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8/8/2013, "A country so corrupt it would be better to burn our aid money," UK Daily Mail, Michael Burleigh
"Nigeria is not quite the most corrupt country on earth. But according to Transparency International, which monitors international financial corruption, it is not far off — coming a shameful 172nd worst among the 215 nations surveyed. Only countries as dysfunctional, derelict and downright dangerous as Haiti or the Congo are more corrupt.
In theory, Nigeria’s 170 million-strong population should be prospering in a country that in recent years has launched four satellites into space and now has a burgeoning space programme.
Moreover, Nigeria is sitting on crude oil reserves estimated at 35 billion barrels (enough to fuel the entire world for more than a year), not to mention 100 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
It also manages to pay its legislators the highest salaries in the world, with a basic wage of £122,000, nearly double what British MPs earn and many hundreds of times that of the country’s ordinary citizens.
No wonder the ruling elite can afford luxury homes in London or Paris, and top-end cars that, across West Africa, have led to the sobriquet ‘Wabenzi’, or people of the Mercedes-Benz.
Yet 70 per cent of Nigerians live below the poverty line of £1.29 a day, struggling with a failing infrastructure and chronic fuel shortages because of a lack of petrol refining capacity, even though their country produces more crude oil than Texas.
And that poverty is not for want of assistance from the wider world.
Since gaining its independence in 1960, Nigeria has received $400 billion (£257 billion) in aid — six times what the U.S. pumped into reconstructing the whole of Western Europe after World War II.
Nigeria suffers from what economists call the ‘resource curse’ — the paradox that developing countries with an abundance of natural reserves tend to enjoy worse economic growth than countries without minerals and fuels.
The huge flow of oil wealth means the government does not rely on taxpayers for its income, so does not have to answer to the people — a situation that fosters rampant corruption and economic sclerosis because there is no investment in infrastructure as the country’s leaders cream off its wealth.
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Given the appalling levels of corruption in that nation, this largesse is utterly sickening — for the money will only be recycled into bank accounts in the Channel Islands or Switzerland.
Frankly, we might as well flush our cash away or burn it for all the good it’s doing for ordinary Nigerians."
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