it is Saturday the 10th day of June 2023 barely 12 days after the inauguration of Nigeria's new president Bola AAG this man is sitting in a hilock truck presumably on his way out of the country suddenly he is stopped by the men he is allegedly running away from but who is this guy until 24 hours ago he was the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria one of the most powerful men in the country however right now staring out of this truck with the engine still running he knows he is nothing more than a wanted man one about to face the most difficult moment of his life the question is why was it running you see a few months before this very moment particularly in February 2023 just two weeks before Nigeria's presidential election something strange happened inside the Central Bank of Nigeria's foreign Payment Office 6. 23 million had allegedly vanished from the bank's vote but was this a random breaking or a daring Heist it would have taken the fictional Professor from the television show Money Heist to pull off such a meticulously planned theft without getting caught wouldn't it well it turns out there is another way to go about such operations without raising alarms get a paperwork yeah the right paperwork according to investigations a letter dated January 23rd 2023 with a signature Mark muhammadu Bari and which was sent to MrBoss Mustafa surfaced with the title Presidential Directive on foreign election Observer missions sounds official right well this letter supposedly gave the goahead for $6. 23 million to be withdrawn from the cian vote money to be used for well foreign election observers the challenge though was that muhamad buari never gave such directives there was no actual presidential approval for that transaction and this letter was a fake a cover up for one of the most audacious acts of fraud under this man God doing but this fraud is just one of many there were some mindboggling Revelations about how this guy and some of his deputies were responsible for one of the biggest Financial scandals in Nigeria's history the Scandal said to be worth over $30 billion the question we have going into this warnings was he acting alone or is he just the Fall Guy now let's pause here for a second as a video creator there comes a time when you need that something extra to take your video game to to the next level what if you can get a tool that helps you tell stories make beautiful explainer videos product ads you name it enabling you to communicate your ideas in the form of stunning videos the kind you've always wanted to create the kind You' be excited to share with your peers in the most seamless intuitive way possible irrespective of your skill level let me introduce you to invid aiv V3 the Ultimate Game Changer in video creation unlike traditional video tools with steep learning CES that only solve parts of your video creation process invid is the creative partner that you have always wanted that allows you to focus entirely on your vision and 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in financial recklessness and misconduct suddenly one of the most powerful seats in the country was empty San's dramatic Fallout with then president good Lu Jonathan sent shock waves Across the Nation but there was no time for long talks president gulo Jonathan needed someone to fill that role and he needed it immediately he needed someone loyal and someone with good reputation in the financial World a few names were floated around one of such was alleged to be MrJim oia I started zened bank with 20 million naira in 199 that is about $5 million at the same rate of four naira to the dollar thereabout for context the early '90s was a period of significant change in Nigeria's banking industry reforms were happening and young talents with fresh ideas were in demand brilliant businessmen like AIA saw the opportunity and he went on to build the famous zeni Bank from the ground up however when he was allegedly called up to serve as the sibian governor reports claimed that he recommended another name for the top job you see while oier often regarded as the Godfather of banking in Nigeria was benefiting from the banking reforms of the early '90s to set up one of the biggest banks in Africa a young lecturer was quitting his lecturing job to venture into the world of banking and finance a who had spent his early career as a lecturer at the University of Nigeria in Suka and later at the University of pakat teaching finance and insurance made the leap into banking just at the right time Jim oia saw something special in the young me and brought him on board to Zenit Bank me's work ethic and loyalty stood out immediately he wasn't just a sharp Banker he could execute oia's Vision with Precision under oia's mentorship climbed the ranks by 2010 when oia stepped down as CEO due to regulatory term limits mfla was ready to take over the Helm of Affairs he became the CEO of zeni Bank overseeing a period of explosive growth and transforming the bank into one of Africa's largest financial institutions with over $24 billion in assets so back to 2014 with with the president of Nigeria waiting on the call for answers to the question of who would become his new cban governor a meist name came for and not so many disputed the work he had done with Zenit Bank his appointment was sweetly confirmed by the Nigerian Senate and from here what appeared to be a moment of Triumph for a small boy from the streets of sapel in Delta State rising to the high office in charge of the Apex Bank in what