By Francesca Hangeior.
Former President Goodluck Jonathan says Nigeria did not lose $49.8 billion under his administration as stated by the 16th Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, in his new book.
Jonathan spoke Thursday in Abuja at the launch of the book titled: “and he is inPublic Policy and Agent Interests: Perspectives from The Emerging World”.
The book was edited by former Minister of Finance, Shamsuddeen Usman.
According to the former President, the country cannot lose such an amount and still be able to pay salaries.
“I need to say why I did not quite agree with him. All that he wrote was on some of the issues, especially the one that is related to me.
“He said he was sacked because he blew the whistle that the federal government lost $49.8 billion. It’s not quite correct. It was not that he was sacked. He was suspended,” he said.
Jonathan said the Financial Reporting Council of CBN couldn’t investigate the allegations due to limited time.
“Before we could finish, his tenure was already over. Probably we would have called him back,” he said.
“Till today, I’m not convinced that the federal government lost $49.8 billion.
“After they came up with more figures; first $49.8 billion, later 20 billion, later 12 billion. So, I don’t even know the correct one,” he said.
He, however, said after forensic audits, nobody was able to say $50 billion was missing, adding, “The report they came up with was that there is $1.48 billion dollars that they couldn’t really give a proper account and that NNPC should pay that money to the federation account.”