Nigeria : Sanusi, Unable To Shake Off Sex Scandal

Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, Nigeria’s Central Bank Governor, appears unable to shake off a report that he funneled public funds to Maryam Yaro, a married mistress whom he gave a job at the bank he oversees. Premium Times was first to report the scandal in which Mr. Sanusi was accused of abusing his office in order to advance an amorous relationship with a woman. Read it HERE Several sources told SaharaReporters that Premium Times has been under intense pressure from associates of the CBN Governor since the expose was published. In the wake of the report, the CBN also issued a widely circulated rebuttal claiming that Ms. Yaro was never a staff of the bank, that she was employed at Nigeria Incentive-based Risk Sharing Systems For Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL), and that the governor had no hand in her recruitment. But records obtained by SaharaReporters suggest that the bank’s claims are an attempt to muddle up the facts. NIRSAL, to which Ms. Yaro is attached, is a special purpose vehicle (SPV) set up by the Federal Government through a partnership between the CBN and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture. Besides, the project is domiciled in the Development Finance Department of the CBN.

It is the CBN’s human resource department that hires staff for NIRSAL, and it is Mr. Sanusi who approves all recruitments into the agency, insiders say. Records available to us indeed showed that, contrary to the CBN’s claims, Mr. Sanusi directly and personally approved Ms. Yaro’s recruitment. Investigations by SaharaReporters revealed that, after approving Ms. Yaro’s hiring and sending her file back to the bank’s human resource department, Mr. Sanusi sent a message to his mistress on June 25, 2012 saying, ‘I’m in South Africa. I approved your recruitment last week.’ Ten minutes later, Ms. Yaro responded: ‘You have made my day. Thank you so much. Let me know when you are back.’ continued