was then Africa's biggest economy soon became his [Music] downfall a year into his tenure as sibian Governor president gulov Jonathan lost his reelection beid to this guy mamadu barari following bari's Inauguration in 2015 mfla would put on a new heart that was not too familiar to Nigerians you see the Central Bank of Nigeria was supposed to maintain its autonomy avoiding all political influence in the quest to keep Nigeria's economy stable however Mees romance with the bhari Le government not only undermined the central bank's Independence but it also LED his office to all sorts of scandals never before heard of in the bank's history now let's start with his policies as cban Governor during his confirmation hearing G told the Nigerian Senate that he would oppose any efforts to devalue the Nira but while he promised to keep the exchange rates stable his 9 years in office saw Nigeria plunge into an unprecedented exchange rate crisis even when several financial institutions advised him to consider devaluing the N me stood his ground he would go on to introduce 11 initiatives all targeted at keeping the Nar stable but they all failed for context took the Nara from 171 per dollar to 750 perar on the black market and while he managed to keep the official rate at 461 n per dollar most businessmen lacked access to Forex at the official rate you see as oil revenues fell so did Nigeria's foreign reserves and me responded by enforcing strict policies restricting foreign currency assets for set import the idea was to push Nigeria toward local production but it didn't work as planned the gap between the official exchange rate and the black market rate grew and soon the NRA began to crash foreign businesses could not repatriate their funds some even had to quit flying to Nigeria alt together however while some legitimate businesses suffered from this dollar crunch it was alleged that some Close Associates of the former Sian Governor got breed from something called Arbitrage they obtained dollars at the official rate and sold them to Folks at the black market rate well it wasn't all doom under MF however he had some pretty good intentions for the Nigerian economy like when he wanted to shift the country away from his Reliance on cud or shortly after coming into office g m pushed policies aimed at diversifying the Nigerian economy he focused mainly on agriculture and Manufacturing reducing Nigeria's Reliance on Imports this led to the launch of something called The Anchor borrowers program pumping billions into local agriculture to help small farmers boost their production the goal was to make Nigeria self-sufficient in food production especially for staple crops like rice he claimed that 1.
09 trillion n was dis goes to over 4. 6 million Farmers through the C of this program in fact at one point MF claimed that Nigeria had stopped importing rice altogether claiming the title of Africa's largest rice producer however not everyone was buying this while some saw the program as a Lifeline some pointed out inefficiencies and Corruption the debt piled up for many farmers and the promised results didn't quite materialized on paper it looked good billions invested millions of farmers helped but Ben this office cracks were beginning to show and as we'll soon see those cracks would become harder to ignore by 2022 the political landscape in Nigeria was shifting as the country prepared for his next presidential election something strange happened a group of farmers supposedly benefiting from M agricultural reforms bought him a 100 million n nomination form to run for president believing that he could be Nigeria's future now this was more than just a career move it was illegal as sibian Governor M was not allowed to get involved in politics but instead of stepping down he secretly went to a court seeking permission to run without leaving his post the court shut him down but the damage was already done despite the growing controversy president Muhammad barari did not let him go it seemed like MF was determined to cling onto his position and with that he made a proposition to the president that is mamad one that led to chaos and unimaginable suffering for the people me introduced a policy to redesign The N he claimed that this policy was meant to tackle counterfeiting and C vote buying ahead of the election but the timing couldn't have been worse the policies packed chaos with Nigerian struggling to assess the new currency riots broke out Banks were burned and people took to the streets in Anger as these policies backfired Whispers of corruption began to surface at first em seemed Untouchable until he wasn't shortly after president ubu's inauguration as Nigeria's 16th president in 2023 MF was suspended the cabal that had allegedly protected him during buhari's Administration is gone and has been thrown to the Wolves the scandals that would unfold following his suspension as Sian Governor would reveal a much deeper Story one filled with hidden deals corruption and a system rigged from the inside following a meist suspension from Office president tinu appointed a special investigator to look into a meist ten as cian governor and what he found where do I begin we begin with the Nar redesign policy first it was discovered that the infamous n redesign wasn't even properly approved neither the CBN board nor president barari officially gave the green light to this project regardless mfla would spend ridiculous sums of money on printing new notes at the cost of about 61. 5 billion n out of that 31.
