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Face the president and tell him the truth! – Sanusi tells ministers
Former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor and Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, has cautioned presidential advisers and ministers against becoming sycophants instead of providing candid counsel that could benefit the nation’s economy.
Sanusi delivered these remarks Monday in Abuja during the Oxford Global Think Tank Leadership Conference and Book Launch, where he and Atedo Peterside analyzed Nigeria’s economic policies and governance difficulties.
Addressing the importance of honesty and bravery in government service, Sanusi expressed concern that Nigeria’s leadership problems are amplified by sycophancy, with truth-tellers frequently labeled as government adversaries.
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“Our leaders listen but only to those who tell them what they want to hear,” the Emir said. “Nigeria has too many sycophants in government. Those who speak the truth are seen as enemies of the state.”
He criticized the increasing tendency toward excessive flattery of political figures during official events, cautioning that it suppresses genuine feedback and effective governance.
“You sit in a meeting, and the President is there. The first thing people say is, ‘Mr. President, I want to thank you for your great leadership. God has blessed Nigeria by making you our leader,’” Sanusi said. “By the time they finish laying that foundation, it is their advice that the President accepts.”
“But when you tell the truth and point out what is wrong, they say you are the enemy. That is why people like Atedo Peterside and myself are always seen as enemies of the state because people don’t like hearing the truth.”
Sanusi called on ministers and presidential counselors to rebuild integrity in public service through honest communication with leadership, emphasizing that unquestioning allegiance has hindered Nigeria’s advancement.
“Those who work with the President must understand that it is not in their benefit to turn themselves into praise singers,” he warned. “You disgrace yourself and the office you hold when you do that.”
Discussing economic matters, the Emir acknowledged the Tinubu administration’s fuel subsidy elimination and exchange rate unification as difficult but essential measures. However, he warned these reforms would prove ineffective without institutional discipline and responsible fiscal management.
“If you stop paying subsidies but continue borrowing more, it means you’ve filled one hole only to dig another,” he said. “The real challenge now is the quality of government spending and the management of the revenues saved.”
Sanusi, who led the CBN from 2009 to 2014, attributed Nigeria’s present economic difficulties to prolonged policy inconsistency and populist governance, observing that politicians who resisted subsidy removal in 2012 are now implementing it.
“In 2012, we warned that the subsidy was unsustainable, but politics took over,” he recalled. “Now the same people who led protests against it have inherited the problem and had no choice but to do the right thing.”
The Emir commended the current economic team’s professionalism, including Finance Minister Wale Edun and CBN Governor Yemi Cardoso, crediting them with positive steps toward stabilizing inflation and exchange rate fluctuations.
Nevertheless, he emphasized the urgent need to eliminate government waste, reduce cabinet size, and demonstrate leadership through example.
“Why do we need 48 ministers? Why do we need long convoys of vehicles and endless travel expenses?” he queried. “We cannot preach sacrifice to the people while living in luxury at the top.”
The conference theme, “Reimagining Leadership and Governance in a Changing Africa,” attracted policymakers, development specialists, and academics discussing pathways for governance effectiveness and institutional transformation.
Atedo Peterside, Stanbic IBTC Bank founder, reinforced Sanusi’s fiscal responsibility message, stating that government must demonstrate that subsidy removal savings benefit ordinary Nigerians.
“It’s not true that pain automatically brings gain,” Peterside warned. “Gain only follows pain if the government spends wisely, eliminates waste, and supports the poor.”
Both speakers agreed Nigeria’s recovery requires not just aggressive economic reforms but ethical renewal among leadership.
“Good policy without good governance is like planting a tree and refusing to water it,” Sanusi said. “Nigeria’s leaders must stop surrounding themselves with praise singers and start listening to the truth even when it is uncomfortable.”
A Rivers High Court sitting in Oyigbo Local Government Area has stepped into the escalating political crisis in the state, issuing an interim injunction that temporarily halts further action on the impeachment process against Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his deputy, Ngozi Nma-Odu.
In a ruling delivered in Port Harcourt, the court restrained the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Martin Amaewhule, alongside thirty-two other defendants — including the Clerk of the House and the Chief Judge of Rivers State—from taking steps aimed at advancing the impeachment process.
Specifically, the order barred the Chief Judge, Justice Simeon Chibuzor-Amadi, from receiving, forwarding, considering, or acting on any request, resolution, or impeachment-related document from the Assembly for the purpose of constituting an investigative panel, pending the determination of the matter. The injunction is to subsist for seven days.
In the two suits—marked OYHC/7/CS/2026 and OYHC/6/CS/2026—the court also granted the claimants leave to serve the interim order and other originating processes on the first to the thirty-first defendants by pasting them at the gate of the Rivers State Assembly quarters.
The court also directed that the Chief Judge, listed as the 32nd defendant, be served through any staff of the judiciary at his chambers within the court premises.
