23rd February, 2014
Sulaimon Mojeed-Sanni
The General Overseer of the Latter Rain Assembly and Convener of Save Nigeria Group, Tunde Bakare, has said that the suspended Central Bank of Nigeria, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi acted too late in blowing the whistle on the un-remitted $20 billion dollars of the $67 billion that accrued to the country from crude shipped by Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation(NNPC) between January 2012 and July 2013.
The former Vice Presidential candidate under the Congress for Progressive Change, made the statement in a speech delivered at today’s sermon held at The Latter Rain Assembly, Lagos, Nigeria.
He equated Sanusi current travails to that of a farmer who fails to apprehend the thief on his farm in time, thereby allowing the thief to turn around to label the farm owner the thief instead.
Noting that the lateness has resulted in the whistle blower becoming an object of persecution, he averred that for the SNG, it is better late than never and the group would always be on the side of truth.
“Nevertheless, it is better late than never. Now that the whistle has been blown and the blower has become the object of persecution, we remain where we have always been – on the side of God and on the side of truth and we stand by those who pitch their tent on this side.
“We will not shoot the wounded righteous soldier. In the midst of persecution, wounded they may be, let them rest on this side knowing the arc of the moral universe may be long but it bends towards justice,” the Pastor turn politician said.
Bakare said when Save Nigeria Group raised the bar during the last fuel subsidy protest and maintained that government-backed corruption fuelled by NNPC was the main issue, a corroborating voice from the now ousted CBN Governor, would have added weight to the outcry.
He however said Sanusi is courageous, in the view that few men of aristocratic background would speak out against profligacy and monetary imprudence especially among the legislators and sometimes among the executives.
“Perhaps, no serving government official has been as outspoken against misgovernance as the suspended CBN Governor, however, when the CBN, the Ministry Finance, the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, the PPPRA, the NNPC and other agencies provided conflicting figures as to actual subsidy payments to the Adhoc committee on the management of fuel subsidy, that may have been the opportune time to blow the whistle,” he said.
Quoting the Holy Bible in Proverbs 11:21, “though hand joins in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished but the seed of the righteous shall be delivered.”
He therefore urged that despite his travails, however severe it may become in the days ahead, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi should remember the words of William Cullen Bryant,” Truth crushed to earth, shall rise again, th’ eternal years of God are hers; but error, wounded, writhes in pain, and dies among his worshippers,” he concluded.