8 billion was paid to a contractor and when the policy backfired and the cban got sted mean Co claimed to have spent another 1. 72 7 billion n unquestionable legal fees the special investigator would later reveal that MF did not consult with the central bank's board of directors until December 15th 2022 about a month and a half after the contract for the redesign was awarded this was in violation of section 19 of the CBN Act of 2007 which mandates that he get the B approval before making any major changes like this one also the Nar design was supposed to be for four denominations however in his usual act now and seek permission later did not inform President Mohammad buari before cutting down the redesign to three so the big question then becomes was M trying to frustrate the political class to cry favors with the outgoing president and they alleged cabar running things at the time where Nigerians just collateral damage in a much bigger political maneuvering in the lead up to the 2023 J elections interestingly the investigation implicated not just a but 13 other persons there was also the small matter of secretly lodging billions of Nara in foreign currencies across 593 bank accounts without any approval these accounts were not in Nigeria but scattered AC across the United States the United Kingdom and China however the most concerning part was that none of these accounts had the proper authorization as the Apex bank's board of directors and the CBN investment committee knew nothing about it the report also revealed how mfla had quietly stashed 543 million in fixed deposits in the UK Banks alone but what was the purpose of this Secret depos let me take you back to February 2023 remember the $6. 23 million that reportedly vanished from the vote of the cian as a result of a fake Presidential authorization letter dated January 23rd 2023 well it so happened that CCTV footage from inside the CBN office in Abuja captured the entire operation you can imagine the scene on the 7th and 8th of February the cash was quietly removed an official whoo took the lead procuring the dollar bills and handing them over to PRS yet to be fully identified and just like that the $6.
23 million disappeared slipping into the hands of whoever was behind this elaborate scheme however it gets even more bizarre the theft went on notice for nearly 10 months this led to some serious questions because that kind of disappearance doesn't just go on notice unless someone wants it to in fact the only reason why the he was discovered at all was because president ubu's special investigator issued a request for information in December 2023 so was there an act of deliberate cover up at play here one of the key figures Abdul wah Muhammad eventually admitted his role in this whole scheme he confessed that he worked with bashid Muhammad masu an assistant director at the CPN together they pulled the strings and carried out the theft but even with these names we still don't know the full picture who else was involved and most importantly where did that money go ail scandals didn't start with a few months to the 2023 election in fact his entire time at the sibian has been characterized by scandals ever heard of the inir project it all started in October 2021 when Nigeria took a bold step towards building its own digital currency the CBN introduced the ENA a digital currency that would transform the economy and Empower millions of citizens imagine a more inclusive Financial system quicker crossb payments better foreign exchange positions and even improved Financial stability sounds groundbreaking right but something was not quite right with the entire thing the CBN claimed that they had the president's blessing to launch the in project but when they were asked for proof of this approval they didn't provide an official document or a formal letter instead they shared a Google link to a speech made by the president during the launch as the story continued to unfold it turned out that the approval issue was only the beginning of a much larger Scandal now let's talk numbers the CBN initially projected a total of 9. 1 billion n for the E project between 2021 and 2023 the breakdown went something like this 1. 06 billion in 2021 3.
76 billion in 2022 4. 31 billion in 20123 but in reality the Project's actual cost shut up to 11. 1 billion n that is almost 2 billion N More Than what was initially planned and here's where things get even more sketchy you see this massive overspending didn't exactly go through the proper channels yeah there was no real budgetary approval process for this entire project now if you're thinking this must have been a simple mistake well it gets worse based on the agreement between the CBN and the company called bit Inc the cost didn't stop at development there was an annual subscription fee of 2.
