SANUSI’S SUSPENSION:

WORKING MASSES MUST RESIST ENDLESS LOOTING

No illusions in Sanusi or Jonathan, working masses’ organizations must mobilise mass resistance against all sections of the looting elite

We in the Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN) regard the suspension of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as Central Bank Governor by President Goodluck Jonathan as a grand plan to cover the tracks of his government on the alleged missing $20 billion oil revenue. 

We do not doubt that Sanusi might be guilty of serious financial recklessness as alleged by President Jonathan. Indeed, we suspect that all his unbridled donations to different causes are veritable means of siphoning public resources to different self-serving purposes. We however hold that this is not the real reason for his suspension by President Jonathan. This is because Jonathan government is not renowned for fight against corruption.

We recall that last year President Jonathan unashamedly granted state pardon to Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, the former governor of Bayelsa who was convicted of monumental corruption and a fugitive of law from Britain where he is still facing money laundering charges. Also, President Jonathan only officially relieved Stella Oduah of her ministerial post like three other ministers in order to pursue a political ambition and not because of serious allegation of financial recklessness and corruption she was involved.  These are few examples of how Jonathan government is in comfort with corruption.

We observe that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has been unable to provide concrete evidence to deny the claims of Sanusi on the missing oil revenue at different rounds of hearings on the matter at the Senate. Yet, all the comments and actions of the top functionaries of Jonathan government tend towards a cover-up for the NNPC management.

SANUSI- A PRO-CAPITALIST POPULIST

However, we in the SPN urge the mass of working people not to hold any iota of illusion in Sanusi as an “anti-corruption” fighter. To us, Sanusi is a pro-capitalist element who as the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria supervised the bailout of big fraudsters in the Nigerian Banking industry with public funds. The big-time robbers at the helms of Nigerian banks after having run them aground received a mere slap on the wrist in the courts and huge bailouts from the government.

We also recall that Sanusi was at the centre of the advocacy for the removal of fuel so-called subsidy that led to the tumultuous 2012 general strike and mass protests. As an anti-working class fighter for the entire capitalist ruling elite, he is a major advocate for mass retrenchment of workers ostensibly in order to “save” the economy.  

MISSING OIL REVENUE - MASS ACTIONS NOW TO STOP ENDLESS LOOTING

However, the suspension of Sanusi has not taken the heat off the main underlying issue of the missing $20 billion oil revenue for the Jonathan regime. It can only be said that it has only confirmed the validity of the allegations, and in a way accord Sanusi a “populist” clout.

We call on working masses organizations including Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) as well as the Joint Action Front (JAF) to build mass actions to demand an end to the massive looting going on under the Jonathan regime with the concurrent demand that the regime should go.

However, this clear political demand can only be given forceful expression within the broad framework of a pan-working peoples’ political and electoral alternative that can be at the head of the mass movement against the current regime and its second eleven, the All Progressives’ Congress (APC) which has turned Sanusi into a “delightsome bride”. We hold that this scenario has only confirmed the urgent need for a genuine working peoples’ political alternative.

The SPN is currently working towards its registration with the INEC. The party can act as a small but decisive step towards filling the wide void in the representation of interests of the working people in and outside elections. This is together with working to help rebuild the workers’ movement from the base to play its all-important and historical task of leading other sections of the oppressed strata in an unwavering struggle to defeat capitalism. The SPN will be at the forefront of the immediate mass mobilization to resist the massive and endless looting by the thieving capitalist ruling elite in Nigeria.       

Segun Sango

National Chairperson