Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has justified blowing the whistle on the purported missing cash from the Federation Account.
According to Sanusi, if courting controversy will lead to improved governance and transparency, he's okay by it.
Speaking in Lagos on Monday night hours after he spilled the beans before Senators in Abuja, he said: "I love controversy"
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) yesterday accused him of raising false alarm.
Sanusi told the Senate committee on Finance that "it is established that of the $67billion crude shipped by the NNPC between January 2012 and July 2013, $47billion was remitted to the Federation Account.
"There is no dispute that $20billion has not been paid into any account into the CBN."
Speaking of the Standard West African Investors' conference in Lagos, he said the noise around him and the oil sector is good for the country because it has positive implications for the country and its citizens.
Sanusi got the backing yesterday of the President of the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers (CIS), Mr. Ariyo Olushekun, who said: "It's a huge amount of money, whether $10 billion or $20 billion or any amount, this runs into trillions of naira. Such figures should not be missing; every government agency should be able to account for the incomes through them.
The Governor added: "Because if you think there has to be a change, and if you think a system needs to be improved, if you get too comfortable with the system, you should ask yourself, what has happened to you?."
Sanusi explained that the problem with government revenues bothered on leakages. "If you look at government spending in 2013, it wasn't much higher than what we had in 2012. And the fiscal policy is not in itself loose on the basis of government spending. The real challenge is that there are things we can do to block some of the revenue shortfalls in solving these problems like checking oil theft and bunkering, among others."
Sanusi said people should learn to take bold and courageous steps in the course of doing their jobs.
"You need to step on a few toes. Annoy a few people. Allow people step on your toes and be annoyed once in a while," he said.
Sanusi described Nigerians as resilient and hardworking.
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