4 million to cover the license for the application suits and an additional usage fees of 0. 087 5% per transaction CT at $20 million worth of transactions per month in simple terms there was an ongoing Financial Bing that could potentially stretch into the future adding to the national debt there was another shocking Revelation weekly staff feeding allowances were classified as project cost a whooping 1. 36 billion n was debited from the in Project accounts for these allowances the director of it at CBN Justified it by saying it was to encourage staff to use the platform during the covid-19 pandemic billions were poured into intervention programs to to save the economy well as the investigator dug deeper it became clear that many of these programs were fraudulent funds that should have gone to struggling businesses and healthare were instead sioned off into private accounts the Central Bank of Nigeria like many institutions around the world had set up various funds to manage covid-19 relief efforts they opened four accounts one of these was the covid-19 fund NRA account along with three other accounts specifically meant for handling these vast amount of donations and support while these accounts received a total inflow of 9.
15 billion the investigator noticed something strange suspicious transfer totaling 1. 6 trillion Nara that is over $2 billion gone vanished Into Thin Air according to the banking services department of the Central Bank this 1. 6 trillion n was channed into seven categories including the police trust fund various companies and even get this salaries now for a breakdown of how this money was shared take a look at this police trust fund got 29.
75 billion n companies and individuals 22. 6 billion n the one borrowed for salaries was reported to be 720 million n donations to the public 40 billion Office of the accountant General 196 billion n MD that is Ministries departments and agencies 303 billion now and others 293 billion now I wonder what this others is but you know now here's a thing the total transfers all these funds that were moved could not be verified it was like a massive puzzle where the pieces just didn't fit together and no one can tell where exactly the money went or how it was used but at the center of it all are a few key players including guarding MF this is not the last of the scandals MF is alleged to be involved with this is where I introduce you to something called the ways and means sounds like a boring Financial term right but trust me this is the kind of stuff that could explain why Nigeria's death is through the roof and why some of the country's biggest officials are in hot water and plot twist it is actually legal but if this whole ways means is legal then what is a fraud about hang on let's zoom out a bit and talk about this Ways and Means A term that has become Central to this entire investigation the phrase Ways and Means actually dates all the way back to the 17th century British Parliament back then it was all about finding ways to raise revenue for national expenses but it wasn't until bari's Administration that Ways and Means became a household term something that Nigerians began associating with financial crisis Nigeria like many other countries has this law that allows the Central Bank of Nigeria that is the cian to loan money to the federal government to cover shortfalls when there is not enough cash coming in it is kind of like a financial emergency fund think of it as kind of a lifebo only it became what eventually sunk the Nigerian economy but hang on a minute how come the live boat led to the economy going under in Nigeria situation the common denominator here is M feeling the idea of ways and means is pretty straightforward when a government needs a quick cash boost the Central Bank steps in the law even says how much they can borrow the government 5% of the previous years Revenue but here's the catch These funds are never meant to be carried over to the following year the law is clear on that temporary means just that temporary well here's where comes in from 2017 to 20122 the Nigerian federal government wasn't just borrowing from this emergency fund they were draining it dry borrowing over 100% of the previous year's revenue and each year the debt piled higher Higher and Higher by 2022 Nigeria's debt the central bank has caroc to over 23 trillion n and this isn't just any debt this is debt with Hefty interest for every year they don't pay back the interest climbs but why was the government borrowing so much and so fast you see under former president madari Nigeria's economy was heat hard oil prices crashed the country slipped into two recessions and covid-19 made everything worse so the government needed cash lots of it and they kept turning to the CBN mfla being a smile and wave kind of guy obliged and thereby turned the CBN into a printing press in theory all of this borrowing should have been legal as long as it stayed within the 5% limit and was repaid within the financial year but that did not happen instead the government broke the rules again and again and again and then there was this other issue of presidential approval a lot of this borrowing did not even have buhari's approval in the first place documents surface showing that some of these loans were pared officials would ask for 500 billion n and secretly take 700 billion n and it gets worse there were instances where 500 billion n was taken without without any approval yet marked as Ways and Means so where did all this extra money go that is the big question and the answer points to something far more disturbing a memo surfaced in early 2023 revealing that top government officials including the Sian governor and his deputies were all in on this scheme they were using the ways and means system to siphon off massive amounts of public money when it all came crashing down the amount monthly build as Ways and Means stood at an ey watering 26.