Justice Fiberesima thereafter adjourned the matter to January 23, 2026, for hearing of the motion on notice, as the legal battle over the impeachment move shifts from the political arena to the courtroom.
On Friday, the Rivers State House of Assembly had called on the Chief Judge of the state to set up a panel to investigate the allegations of gross misconduct against Governor Fubara and his deputy.
The assembly members, who made the call through a unanimous vote, vowed to continue with the impeachment process.
The lawmakers had earlier addressed a press conference in Port Harcourt, where they accused Fubara of allegedly using blackmail.
Addressing journalists, the deputy speaker, Dumle Maol, claimed Fubara lacked the trust needed to address the crisis rocking the oil-rich state.
They accused the governor of infringing on the 1999 Constitution, saying the parliament was left with no other choice but to apply their legislative power by impeaching him from office.
The lawmakers also claimed the governor and his deputy had resorted to intimidating the parliament.
They, however, thanked President Bola Tinubu for wading into the crisis.
The members also called on the Speaker, Martin Amaewhule, to reconvene the House.
Their position came weeks after they initiated an impeachment process against Fubara and Odu. The lawmakers are accusing them of gross negligence, a move that has heightened political tension in the coastal state.
No amount of intervention or pleading will mitigate the case of Siminalayi Fubara at this stage regarding the determination to impeach him, members of the Rivers State House of Assembly, vowed on Friday, as they opened a new chapter in the ongoing onslaught against the state governor.
Against the backdrop of what appeared like a lull when they failed to sit on Thursday for the same purpose, the members on their return, hinged the blame to go on with the action on the alleged intransigence of Fubara to retrace his step.
For this reason, the called on the state Chief Judge to set up the panel of investigation to look into the allegations of gross misconduct levied against Fubara and his deputy, Ngozi Odu.
Conveying their decision which came in form of a unanimous vote, the assembly members, who vowed to continue with the impeachment process, stressed that no amount of intimidation, blackmail or intervention would stop them this time – the third in the impeachment approach, which was first initiated in November 2023.
Dumle Maol, Deputy Speaker, had earlier told reporters that Fubara lacked the trust needed to address the crisis rocking the oil-rich state, accusing him of multiple infringement on the 1999 Constitution, which left the house with no other choice but to apply their legislative power.
Accusing the governor and his deputy of resorting to intimidation of the parliament, including the dropping of the name of President Bola Tinubu, they thanked the President for wading into the crisis in order to find a solution, but regrated that his efforts were stalled by the same Fubara.
If Peter Obi had mobilised Nigerians against those who rigged him out of the presidential election in 2023, his mandate given to him by the electorate would have been intact and he would have been President today.
This was the contention of Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, who ran with the former Governor of Anambra State, as vice-presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 elections, where Obi was the presidential candidate.
Datti-Ahmed, in an interview currently going viral on social media, told his hosts that anyone seeking to defeat President Bola Tinubu must not rely on the court process but resistance, using Nigerians as was done in the June 12, 1993 election saga against the military.
The outing on Nigeria Right Now, uploaded on YouTube on Thursday, quoted the politician, formerly Senator representing Kaduna Central at the National Assembly, as stating that he made this much clear to Obi, that the judiciary could not resolve the fundamental breaches of the constitution perpetrated by the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the last elections.
Hear him: “I told Peter Obi – Supreme Court cannot give you governor and give you presidency. For God’s sake, stand up and do something. The Nigerian Constitution was clearly breached.
“The Nigerian constitution was clearly breached; section 134 2b. It couldn’t be any clearer. Now, if it was June 12 people, and you breached not just the constitution but just one punctuation in their interest, I swear to God, nobody will sleep. They will take it.
“As much as I dislike the fact that they are using the Nigerian constitution, you must give it to them; they fight for their interest. They can organise rallies and can keep it up for three decades. And you are saying, ‘Let’s go to court; let’s go to court.’
“Whoever is going to defeat Tinubu must be ready to, I will use the word, ‘red eye’. You must show your red eyes because on that day that they are declaring the results, the people declaring fake results are criminals, and those who are stopping the declaration of fake results are good citizens. Whoever is going to defeat Tinubu must show red eyes… there’s no going to court.”
In the 2003 Anambra governorship election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Chris Ngige of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) the winner, but Obi, candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), challenged the result and was later affirmed governor by the court of appeal in March 2006.
Similarly, in 2023, Obi challenged Tinubu’s victory, the APC presidential candidate, but his appeal was dismissed up to the supreme court level.
Court halts move to impeach Fubara *Orders CJ to tarry on panel
Impeachment: Do your job, Rivers assembly tells CJ *Insist Fubara must go
Rigging: I warned Obi that judicial option in 2023 won’t work – Datti
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